Organic Food Information: The Benefits

Oh how the world has changed over the last 50 years, not all of it has been good. As you are looking for organic food information you have obviously become aware that a better alternative exists and you are taking a critical look at the source and production practices of the companies entrusted with producing the worlds food supplies.

The purpose of organic food information is to give you an understanding of what is going into your food. You will see that there are many benefits to organic food that you didn’t know before. The basis behind knowing about organic food information is the fact that farmers are resorting to using a lethal cocktail of artificial fertilizers and pesticides to control disease and insect attack in order to produce more crops to satisfy growing demand. These artificial additives leave a toxic chemical residue in and on the fruit and vegetables we consume which in turn is absorbed and stored by our bodies .

Even the quality of food has gone down in recent years. Today’s fruits has nowhere near the Vitamin C levels they did at one time. However, with organic food information you learn that organic food has fifty percent more nutrients, minerals and vitamins than any other form of produce that has been grown under intensive farming. If you aren’t eating non organic produce you will have to eat more fruit in order to make up for this deficiency. But then the dangerous cycle continues since you will be eating more chemicals that are worse for your health than they are good for you.

Animals and Hormones

Another aspect of organic food information is the production of meats and poultry, most only consider produce when it comes to organic food information disregarding the antibiotics and hormones that are given to both cattle and poultry that are being force fed. Ask yourself what happens to all these antibiotics and hormones when the animal is s;slaughtered, the residue of these antibiotics and growth hormones reside in the meat which are then consumed ,digested and stored in human bodies. There is no way that an animal that isn’t kept in healthy conditions can produce healthy food for humans to eat.

You have nothing to lose by trying organic product, not only will it be healthy for you but you will also be able to eat produce and meat the way they are supposed to be. You will likely be so impressed with the taste of organic fruit that you will never return to the mass produced fruit again. While cost and availability can be a big issue for some, you can do a bit of research online and find a local store that stocks organic produce for a reasonable price.

Have a look around and I am sure you can find an organic farm near your home this will allow you to go direct to the farmer who produces organic produce.

With the increase in organic food information many farmers are turning to organic methods so you should have no problem finding one in your area. In addition, you can often get cheaper prices when you purchase from the farmer and not getting your produce from the store.

Why Are Online Organic Food Delivery Services On The Increase?

After a hard week at work or looking after children or relatives, the last thing you want to do is spend time pushing a big heavy shopping trolley around your local supermarket or walking around the busy town or shopping centre. Have you realized how much time you spend, and how much energy you use when shopping?

Are you sick and tired of having to waste this precious time, when you could be spending it with your family, chilling out or doing something of your choice? If so, then you need to start looking into deliver services in your area. Delivery services are becoming more and more popular as the growth of the internet means that nearly everybody has access to a computer and can save time by ordering online. You can even save money as its not as easy to get tempted into impulse buying when you cant see the packaging in front of you. Just think, no more dragging young children around the supermarket and watching in dismay as they try to pull everything off the shelves!

At the moment nearly every region in the UK has a delivery service that is easy to find online, GuideMeGreen has loads of local and national organic, fair-trade and special diet delivery services with an increasing range of food and non-food products. You often have to sign up or register with these sites and then you can begin your shopping right away, They are easy and fun and so convenient that you will find yourself with almost too much time on your hands!

Obviously, different companies offer different foods for delivery but you can often buy most if not all of your favourite groceries and more from these companies. You can find a vast selection of fruits and vegetables, both organic, locally grown and sometimes imported. You will find exotic fruits and vegetables as well as the old staples like potatoes and carrots. No matter what you need you can get it from these great food services.

You will also find a huge selection of organic dried and canned goods that you can have delivered right to your door any day of the week. Canned soup and dried pasta are just a few of the great items you can have delivered to you each week. Most of these services even have goodies like organic cookies and even some organic cakes! Many companies have non food lines such as eco friendly washing and laundry products.

You will get a choice of delivery. You may choose to have your food delivered after work or while you are at work. Many people choose to have their shopping dropped off while they are at work so that they are there when they get home. You can even ask that the goods be left in the back garden or with a neighbour so that they do not get stolen.

