organic veggies

[Mina]

Hello everyone!!!!!
here is my dilemma. My kids are probably 85% raw. I have been given them green smothies for the las 3 years every day and fruit smothies too. I do not buy organic because I can not afford it. food in Canada is already expensive (most of it is imported) so imagine the organic ones. I know the non-organic food has so much crap on it and that's what I'm worried about. I might be doing more harm to my kids than good. it's very upseting.
any thoughts????? I would appreciate any advice.
thank you
mina

[happyyummymom]

Hey, I do not know everything about this but have been reading that there are differences in the chemical levels of different fruits. If it has a peel on it-orange,pear,apple etc....-then you can use Veggie Wash and scrub most off or just peel it and largely the fruit inside is safe. Things like strawberries and grapes are more affected . YOu sound like you are doing a fabulous job raising healthy kiddos. WAY TO GO!!!!

[rawpriestess]

Mina, the love you put into the food, will be better than anything else.

But if you are worried about organic, how about starting a garden in the spring? Kids love to grow their own foods, also, if you wish to use a good wash, the very best wash is 100% hydrogen peroxide, then you rinse that off, then apply 100% white vinegar, then rinse it off, when you use them separately but together, it cleans off the very most amount of pestiside residue and gunk.

[exurb]

mina, Costco has a huge box of organic greens for under $5, I think it was something like 4.89 Loblaws (or the chains related to them) sells a similar thing similar price, but I find theirs often not as fresh as Costco's. Keep checking on the prices of the organic every time you shop, I find sometimes at Loblaws or their related chains, the organic is actually the same price. Sometimes by fluke it's cheaper. They also have organic produce specials listed in their flyers.

on another note, we worry about scrubbing off the pesticides of our fruit and vegetables, but most people are ignorant to the amount of pesticide accumulated in conventional grocery-store bought meat, which can contain an accumulation of the pesticides the animals have eaten. There was a study to show that the pesticides in vegetarian mothers milk was dramatically lower than their meat eating counterparts. Wheat and grains (conventional) are habitually sprayed with the chemical 2,4-D (which is what's in weed and feed). This is why you sometimes hear about dioxin levels in conventional wheat bran. So you take a cow that's been eating three years of that...

I personally do not buy conventional spinach. You can read up on which foods contain more pesticide residues, but I say keep checking on the organic too. Also if you have any organic farms near you, support them, and freeze or store some of what they've grown.

I love RP's idea to start a garden. You can also sprout in winter, and do and grow things to extend the season, so it's really a small chunk in the middle of winter when there's nothing growing except the sprouts. I'm in Canada, and I ate pea shoots (which are cold tolerant) in my lunch today from the garden. We dry our own sundried tomatos which last us all winter, and we've got a stash of stored veggies we grew.

With all the fossil fuels that are burned transporting veggies, growing your own is good for the air quality and the world too IMO. Kids these days have very little idea where food comes from, it's great to start at home and show them some of the miracles of life -- I still think it's an amazing thing to put a little seed in the ground and see it grow.

[Mina]

Yes I do peel all my fruits before I juice them. i don't give my kids strawberries because I know they spray them to death.
and yes Rawpriestess I do start a vegetable garden every spring in my backyard, but we live in Canada that means winters are way too long and summers too short. I do use a lot of green leaves like collard, suiss chard, endives, kales, watercress,parsley (I know that when the toxic get into those leaves it is hard to get rid of them) and yes I do soak them in water and white vinegar but I don't know if it's enough. I worried because they have small bodies and I'm affraid of the toxic build up. trust me I put all my love on whatever I do for my kids. I can tell how healthy they are and how happy and smart and I can't beleive how tall they are getting. But there is always that nagging thing in my head about the toxic crap they put on our food.
anyways thank you for your tips.
mina

[Revvell]

There's not much you can do about the toxic crap that is put into/on our foods except ~ the best you can. Look at their friends who are eating ~ not only the toxic crap yet, the cooked and highly processed to the point where I don't even call it food anymore.

Their little bodies have not only survived yet, at some levels are, at this time, thriving on the stuff.

So, worrying doesn't help, yanno? Be grateful you have the knowledge that it's not all good and you are doing the best you can with what you know. As you gain more knowledge, you can maybe, do better.

R.

[sport]

I have just started reading "The China Study" and it appears that even if you put some of the "toxic crap" into your system as long as you are not taking animal protein you will not get cancer. Toxic vegetable is better than non toxic animal any time so stick with the fruit and veg regardless.

[mbf]

Just wanted to say great job with your kids ! I wish I could get mine to try a fruit smoothie ! My 5 year old tried carrot juice yesterday and liked it ! major breakthrough !

I think what Revvell writes is so true, better conventional broccoli or kale then some processed chemical mixture in a box !

MBF

[truthseeker]

Mina, when I was in my late teens/early tweenties I lived at home and my mother didn't buy organic. I was a juice-a-holic and salad fiend (I ate 2 to 4 a day for 1 and 1/2 years) I felt SO incredible and healthy and have not even felt that level of health since. And I have been about 90 to 100% organic for a little over 2 years now. I think you are NOT doing more harm than good by any means, infact I truly believe you are doing incredible things for your children. More power to you and a HUGE pat on the back for a job well done!