Organic Foods

The Debate Continues: Organic foods are better for you and your family.

Organic Foods

There is so much written about the organic certification of foods and food safety standards in general.  Unfortunately,  much of it is written by individuals working for companies who either don’t know any better or who are trying to confuse consumers. Should claims be made that agrichemicals are “cooked off” when a food product, such as an enteral formula, is heated. This is either wishful thinking or someone working from the ‘say it and it must be true’ model.  I must admit as an advocate for organic and sustainable farming these past 28 years, it strikes a nerve when I see this information.  No wonder there is so much confusion around the better choices we can make when this kind of misinformation is present.

While research indicates that some agrichemicals (there’s a lot more to being organic than eliminating pesticides) may be more susceptible to heat and high heat processing, they are not the norm.  Out of all of the fumigants, fungicides, herbicides, pesticides and antibiotics used in conventional farming, only a small number drop off to lower levels after extended cooking times (1,2).   No one should say that extended cooking eliminates chemicals, it is simply not true. Continue reading

Dirty Dozen

Be Wary of Enteral Formulas Built Around Dirty Dozen Ingredients

Organizations such as The Environmental Work Group, www.ewg.org, that are essentially our only sentinels with respect to chemicals in our produce and other foods, have made it very clear.  There are certain foods that carry inordinately high pesticide and herbicide levels and they should only be consumed if organically grown.  These are labeled as Dirty Dozen fruits and vegetables.  The list is updated each year but the core members generally stay the same. Continue reading