Organic food delivery services are flexible and convenient and they are something that every one can benefit from. The increasing number of people using these services is testament to that. The choice comes when you decide which ones to use – should it be supermarkets where you can buy anything and everything in one go or should you support the smaller companies where you may not be able to buy everything that you are used to….ill let you decide.

Why Can’t All Ingredients Be Certified Organic?

Miessence, an Australia based manufacturer born just a few years back, changed the way that Australians think of organic products and also the way that they view the personal care products they’ve been using for years. Miessence and it’s founder, ONE group (Organic and Natural Enterprise), exploded from an unknown to a massive sales increase of 2500% in just eighteen months. Within the last year or so Miessence and ONE group hit the United States and is growing just as fast.

The fact is that consumers, me included, have become aware and wary at the same time of what’s in our products. Manufacturers throw stuff in all the time to preserve products, color them, perfume them, with little to no regard for the side affects of such actions. They do it to keep the products cheap, making people want to continue to buy from them. But, the fact is, these chemicals may be costing much more in the long run, in terms of our health and that of our children, pets or the wildlife we enjoy around our homes.

So what is about Miessence that gets people excited? They’re certified organic. But that seems contradictory, right? How can face cream be certified or shampoo? When people think of something being certified organic by the USDA their minds generally turn to food and in fact the USDA has no standards set for products other than food. So Miessence certified their face creams and toothpastes, etc. for the food grade standards, making them the first certified organic products on the planet that isn’t a food. And heck we used to make our soaps and stuff from plants little more than a hundred years ago. The industrial age introduced us to the world of chemicals and we are just now seeing the havoc those chemicals have done to our bodies and environment.

Yet there are a few catches in the overall purpose that Miessence is attempting to attain. Some of their products use ingredients that can not be certified by any ruling board. Why not? Because some of them aren’t even organic.

Let’s start with cosmetics. This would include Miessence’s line as well as manufacturers like Bare Minerals or other cosmetics companies attempting to make cosmetics safer for women. Mineral make-up does in fact use minerals, but not from mining, due to high levels of contamination. Miessence attains theirs from refined and purified man-made minerals. Zinc-oxide is one mineral in particular. It is used as the white powder base for cosmetics and gives them superior sun protection qualities. It is soft and heavy and recognized by the TGA for it’s soothing and healing properties. Actually, zinc oxide has been used for thousands of years as a whitening agent, back when woman preferred a pasty, white complexion. It was obviously a far safer alternative to the lead that many used.

Other common minerals used in mineral cosmetics are iron oxide and mica. Iron oxide is used to give color. The darker the skin or the pinker the blush the more iron oxides are added. Mica reflects light from the face giving it a smoother appearance. Neither have been shown to cause any harm when used correctly, though all of these minerals are claimed to be harmful to the immune system, respiratory system and reproductive system if they are ingested. Now come on, how many of you are going to eat your makeup, considering minerals are basically crushed rock. I personally preferred a baked potato to eating a rock.

Concerns over the harm caused by nanoparticles has arisen in recent years and the way in which superfine mineral powders in mineral cosmetics may affect the body and whether or not it can penetrate the skin. But perspective buyers can be comforted by Miessence’s response to such concerns, “The average particle size of our iron oxides is 1.3 microns, which is much too large to be considered a nanoparticle. Nanoparticles are less than 100 nanometres…. very very small!”

So that takes care of minerals. What other ingredients can not be certified by the governing bodies? Well, there is one chemical in the shampoos that stops this Miessence product from being certified: coco-polyglucose, a “non-ionic surfactant” synthesised from coconut and glucose from corn.

So why does Miessence use this chemical? It’s rather silly actually, but what can you do? You see, of all of the available plant extracts not a one of them will foam up or become sudsy, leaving you with a product that works beautifully without being soapy, but people refuse to use it. Why? Because in our brainwashed society being sudsy equates to a cleaning products. If don’t soap up it don’t clean. So what do you do? Well, the founder of ONE group, Narelle Chenery went in search of the safest surfactant she could find to put the minds of those poor people to rest that yes in fact the shampoo will clean them.

