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LIVING: Food/Dining/Nutrition
Karen Hawkins, DeCA Dietitian
Food/Nutrition
MA, RD, LD - Contributor
info@armywifemagazine.com
Going Green with Organic Fruits and Vegetables
by Karen Hawkins, MA, RD, LD posted May 2010
Going organic doesn’t mean choosing all or nothing when it comes to feeding your family. Going green with choosing organic foods on a budget is possible with a little planning. You may decide to buy organic foods for the health benefits along with the benefit of reducing the impact of farming as they are raised in a sustainable way. Consider buying some of the organic fruits and vegetables found in the “dirty dozen” as this is a good place to start. For example apples may have some of the highest levels of pesticides of any food. However, not everything needs to be organic – avocados, for example, are typically safe.
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Archives: Nutrition/Food/Dining
Organic foods typically have fewer pesticides and on average, more nutrients. Pesticides may be absorbed into fruits and vegetables along with leaving trace residues. The Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit nonpartisan organization, reviewed nearly 51,000 USDA and FDA tests for pesticides on 44 popular produce items. They identified the types of fruits and vegetables that were most likely to have higher trace amounts. Nectarines had the highest percentage of samples test positive for pesticides (97.3 percent), followed by peaches (96.7 percent) and apples (94.1 percent).
As for nutrients, in 2007, a study showed that organic produce had up to 40 percent higher levels of nutrients such as vitamin C, zinc, and iron than similar conventional fruits and vegetables. Conventional fruits and vegetables are crops or products grown or produced with the aid of pesticides. A 2003 study in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry found that organically grown berries and corn had 58 percent more antioxidants that help prevent heart disease. This may be contributed to the nitrogen in the soil and how it is slowly released.
Buying local fruits and vegetables is a good choice, too. Nutrients are at their greatest level when fruits and vegetables reach ripeness, just after harvest. Normally, the less the produce has to travel, the fresher and higher it is in nutrients.
Choosing organic or not, eating fruits and vegetables everyday is beneficial for your good health. Make sure to buy your fruits and vegetables at the commissary where you can save more than 30 percent.
12 Best Foods to Buy Organic
- Apples
- Carrots
- Celery
- Cherries
- Grapes
- Kale
- Lettuce
- Nectarines
- Peaches
- Pears
- Peppers (Bell)
- Strawberries
Reference: http://www.foodnews.org/methodology.php
