Now days it’s a whole lot easier to find organic foods. I remember when I used to have to go to my local natural food store to get anything, but now my local chain grocery store typically has a good assortment of organic foods. To maximize my grocery budget, I have learned to be selective about what I buy organic and what I feel I can slide on. Certain foods require more pesticides to enable growers to produce more consumable (and sellable) product while others are fairly resistant to insects and disease on their own. In my mind, there is no doubt that we consume WAY too many chemicals when we eat, so I think buying organic is something we should all being doing for ourselves and our long-term health.

WebMD has a great article debating the benefits of organic food vs. the cost for buying them. It lists foods that are worth the extra expense of organic and foods that aren’t. This article is great in that it points out why informing yourself can save you a lot of money in the long run. Their list is pretty good, but I would add that when you buy produce, think about how you eat that particular item. When you consume the whole fruit, such as a strawberry, you’re eating all the pesticides that came with it to the store (and strawberries along with the rest on the WebMD list require LOTS of pesticides to keep them from being eaten which is why they’re so much worse than others). But think about a watermelon. You don’t eat the exterior of the fruit, which is going to be primarily where all the pesticides are located. For that reason, buying things like melons, bananas, and citrus fruits in non-organic form isn’t so bad. Another good tip that I would reiterate here is to remove outer layers of leafy greens and to peel vegetables before you eat them (such as carrots). I typically try to always buy organic meet, but not just because of pesticide chemicals. I am seriously turned off by the thought of eating a chicken that has been pumped full of hormones so that he would be “ready” to eat in half the time. Yuck!

As always, I think the underlying message here is educate yourself. Decide what foods you eat that are worth paying extra for to get them organic. This comes into play if you think about what things your family eats in large quantities. Got a bunch of milk-guzzling kids living at home? Consider the hormones and other chemicals in regular milk and look at other options at your local grocery store. Chances are they have an assortment of hormone-free organic milk, soy milk and other things available to choose from. My family has just recently made the switch from Soy to Almond Milk. YUM!!!

Still want to save yourself some extra money? Pay attention to prices. I find that while I may be able to buy the same things at my local grocery store, the local whole foods store is much cheaper. Then the only question is whether it’s worth shopping at two different stores to save money. Most the time for me it is.

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