Here is what Miessence had to say about polyglucose :
“Polyglucose has excellent dermatological compatibility. It is very mild on the skin. Based on the Duhring Chamber Test it has the lowest irritation score of all common surfactants tested. It is free from ethylene oxide, which can cause nitrosamine contamination, and free from preservatives. It also has a very low environmental impact due to:

1) High bio-degradability – It breaks down readily.
2) High eco-toxicological compatibility – It doesn’t harm the environment if released.
3)It is manufactured from completely renewable vegetable raw materials.

It is very good, however it is still not certified organic. ONE Group will do better. They are working on replacing it with a certified organic “foaming agent” of similar functionality, but it takes time. Rest assured that as soon as they have a certified organic replacement that works, they will introduce it.”

Other non-organic ingredients include the clays used in masks for cleaning, obviously another earth mineral and once again should not be ingested. The toothpastes have sea salt, again not organic, but natural and clean of contaminants. There are several other un certifiable ingredients in the Miessence products but they all serve a purpose to enhance the products they are used in and of course ONE group goes the extra step to be sure that all ingredients are clean of contaminants and easy on the environment.

What You Should Know About Organic Baby Foods?

It’s not everyday that you will come across a revolution in the making, but there you have it. From being nearly organically-ignorant twenty years ago, to being semi-organically-ignorant fifteen to ten years ago, the human race is now making direct contact with its grassroots and going back to being healthy and eating healthy. And not surprisingly this has also spread to such an extent that we now have organic baby food as well.

We have been privy to witness a revolution, a significant change in our history that ultimately comes down to whether we care about what we put in our bodies or not. Almost with the turn of the new millennium, more and more people started joining this revolution, and it wasn’t long before we could see organic foods coming out of their specialty and health food stores and moving to the normal everyday grocery and convenience stores.

And it definitely wasn’t long before new parents started making the transition for their babies as well. After all, if they were trying to eat organic, why not go the same route for their baby? The problem that many parents encountered in the beginnings years of the organic baby food revolution was the utter lack of premade organic baby food.

This meant that they either had to either make their own homemade organic baby food, or they had to give up on the idea, and allow their young babies to happily eat away at second hand toxins, pesticides, antibiotics, and genetically modified foods. Naturally enough this didn’t sit well with too many parents, but it is sad to say that this isn’t what turned the tide favorably in the organic baby food revolution.

No, this took some time, and more research still before mass production of organic baby food hit the markets in any significant numbers. Worse still, the price of getting organic baby food was just as bad as getting organic foods for yourself, and for your normal everyday family this was simply not an affordable alternative.

Although there is a growing trend towards buying organic baby food the problem still exists in that it is still not as readily available as it could be, and it still costs an arm and a leg to keep your baby in organic baby food.

Luckily with the tides turning more and more towards organic grassroots, there has also been a resurgence (a very small one for the moment) of making your own organic baby food. It’s not very difficult and in the long run, a few minutes spent in preparing your baby’s food in a healthy manner with organic foods can only be of benefit to your baby in the future.

What the Heck is Organic Food, Anyway?

“Organic” has of late become such a catchphrase that it has entered the vernacular of the everyday American to almost everyday use. It’s a word of which many people believe they know the meaning, but few do. A few seconds of hard contemplation produces a myriad of questions: What is unique about organic food as opposed to the garden-variety supermarket wares? And what about organic baby food? Is it significantly different or superior? What are the benefits? Can I trust the labels? Below run some frequently asked questions and brief answers; just doing my part to assist in your education…

What is unique about organic food as opposed to the garden-variety supermarket wares?

Essentially the differences on your plate take place in two spheres: additives and preservatives. The former can mean anything that changes the quality of the food in color, consistency, taste and characteristics. The latter is anything that keeps food fresh for longer amounts of time and is typically some sort of sodium product.

Many additives, particularly food dyes, have been attacked as toxins. A handful of dyes have been made illegal on the American market due to reasons of human health. As the American diet is already dangerously high in sodium, there is no need for the consumption of further salts as preservatives.

