Are Organic Foods Media Hype or the way to go?

You head to the grocery store, shopping for products like eggs, meat, fish, milk, and produce. Signs are posted everywhere labeling food as natural, organic, and a number of other things—but what’s the difference? Learning what specific names mean can help you decide if you should shell out extra money on a product. Is it really organic foods or just simply a marketing ploy.

Natural foods is a term associated with a number of fruit and vegetable products. Typically, this is a simple marketing ploy to convince you to buy the product. After all, fruits and vegetables are natural, right? The product is natural, unless it’s a new kind of food that has been developed and processed.

Your best choice over natural foods is organic food. Organic foods are grown without chemical pesticides and fertilizers. There are two main benefits to organic foods:

* You are helping the environment because those chemicals are not being introduced into nature.
* You are avoiding ingesting chemicals and are therefore eating healthier foods.

Organic products are usually more expensive. Here is tip which can save you money in the grocery store and still be able to eat healthy:

“If you’re on a budget, skip over organic fruits and vegetables that you can peel, like oranges and bananas. After all, once you’ve discarded the peel, you’ve also discarded the chemicals. Instead, opt for organic snacks like apples, where you eat the peel. Either way no matter what you buy, make sure that you rinse off the food when you get home.

Another tricky label you will see is “no hormones.” This is usually in regards to milk or meat products and is false, since all animals naturally produce hormones. Animal hormones are what helps an animal regulate body organs. All meat products have animal hormones. What the labels really mean is that no animal hormones were unnaturally given, which is sometimes done to increase milk production. Regardless of hormones, however, the milk and meat is safe for a person and not a violation of an animal’s rights.

Lastly, a label on eggs and meat can indicate if the animal was caged or penned. This does not make a difference in the quality or nutritional value of the meat, but is simply a matter of animal rights. These products may be a bit more expensive. Reading the label and making healthy choices can sometimes be difficult, but learning how to do so can help you make the best choices for your diet.

Organic foods, natural foods, animal hormones – just remember to do some homework and understand anything you are introducing into your diet – just because it is advertised as the next best health craze certainly doesn’t make is so. We will continue to bring you a ton of information on various health related issues.

Regards,

Cathy Tambeau

Tags:aerobic exercise,natural foods,organic foods,physical health

Technorati Tags: aerobic exercise, natural foods, organic foods, physical health