grocerylists.org » Organic/Local

Study Finds Organic Foods are More Healthy

Bill Keaggy — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 11:39:04 +0000

The French Agency for Food Safety (AFSSA) released a study last week that outlines a number of health benefits to eating organic food.

Photo by www.flickr.com/photos/jdickert/

This comes on the heels of a UK study that said just the opposite. According to the AFSSA study, organic foods are not only more nutritious, but they’re safer. Here are the study’s main findings:

Organic fruits and veggies contain more iron, magnesium, antioxidants and micronutrients.

Organic animal products are higher in heart-healthy polyunsaturated fatty acids, and cows raised on grass have a higher muscle mass, which means leaner meat.

This was the most interesting finding, in my opinion: “94–100% of organic food does not contain any pesticide residues.” This is huge. Not only are pesticides hard on the environment, certain pesticides are linked to cancer and other health issues.

The study itself can be read viewed by downloading this PDF: ASD_Lairon_2009.pdf.

Want to learn more about organic?

Organic food topic at The New York Times
How Stuff Works: Organic food
Organic foods: Are they safer? More nutritious? — from The Mayo Clinic
The organic food entry at Wikipedia
OrganicFoodee.com: An organic food and organic lifestyle magazine
Agricultural Marketing Service: National Organic Program

Greenmarket produce scans

Bill Keaggy — Sat, 30 May 2009 10:41:00 +0000

Seen in Ranjit’s Flickr stream: “Every Saturday, if I can, I go to my local greenmarket (at Grand Army Plaza), buy some goodies, take them home, and scan them. I’ve been doing it since 2000 or so, though this set only contains more recent ones.”

Buying Organic

Bill Keaggy — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 12:10:00 +0000

See which of the country’s largest producers are behind your favorite organic snacks.

The Cost of Going Organic

Bill Keaggy — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 10:49:00 +0000

“If the prices at my local Safeway are used as a measuring stick, you have to be downright rich to afford an all-organic diet. But it’s not just the wealthiest among us who crave food free from pesticides or like the idea of fewer steps from field to table. What about average-income consumers who would like to buy organic but haven’t quite figured out how to do it on a real-life budget? Sound like you?

Here are seven tips for going organic without breaking the bank…”

Shopping tips help cut cost of going organic

Bill Keaggy — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 11:25:00 +0000

“Good news for organic consumers: A 10-year surge in sales of food has made buying organic cheaper. Five years ago, consumers paid up to 50 percent more for tomatoes, chicken, milk and other organic foods. Today, smart shoppers can convert from conventional to organic foods without taking a night job.”

Are organic fruit, veggies worth the extra cost?

Bill Keaggy — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 10:21:00 +0000

“For parents concerned about the effect of the pesticides used in conventional food production, buying organic makes sense, University of Washington research shows. Children eating non-organic foods were switched for five days to an organic diet and pesticide levels were measured in their urine before and after the change. The study — published this past fall — found that some pesticides disappeared from the children’s urine after going organic.”

Organic Therapy

Bill Keaggy — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 09:38:00 +0000

“‘Modern farming, with its chemicals and pesticides — which are there purely for the sake of increased yield and increased profit — are not doing us a favour,’ [Guy] Dauncey explains. ‘Since we started modern farming, the quantity of nutrients in the soil have fallen by an average of 50 percent just since 1950-because farmers are no longer treating the soil with manure and nitrogen-fixing cover crops.’”

Supermarkets copy Whole Foods’ shopping list

Bill Keaggy — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 10:26:00 +0000

“They look like Whole Foods. They smell like Whole Foods. They even taste like Whole Foods. But they’re actually part of some of the oldest and most familiar chains in the supermarket industry. Mimicking Whole Foods might not be a bad idea. Its same-store sales growth averages 11.1% annually for the past five years. Meanwhile, old-line grocery chains are starving for growth in the stagnant, $480 billion supermarket world. So they’re increasing their focus on specialty, natural and organic products — the kinds of things that fill the aisles at Whole Foods.”

Why My Local Grocery Store Loves Me

Bill Keaggy — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 23:23:00 +0000

“This is a receipt I saved from a trip I made to the supermarket one day. I had strolled into the local Giant Foods and decided to take advantage of the bulk-food section where a sign prominently hangs urging customers to ‘Take as much or as little as you need.’ Well, on this particular day, I only happened to need one grain of sugar.”

What the NY Times doesn’t know might hurt you

Bill Keaggy — Sat, 27 May 2006 15:28:00 +0000

“In [Wednesday's] edition of the Dining and Wine section of the New York Times, there appears an article about New York City’s Greenmarket (a consortium of farmers markets throughout the city)… The article makes good points about the never-ending nuances of organic food and the often overwhelming feelings organic shoppers can get when they are faced with often contradictory messages about how to do the ‘right thing.’ What struck me as odd was a statement from the 6th paragraph down: ‘In its February issue, Consumer Reports magazine assessed the relative pesticide contents of organically and conventionally grown produce, and found that for many fruits and vegetables, the difference was imperceptible. Is this reason enough to forsake expensive organic bananas and broccoli?’ I thought this was odd, so I looked back through that February issue and found this statement…”