On the farm level, the differences become even more dramatic. Organic food contains no genetically modified organisms, has no trace of poisonous pesticides and in grown in environmentally safe soil free of chemicals.

And what about organic baby food? Is it significantly different or superior?

Organic baby food boasts all the same advantages as regular organic food listed above. Since baby’s body is much more sensitive to toxins than is an adult’s, the benefits of avoiding additives increase substantially. The elimination of additives and preservatives in organic baby food also quite simply means that there are fewer ingredients to which baby may develop allergies and that digestion of organic baby food is easier.

Organic baby food is quick-cooked so that fewer nutrients will be lost, an unfortunate by-product of cooking food in general. Most organic baby food is salt- and sugar-free, and what baby needs more of either?

There have been recently claims that organic baby food is lacking in iron at a 20 percent clip. This can be reduced, however, by making your own or feeding baby more iron-rich food.

What are the benefits?

Well, this is the selling point of organic product. Less salt means smaller chance of kidney, liver or blood pressure problems. Fewer toxins in your diet mean avoidance of certain industrial maladies. Preservatives have been shown to be dangerous (even potentially lethal) to your health, but only after occupying space in products for decades. Organic ingredients make it possible for the average consumer to understand exactly what they are eating. And, once you’ve experienced this phenomenon, you are unlikely to look at non-organic food labels the same way again.

Can I trust the labels?

This one is tricky. Just as there are zillions of lobbyists and concerned citizen action groups, there are zillions of corporate employees and attorneys finding ways around existing law. Simple research helps a lot to cut through the claims and counterclaims. Some information may surprise you.

For example, if a baby food label is marked “chicken,” this means that chicken must comprise as little as forty percent of the ingredients’ total mass. If two ingredients are listed, the first need only make up ten percent and in the second less is allowable. It can get depressing.

The way I figure it, check the website. If it’s loaded with flash, slippery promotional promises and a dearth of solid information, become suspicious. In general, small is better. With babies of six to nine months, a few vegetables and simple grain products a week suffices in tandem with breast milk or formula – a very small amount of organic product to find. Plus, a large supply is made up in little time at home.

Does organic food taste better?

Yes.

What Is Organic Foods? – Organic Food Definition

While most of us have heard about organic foods we may not have that much of an idea about what this term means. So where can you get this information without getting bogged down by the technical jargon. There are a number of different places like dictionaries, encyclopedias, television shows and even the internet. The main item to remember when you are looking for organic food definition is in many cases the standard answer.

The first thing to understand about organic food definition only covers the tip of the iceberg as the saying goes. Well the basics of organic food is quite simply food that is grown without any sort of man made substances being poured over it, around it and even inserted under it. The condition for the growing of the organic matter has to be composed of 100% natural environment.

Now that we have covered the organic food definition is short we should take a closer look at this subject. For any food to be classified as being an organic food it needs to be free from all genetically modified internal cell structures. The plant must be like the ones that you see growing in the wild – but ones that we can eat without getting poisoned – and their inner cell structure should not have been tampered with.

Next the land that you are choosing to plant these 100% organic plants should be absolutely free from all traces of chemicals. To allow the land time to recover from the abuse of these harmful products like chemicals and pesticides you should uproot any chemically treated plants. Then you will need to leave the land alone for about 2 to 4 years.

This time period will allow the land to recover from the various chemicals which were heaped on it. Once you are sure that the land is ready for planting begin by fertilizing the land with organic fertilizers. These fertilizers will help prepare the land for plants. The first phase of organic food definition includes the preparation of the land where the food is to be grown.

Now you can plant your organic plant into the soil. Using only techniques which are healthy for your garden or land you should make sure that friendly bugs and plants are used to protect your garden’s harvest from plant hungry insects.

The entire combination package of chemical free land, organically produced plants and environmentally safe pesticides – read spiders and ladybugs here – along with protective, sweet smelling (to us that is) plants is what is ultimately meant by the organic food definition.

What Is Organic Food And Should I Buy It?

