Organic or Not? Need Advice!

[greenveggiegirl]

Hi Im new to the Raw Scene I have been 90% Raw for a month, eating uncooked veggies, and fruit, with nuts. Im still trying to learn. MY question is with veggies, does organic produce make a big difference? IM economically challenged and was wondering if bypassing organic would mess with my results? Also a friend sudgested Fit to clean my produce. I just use water and my hands. Am I washing it well enough? Sorry if I seem ignorant Im still learning!

Also on drinking, Im avoiding drinking 2 hours before or after a meal. Also abstaining from drinking while eating, becasue I heard this interfers with digestion. Is this overkill or too much time?

thanks!

[Revvell]

Personally, I rarely wash my produce... only when there's overt dirt yet, you'll be receiving different responses about that.

I don't drink with meals but I don't have a set time for when I do drink other than when thirsty.

If you do a search online, you can find a list of the "dirty dozen" and the clean whatever telling which produce is the best to get organic and which doesn't matter as much. Many here are eating raw or high raw with very little organic. Gotta do what you can do.

[Cruditas]

I think if is a veggie that doesn't have an outer protective layer like celery you may stick with organic.

[Bobbo]

Do what you can do for sure as long as it's raw. Drinking water is important especially eating raw as it helps. I drink lots and lots of water and it has been extremely beneficial.

[greenveggiegirl]

thanks for all your replies!! Im still learning how to navigate the forums and eating raw, but your fast responce is valued thanks!

[Zipfelmuetze]

There seems to be e-coli all the time in the produce section of grocery stores, so I wash my produce all the time. I'm not sure about farmer's markets. I definitely like to fallow the dirty dozen list.

[Juicerguy]

Definitely look up the "dirty dozen" and the clean "fifteen". In my opinion organic is always better, but most of us including me cannot afford to eat everything organically grown. To tell you some of what I have learned. Celery and apples are always at the top of the dirtiest produce list. As in they generally have the most pesticides on them. Leafy greens, peppers and a few others are up there a lot as well. The clean fifteen has a good list of produce, but you can also add oranges and there are some others that have a better outer protective layer as someone mentioned.

[walnutty]

I can't afford to eat all organic either and right now I can't afford to eat much raw. Like others have said, if there is an outer layer or peel those would be the first to purchase non-organic. Some items cost the same whether organic or non-organic, especially if you have a Trader Joe's. Just do the best you can! Non-organic produce is WAY better for you then a cheeseburger, so you are already ahead of the mainstream!

[delmar]

Definitely look up the "dirty dozen" and the clean "fifteen". In my opinion organic is always better, but most of us including me cannot afford to eat everything organically grown. To tell you some of what I have learned. Celery and apples are always at the top of the dirtiest produce list. As in they generally have the most pesticides on them. Leafy greens, peppers and a few others are up there a lot as well. The clean fifteen has a good list of produce, but you can also add oranges and there are some others that have a better outer protective layer as someone mentioned.I have always been surprised that pears are not on the clean 15 list. We have a couple of pear trees and they are very insect resistant. I have never seen bus of any kind making a home in our pears, so it sort of baffles me that people spray pesticides on pear trees.

[T-Bird]

I think you're lucky delmar. theres an insect called the pear psylla

http://nysipm.cornell.edu/factsheets/treefruit/pests/ps/ps.asp

I used to go broke with the organic produce, and I still like to support those farmers when I can.

amongst the healthy minded/raw the organic/can't afford goes round and round. What I think is missing is a focus on freshness.

FRESHNESS!

produce starts to lose nutrients when it's picked. I'm focusing on growing what I can, and every morning I have at least a small handful of fresh pea pods off the vine while I tend to the crops. I don't pick greens till I'm ready to eat, and I try to avoid food that's not fresh. Of course - I am in progress with this.

I'm experimenting with all kinds of indoor growing - even you appartment bound ones with no natural light should get some shop lights (4' long about $20, 10$ for the 2 bulbs) and see what you can grow under there.

Fresh!

[MysticTree]

we had two very elderly pear trees when I was a child. Only produced nasty tasting pears and wasps. They were extremely stately and elegant so they stayed and we just appreciated their beauty!

[Frugal Raw]

The rule on organics seems to be that if an item is thin-skinned, go organic whenever you can. If thick-skinned, commercially grown (non-GMO) produce is "okay" but bear in mind that alot of commericially grown produce is grown on the same land season after season, which depletes the nutrients of the soil, which depletes the nutrients of the food grown there.

As to whether you are doing yourself a favor or not in going raw if you are eating commercially grown fruits/veggies - you are DEFINITELY doing yourself a HUGE favor to go raw - REGARDLESS! Even commericially-grown produced is staggeringly better for you than chemically processed, prepackaged crap. When you shop - if in a grocery store - head straight to produce and don't look elsewhere other than to purchase bottled water if you do not have a good filtration device at home.



Optimally, you would want to include as many locally grown organics as you can, so look for farmer's markets, CSAs and Co-ops rather than standard grocers whenever you can.

[sport]

http://www.organic.org/articles/showarticle/article-214
This is a link to what you should buy organic.

[drraw]

I would suggest shopping around for organics. I buy a lot at Trader Joe's which costs about 20% more for organic and at a specialty organic store that varies in price. If I went to a large grocery store, I have seen massive prices on organics. My concern about non-organic is that the soil gets all of its nutrients from petro-fertilizer which means very little nutrition in the end product. Even organic today has much less nutrients than organic 20-50+ years ago. So, my concern is that although better than cooked, it's just marginally better than eating empty calories.

--drraw

[snapdragon1010]

Wait a minute...I thought that buying organic had something to do with the soil, as well....since much soil is void of nutrients these days. Am I wrong about this?