Fw: [SoFlaVegans] Top 6 Reasons to Eat Only Organic Fruits and Vegetables

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2009 11:14:46 AM[soFlaVegans] Top 6 Reasons to Eat Only Organic Fruits and Vegetables

 

Top Six Reasons to Eat Only Organic Fruits and Vegetables

by Heather Havey, M.A.

 

http://www.naturaln ews.com/025643. html

 

(NaturalNews) When you eat organic foods, you provide your body with

vitamins, minerals, filtered water, and much more. These provide us

with vital foundations for health. Most food sold in stores is grown

with pesticides or other toxins. These chemicals have been proven to

adversely affect health. In some cases they cause death. They also

pollute the Earth and have been associated with mass animal deaths

[1-4]. Your choices make a huge difference in the quality of your

life. What you eat builds and maintains your body. Also, supporting

organics supports a healthy Earth. You help to improve the quality of

water, soil, and air. Animals, plants, birds, worms, and other living

beings also benefit when you choose organic foods.

 

1. You Are What You Eat

 

In 1826, Anthelme Brillat-Savarin originated the ever-famous "You are

what you eat" in his book Meditations on Transcendent Gastronomy. We

have heard this truism throughout our lives. Have you considered the

depths of its wisdom? Eat an apple, and you eat life: vitamins,

minerals, water, and more. Eat pesticide residue, and you fill your

body with poisons [5, 6]. These toxins accumulate in your muscle and

fat tissues. Some of them are nearly impossible to ever remove from

your body. Mothers who breast-feed children illustrate an example of

these danger potentials, because poisons are passed to the baby. The

Journal for Pesticide Reform reports that "pesticides such as

chlordane, heptachlor, DDT, DDE and other organohalogen compounds do

not biodegrade in the environment. Instead they bioconcentrate and are

stored in the fat of human beings, who feed at the top of the food

chain." Also, a 1999 Consumers Union report determined that "pesticide

residues found in foods children eat every day often exceed safe

levels" [7].

 

Organic foods are grown with no poisons. They are natural foods that

have been grown with more conscious care for the health of the soil,

the plants, and the people who will eat them. Over 100 studies have

found that the nutritional quality of organic foods far surpasses that

of conventional produce [8-10]. Why take a chance and risk exposing

yourself, your children, or your friends to chemicals that could

destroy their health? Why make this even a negotiable point for

yourself? Choose organic, choose natural, and you choose health.

 

2. Food is your best medicine.

 

In the 5th century BC, Hippocrates taught that "let food be your

medicine and medicine be your food." He was highly respected during

his lifetime, and he has been famous ever since. His words have stood

the test of time and remain deep wisdoms that we can live by. All

medical doctors to this day recite the Hippocratic Oath. In this vow,

doctors promise to try never to harm their patient and also to work

for their patient's highest good.

 

We can all make similar choices. We can all seek to bring about our

highest good. We can all seek not to harm ourselves. We can live by

that oath and also by Hippocrates' other famous teaching: Food is your

Best Medicine. If this is true, then it makes sense that we should

choose foods that are known to bring us health, energy, and peace of

mind. Scientists have proven in many studies that organic food choices

have far superior nutritional quality than conventional food choices

[8-10]. Also, they have proven that foods grown with pesticides are

definitely linked with diseases and deaths for humans and animals [11-13].

 

With all that in mind, the choice seems clear: Choose Organic.

 

3. Pay now or pay later.

 

Cost is the number one reason that people choose for not buying or

eating organic foods. When you eat food that may contain poisons,

however, the cost is far higher than simply the price tag. This cost

also includes the impact that this food choice has upon your body and

the world. Studies have proven that pesticides, herbicides,

insecticides, and other poisons accumulate in the body and lead to

illness, disease, and death [11-13].

 

Next time you feel hesitant to pay a couple of extra dollars for an

organic item, simply remember: Pay now for delicious, healing food or

pay later for medical bills, illness, and suffering. When you pay for

organic food, you pay for energy, health, and the wellbeing of the Earth.

 

4. We prefer life over death.

 

Humans innately desire life. We desire health, energy, well-being,

happiness, and wellness. Thus, we should choose that which will bring

us greatest energy, happiness, and health. Conversely, we should not

choose that which will bring us fatigue, depression or anxiety,

ailments, illnesses, diseases, or death.

 

Pesticide is designed to kill, and it does not know when to stop

killing. This is all that it does. Organic, naturally-prepared foods,

on the other hand, provide beneficial nutritional and healing

qualities for us.

 

With all this in mind, again, the choice seems clear: Choose Organic.