Organic food is the food derived from animals and plants that have been grown and raised in accordance with the strict guidelines associated with government’s definition of the term, “organic.” In order to be certified as an organic food, food must be grown without the use of products such as manufactured fertilizers, synthetic or man-made pesticides, additives that control or modify growth, antibodies, and/or and livestock feed containing additives.
Organic Foods Once Just a Niche Market

It wasn’t that long ago that “eating organic” was something only a relatively small number of people did. Back in the 1960’s, life was changing. Women were beginning to work outside the home and the trend then was convenience. Processed foods meant a good meal could be delivered to the table in a fraction of the time. The market for frozen and processed foods literally took off.

Organic food was definitely not something that most people gave much attention to especially since there no longer was enough time to visit the butcher, the produce vendor and the dairy farm. A quick trip to the supermarket could now provide a family with enough food for several days. And that’s how life continued, fueled by the need for speed and convenience.

Organic Foods Go Mainstream

Lately, people’s feelings towards the foods they eat are changing once again. This time, the change is being fueled by the feeling that people no longer know what they’re putting into their bodies. The news today is filled with stories of E. coli outbreaks, genetic food engineering, the potential dangers of eating foods that are shot up with growth hormones to make them bigger and better, and other frightening information. Tired of feeling out of control, eating organic has become chic and has definitely become the latest trend in eating among people from all levels of society.

True organic food is more expensive than non-organic food, but the trade-offs are well worth the additional cost. Not only is organic food better for those who consume it, the people who eat organic foods claim these foods actually taste better than those grown and raised without this strict definition. In fact, eating organic is the best way and really is the only way to feel 100% confident about the foods that are consumed.

Meeting the New Demand

Today, organic food is big business and an ever-growing segment of the food industry. Farmers are changing the way they grow their foods to take advantage of this increased demand. Unfortunately for produce growers, it can take up to 2 full years for the land to cleanse itself of the synthetic pesticides and fertilizers that have been applied during all the years prior to growing organic. But the wait is a worthwhile trade-off as well.

Organic foods are so popular that it’s no longer necessary to shop for them at specialty stores. In fact, large grocery store chains are constantly devoting more shelf space to meet the ever-growing needs of organic food devotees.

What Is Organic Fish?

Is there such a thing as organic fish? Surely all fish comes from the sea and eats whatever fish eat? How can we control that?

As far as I know, fish caught in the wild cannot be marketed as organic in the UK. However, several supermarkets and many independent organic retailers now stock organic trout and salmon produced in fish farms. Several types of farmed mussels and shellfish are also likely to become more widely available in the future.

In organic fish farming, many of the pesticides, dyes and antibiotics widely used in conventional fish farming are not permitted and so these fish products are generally accepted to be credible organic products by both the soil association and consumers.

However, from an animal welfare point of view, there is some controversy about allowing farmed fish to be labelled as organic. Organic principles demand that livestock (which includes fish) should be able to express its ‘natural’ behaviour pattern and be kept as close to natural stocking densities as possible. How can this be when they are kept in cages in either inland or in fish farms out at sea?

The true cost of fish farming

Fish farming seems like a practical solution to the problem of overfishing. Fish farming, however, is the cause of many problems. In the UK, its salmon thats most closely associated with farming – and its shortcomings. Public demand for cheaper food means that farmed salmon are often kept, for financial reasons, very densely stocked, with huge numbers of fish crammed into very little space. In this state, the fish can more easily become diseased, and these diseases can spread to wild fish. Huge amounts of antibiotics are required to keep the fish moderately healthy. Also a confidential study for the UKs top organic body highlighted gaps between its principles and the standards it accepted, BBC Newsnight reported.

Is organic fish sustainable?

Other problems are escapes, when farmed fish interbreed with wild fish and potentially weaken wild stocks, as well as pollution to the water and seabed around fish farms. Farmed salmon, which are carnivorous, eat three times their body weight in fish feed, which is made from other fish – not the best use of resources from an environmental point of view.

What Is Organic Chicken?

We all know about organic fruit and vegetables but did you know that you can now buy organic chicken?

People must have heard about the nasty conditions which broiler chickens – which are bred for their meat – are raised in? These chickens have no more floor space than a sheet of A4 paper. Chickens are over-fed to reach slaughter weight in six weeks, when it would normally take four months.

