Making Changes: Healthy Eating

Last month, I posted about how we've been trying to make healthier food choices at the grocery store.  I turned to my big sister, who has been eating organically and focusing on healthy food for years and years.  She follows the dirty dozen and clean 15 lists when purchasing produce.  Eating an all organic diet is not cheap, and these lists help to focus food funds to the foods that are more prone to contain pesticides due to the amount of pesticides used when growing the crop and/or whether or not the food has a means in place to keep the pesticides from reaching the part of the plant we eat.  For example, watermelon has a thick outer skin that we don't consume, so purchasing organic watermelon isn't necessary.  Also, sweet corn has a husk around it that is removed prior to consumption, so non-organic sweet corn is considered safe.

Foods with thin outer skins like celery, berries, peppers, apples and lettuce greens should be organic to avoid consuming a dizzying array of chemicals.  We love apples in our house...fresh apples, apple sauce, apple cinnamon oatmeal and on occasion, apple juice.  All apple products that we consume now are organic.  See how considering the dirty dozen and clean 15 lists extends beyond the produce department at the grocery store?

We are also striving to eat organic dairy and meat products as well.  After all, if animals consume pesticide laden crops, we will consume the pesticides when we eat that particular meat or dairy product.  We are finding that organic dairy products are definitely more expensive, especially milk and cheese!

After reading information about how pesticides can accumulate in our bodies, I so wish we would have paid more attention to organic foods years ago!  It feels good to know that we are making positive changes to our diets now.  Every small change we can make is a step in the right direction!

Also, I should note I am not an expert on this topic, and we are learning as we go, making changes that we feel will promote the best short and long term health for ourselves and our kiddos.  I appreciate any feedback or information others have on the topic of healthy lifestyle changes.  And I'll continue to post about changes we are making around here in the food, cooking and cleaning departments.