By Marci Lall
You see it in the grocery stores all the time, the high priced organic foods that are supposed to be free of residue and said to be made naturally without any pesticides. But is it worth it? Are organic products that much better for your health than commercially farmed foods?
To begin lets take a look a look at what exactly an Organic Farmer needs to have in place to become "Organic"
To be certified, organic produce must:
Be free of commercial fertilizers for 3 years.
Be free of herbicides for 3 years.
Not be from genetically modified seeds.
Include a buffer zone between organic and non-organic plants.
To be certified, organic animals must:
Not be fed anything grown with toxic or synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides or fumigants.
Be free of growth hormones, antibiotics, or genetically engineered products.
Be given more space and freedom to graze.
Have been conceived by organically raised animals.
Be butchered following organic regulations.
As you can see from the above lists there is quite as bit of effort that goes into being an organic farmer.
Maybe this is why there's a huge trend for people to go organic. They simply know that the product has not been altered in any way. In addition, people are more aware that there are waste products in the land, and that transfers into the products, which end up in our bodies and can cause illnesses and diseases (think e.coli).
In regards to meat, is there a difference with the meat that is commercially made compared to organic?
The short answer: Not really.
The difference is the use of hormones and antibiotics in meat.
Hormones in meat have been a concern for many. This may surprise you but research from the WHO concluded that your body wouldn't know if the product had hormones or not and therefore has no risk to our bodies.
An antibiotic, on the other hand is an arguable situation. We worry that the antibiotics used to treat the animal can transfer into the meat and the meat can contain the residue of the antibiotic.
Moreover, because of the antibiotics the animal can develop resistant bacteria to fight off the illness, and will stay in the meat that we end up consuming. Research on this is still being conducted so as of this moment there's no research to back this up.
But why do farmers use hormones and antibiotics in the first place?
Well if they use hormones they're able to get the product out to the consumer faster, and make more money. Which are really big incentives.
So the question still remains should you go organic or not?
Here's my take on it. Try it out see for yourself f the product taste better. If you enjoy it and believe it's better than non-organic foods then so be it. If you do buy organic foods and have a complaint or are suspicious of the quality, you can call the company's certification, which would be on the organic seal on the product like the Organic Crop Producers & Processors www.ocpro-certcanada.com.
Marci Lall is a Personal Trainer Forest Hill. If you would like to get his free Stability Ball Abdominal Workout that has 9 highly effective abdominal exercises for women just go to this link http://www.foresthillpersonaltraining.com/free-stuff
Source:www.isnare.com |
