Alright...random question here. My sister-in-law has spent the last 6 months blowing up my newsfeed with articles from a variety of hollistic and organic websites. Everything from why wheat is bad for you (only natural sprout grain breds are allowed), to the reasons while animal milk is next in line to cigarettes. She posts things about why shaking breast milk seperates amino acids and makes it bad for children, traditional vegetables are injected with pesticides, etc, etc. I'll admit that I've read some of them (mostly out sheer curiosity), and frankly I don't get it. If what these articles say is really true, NO food except everything at Whole Foods is acceptable. She eats bread that has to be refrigerated, spreads coconut oil on toast, and loves ginger shakes. For me looking in from the outside, it looks like she's lost it. Then again, I suppose eating extremely organic can't hurt. I'm just not buying. So, does anyone here buy into any aspect of these newer theories on things like gluten problems, organic vs. inorganic produce, cutting out animal dairy, etc, etc?
My wife is into the organic foods and avoiding GMOs as much as possible. We are trying to buy as much as possible directly from local farmers to avoid the hormones and antibiotics in most meat products in the supermarket. We are not and don't want to be at your SIL's level but feel there is a lot of crap in our everyday food supply as well. Gotta die from something though right?
It's their passion. No different than hunting to many of us, beer to Hooker, or photographing fisherman to Vito....It's something they can get into and really enjoy it. I learn about it daily, and I think it's a scapegoat for the sedentary lifestyle we live. Cancer/Illness has risen because populations have risen, and awareness of diseases and diagnoses are more accurate, not to mention peoples life expectancy is basically double that of 100 years ago. Can it hurt? No. Do I buy into the notion that our processed foods are what is causing our decline? I think the couches take care of that for us.
no milk with my meal ?? No chocolate malts ?? A cheesebuger is just a burger without cheese. Who shakes beast milk ?? Are they jumping on a trampoline when nursing that it gets shook up ?? Natural milk shakes for babies the new rage ?? WTF is wrong with these people ?? Tim
Back to the breast milk, is it only unhealthy to shake it once removed from the breast...or is it dangerous to shake it in the breast as well? I have nipples Greg...can you milk me?
We try to eat organic but mostly because we want to know what is actually in the food we eat. You don't know how many residual pesticides you may be getting in your vegetables, antibiotics/hormones in your meat and dairy, preservatives in your processed food, etc. Some of the stuff they used to put in/on your food was incredibly harmful to humans and, while it is much better now it isn't all that great. For instance, the next time you go to buy sausage check and see if it has BHA or BHT in it. We are no way near Matt's SIL level but we like to know what is in our food and with organic you can generally be sure.
I get the logic behind the organic food. We have a freezer full of local grass fed beef, venison, and wild moose, not to mention the eggs we purchase locally. We also try to eat mostly organic fruits and vegetables for the pesticide argument (whether valid or not). I start to draw the line when products that are touted as healthy by most (such as whole grain bread) are being labeled unhealthy, and even unsafe. I would like to say I don't judge her for her decisions, but my initial post certainly proves otherwise:D However, at least she is making the initiative to take care of her body and my brothers (as well as my nephew's).
For the past few years, I've tried to move as much of my diet to whole real foods, limiting processed stuff. I drink milk sparingly now and use almond milk instead, but that was mostly because too much regular milk messes my stomach up. I havent gone whole hog organic, but try to buy local when I can and thoroughly rinse my veggies & fruit. I think the whole wheat & gluten (and to some extent dairy) thing is just blown out of proportion. I think some people have sensitivities to those foods and can cause issues, so people like to take that an extrapolate it to the entire populous.
Agreed 100% Agreed 100% again. We eat everything at our house, we just try to avoid things that contain stuff we don't want. Do we really need to eat red dye no.7? Anyway, I go a step further on the "sensitivites" issue and say that the more sterile you try to make your diet or the foods you eat, then the more chance your body will freak out when it encounters something strange. Germs, Bacteria and stuff that isn't actually bad for you ( only imagined by Matt's SIL LOL) help the body stay healthy by keeping the immune system running in good form.
For the most part, it is all marketing. The USDA's definition of organic is much different than what you and I might would think. Most of the "organic" or "free range" foods at the grocery store are not what I would consider organic. We eat mostly organic, but not from the grocery store. Everyone in my family has an organic garden. That supplies us with most of our veggies. Most of our meat comes from hunts. We share with the entire family. And we also split a calf every year from my BIL's farm. I shop at our local farmer's market. I just like knowing where my food has been. With that said, I just ate a pop tart for breakfast and now I'm drinking coffee with artificial sweetener.
I'm a huge fan of farmer's markets. Huge. I just wish the ones here were open everyday. We have three and they are basically open two days a week on the same days. They need to figure out a better schedule.
Yeah our FM is only open on Tuesday afternoon and Saturday morning, and only during the summer and fall. I'm having to rely on my garden right now. Getting lots of kale, spinach, cabbage, and broccoli right now. The broccoli is especially good.
If more folks went to them they would be open more but something you may not be aware of: The "farmers" don't necessarily grow the stuff they are selling at those markets. They may buy the stuff in bulk from an out of state grower and then sell it at the "farmer's" market. A better way to go is find a farmer that sells produce shares and then once a week (or whatever the schedule) you get a bag or bags of whatever is ripe at that time of year. The you are definitely buying local.
I pretty much go to the same guy each time for my veggies at our market. I know he is growing his veggies. But I do agree that a lot of the larger FM are like what you stated.