Modem intensive systems of poultry production have produced cheap meat for the consumer – but at a price. Inside the intensive chicken houses, which are appearing in increasing numbers in the countryside, up to 40,000 birds are crammed, at 2 birds to the square foot, into a single windowless building, with almost continuous low levels of artificial light, they are then given drugs to speed up their rate of growth. Keeping so many animals packed together in such a stressful environment can only contribute to their rates of infection. It seems logical that the Chinese flu infections that we were seeing transmitted to humans comes from this same intensive farming. It isnt necessary to produce food in this way.

Organic farmers do a number of things to ensure that chickens are reared as naturally as possible. For starters, antibiotic growth promoters cannot be used but sick organic birds must be treated with appropriate veterinary medicine, so they can be given antibiotics if theyre very poorly. But they cannot be given drugs on a regular and routine basis, something that almost all non-organic poultry have to endure. Organic poultry is reared on a specially formulated feed containing only cereals, vegetable protein, a small amount of fish meal, and a vitamin/mineral supplement. These chickens are often guaranteed to be fed on feed which is free from genetically modified feedstuffs (GMOs). To be fully organic, chickens must be fed a diet containing grain which has been grown organically, without artificial fertilisers or sprays. Such feed is expensive, and therefore organic chicken is more expensive as well.

Also, on Soil Association registered farms, the number of chickens housed in a single shed is restricted to 1,000. A non-organic intensive chicken farm may have as many as 40,000 in the same shed. Organic birds are kept free-range, having continuous daytime access to clean pasture, except in adverse weather. Non-organic birds are almost always locked up night and day.

In addition, the Soil Association insists on full and clear labeling of processed chicken products. They are able to trace back to the farm all ingredients used in any Soil Association chicken products. Their organic certification standards state that food must undergo as little processing as is practical.

Organic standards are legally binding. All organic businesses must be licensed by law, and are fully inspected at least once a year. So if you want to see for yourself how organic animals are reared, why not visit an organic farm?

What Is Organic Breads?

Not everyone who likes to eat organic foods has the chance to do so on a daily basis. Most people will have to settle for the more mediocre fare of the same foods they have been eating for most of their lives. Other more fortunate people however, are able to enjoy organic foods on a more regular basis, and some of these people have also been blessed with the ability to bake, which gives rise (excuse the pun!) to organic breads.

Now you’re wondering what on earth organic breads are, and whether they really do taste as if they were fresh sprung from the ground along with the carrots and the potatoes, there’s only one thing that I have to say, Ha! Organic breads don’t taste any different from your normal average everyday breads. In fact more than tasting different, people who eat organic breads and organic foods in general believe that they taste better to those of the normal non-organic, pesticide filled food varieties!

This is of course a hotly debated topic, because how can any one person truly accept what the taste buds of someone else are saying? They have to taste it for themselves and if they’re trying to compare the tastes of organically grown produce with that of conventionally grown produce there’s always bound to be some differences.

That aside however, organic breads taste the same as normal breads and they are made in the same manner as normal breads. The main difference lies in the ingredients used to make the organic breads. Only organic flour, butter etc would be used when making organic breads. Essentially the recipe stays the same, it’s only the ingredients, or rather the manner in which the ingredients were produced, that is changed.

“Organic” for those of you who are unaware of it, is a term, or a definition of a farming process which shuns conventional methods of farming. Things such as chemical pesticides and synthetic fertilizers are put away in favor of natural pesticides and fertilization methods. More over, genetically plant organisms are also rejected in the organic farming method. And in organic animal farming you will find that use of steroids and antibiotics is banned, and the animals receive only organic foods for themselves.

Therefore when someone tells you that they regularly bake organic breads, don’t stare at them as if they had just grown two heads. All they have done is to continue on with their normal baking routines substituting organic products where necessary to make the organic breads.

On the other hand, if the person has never lifted a single finger in the kitchen before this, and they calmly announce that they have baked a batch of organic breads, you might do well to stare and be suspicious. Oh, and reach for the roll of antacids as well!

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