Articles ¬ Eating In ¬ Food ChoicesIt's easy to tell that organic and free range food is no longer just for granola loving hippies when it is found at the local grocery food store. People want to know where their food comes and are becoming much more informed. With problems on the increase like auto-immune diseases and cancer, people are not just wanting to have more control over what goes into their bodies they are needing it.
Naturopathic medicine has considered for years the role that chronic exposure to impurities in our food, air and water play in health. Many chemicals that are toxic are also fat soluble, which means that once we are in contact with them they tend to stay in the body. It is thought by many, that years of accumulation of toxins can cause the body to reach a point where disease may begin. Therefore the trend toward more pure foods is a healthy choice with benefits in the present and the future.
Two important rules for making food choices that I have always shared with my patients are as follows;
- If you can't pronounce what is in your food, don't eat it. (apply this to additives, not food from other countries)
- If the food won't rot, mold or sprout, throw it out.
These two important rules definitely lead a person toward using more produce and animal products that are chemical free. There have also been numerous studies showing that organic produce has higher nutritional value than produce grown with chemical pesticides and fertilizers. Often there is often a noticable improvement of the taste and texture of organic produce too. The same facts are true for free range products.
Most of the time buying organic and free range products is more expensive than buying the regular commercially available foods. When my patients are wondering which the most important things are to purchase organically or free range here are my suggestions. If you are going to eat meat, get free range. There are too many questionable chemicals and practices with the up bringing of life stock. Root vegetables like carrots and potatoes should be organic as they grow in the ground and get more of the pesticide residues than other plant parts. There are special solutions for washing produce now, that are supposed to be able to remove a lot of the surface impurities from our produce. Unfortunately, what a wash will not change is any pesticide residue that got into the plant while it was growing.
Expanding your food horizons not only introduces you to new flavours, but also decreases your chances of health problems. Dairy and wheat are the most common food sensitivities that people can have. How many servings of these foods do you have daily? Many people remain healthy while eating numerous daily servings, but if your digestion is not your strong part or if allergies are in your family, it very likely that you will end up acquiring a food sensitive to one if not both of these foods. If you do not think that you already have an issue with these foods, reducing your intake now will help you to avoid a problem later. Now instead of white or whole wheat flour being the main choices in many grocery stores you can buy flours made from spelt, rye and quinoa. Dairy product substitutes include products made from soy beans, almonds and rice.
A report was recently on the evening news regarding pigs being fed a chemical that is known for its cancer causing implications in humans as it helps to decrease a certain disease amongst the animals. The concern was that this chemical would not be fully utilized by the animal and was actually sometimes showing up in the meat when it was randomly tested before being made available for sale. This topic is still under investigation, which means that the chemical is still being used until more information is known. You must remember when making food choices that there are political and financial reasons why certain foods are more available than others. It is rare with big business that your health is their priority. Make it yours. State your opinion by what you purchase.
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