 

5. Earth needs your help.

 

We live amidst the newest mass extinction on our planet. Typically in

a mass extinction, more than 50% of species on Earth die off, and over

70% diminish greatly [14]. A recent study published in Trends in

Ecology and Evolution (TREE) states that "most species [on Earth] are

declining as a result of human activities and...the result will be a

more homogenized biosphere with lower diversity at regional and global

scales" [14]. The study also reports that "humans have not yet fully

impacted some remaining ecosystems (and their endemic species) so that

the total number of declining species will probably grow." We are

hurting animals and plants worldwide. We are also harming the quality

of our air, our water, and our soil. The result of this is that we

hurt ourselves, also. Every level of life is being affected by our

lifestyle and our choices.

 

Every choice we make has an impact on environment. When we buy food

(or anything), we support every level of production that has gone into

this product. We support the farmer or rancher or logger who grew our

primary resources. We support whatever pesticides or natural methods

that they choose. We support also the manufacturing processes that

produce our goods. This means that we also support any use of

chemicals or packaging that manufacturers choose to use. At the next

level, we also support the distribution of these foods or goods to our

stores. We support the stores at which we purchase items. Finally, we

support the gasoline, bicycle, and shoe companies that provide our

means of reaching the store to buy food.

 

Every time we make a choice we have a large impact. We affect

ourselves, multiple other people, resources, surrounding lands and

animals, the carbon footprint (air, water, soil) of distribution and

production, and the gasoline/automobile /bicycle companies that give us

movement.

 

Your choices make a difference. The Earth needs your help. Therefore,

choose organic.

 

6. Healthy plants mean healthier soil, water, birds, worms, animals,

plants, air, and you.

 

Since the 5th century BC, people have been telling us a healthy way to

live. The way is natural. The way is organic. The natural path honors

nature and works in harmony with Earth. As a result, we achieve

harmonious health. We feel energy, peace of mind, wellness, and

health. Also, the plants and animals benefit. The air, water, and soil

benefit. Organic food is a choice that makes a lot of sense. Again,

you pay now or pay later. Make organic food a non-negotiable choice.

Choose life.

 

Resources

1. "Colony Collapse Disorder Debunked: Pesticides Cause Bee Deaths."

http://www.naturaln ews.com/023679. html.

 

2. Pimentel, D. et al, "Environmental and Economic Costs of Pesticide

Use," Bioscience Vol 42, No.10, November 1992.

 

3. Mary Deinlein, "When it Comes to Pesticides, Birds are Sitting

Ducks," Smithsonian National Zoological Park.

http://nationalzoo. si.edu/Conservat ...

 

4. Williams, T., Silent Scourge, pp 28-35, Audubon, Jan-Feb 1997.

 

5. "Pesticide Residues in Urine of Adults Living in the United States:

Reference Range Concentrations. " Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention. Environmental Research Volume 71, Issue 2, November 1995,

Pages 99-10.

 

6. "Acute occupational pesticide-related illness in the US, 1998-1999:

Surveillance findings from the SENSOR-pesticides program." American

Journal of Industrial Medicine Volume 45, Issue 1, Dec 2003, Pages 14-23.

 

7. Consumers Union. 2000. Pesticides Residues Still Too High in

Children's Foods. http://www.consumer sunion.org/ food/....

 

8. "New Evidence Confirms the Nutritional Superiority of Plant-Based

Organic Foods," State of Science Review, March 2008 [This is a 56-page

downloadable review of many research studies that have been done in

recent years regarding the nutritional quality of organic plant

foods.] http://www.organic- center.org/ scien...

 

9. " Fruit Quality, Antioxidant Capacity, and Flavonoid Content of

Organically and Conventionally Grown Blueberries. " Journal for

Agricultural and Food Chemistry Volume 56, Issue 14, 2008, Pages

5788-5794.

 

10. "Effects of agricultural practices on instrumental colour, mineral

content, carotenoid composition, and sensory quality of mandarin

orange juice." Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture Volume

88, Number 10, 15 August 2008 , Pages 1731-1738(8) .

 

11. Waldrum, Joseph D. and Pamela L Brady and J. Ples Spradley. 1996.

Pesticide Residue in Food: The Safety Issue. AK: Southern Extension

and Research Activity Information Exchange Group.

 

12. "Pesticide-related health problems and farmworkers. " American

Association of Occupational Health Nurses Journal Volume 37, Issue 3,

March 1989, Pages 115-30.

 

13. The Organic Trade Association lists many excellent research study

results that prove the nutritional superiority of organic foods.

http://www.ota. com/organic/ benefits. ..

 

14. Michael L. McKinney & Julie L. Lockwood, "Biotic homogenization: a

few winners replacing many losers in the next mass extinction" Trends

in Ecology & Evolution Volume 14, Issue 11, 1 November 1999, Pages

450-453.