I understand from reading Berardi that free range meat is significantly better for you than ‘standard’ raised meat.
Does anyone know whether organic produce is better nutritionally than standard stuff? There’s a co-op down by me that sells weekly baskets, and I was going to head down and see how they handle things. It’s a little more expensive than standard produce, but if the benefit is that much greater, I suppose it’s not a big deal…
[quote]Cluster wrote:
I understand from reading Berardi that free range meat is significantly better for you than ‘standard’ raised meat.
Does anyone know whether organic produce is better nutritionally than standard stuff? There’s a co-op down by me that sells weekly baskets, and I was going to head down and see how they handle things. It’s a little more expensive than standard produce, but if the benefit is that much greater, I suppose it’s not a big deal…
Well, organic should be called the standard because it’s produced naturally.
But what we mostly have on the shelves are animals fed with sub par nutrition, treated with steroids and raised in bad conditions - this produces nutriciously lower grade meat, eggs, milk. The same thing with produce - pesticides and chemicals take away from the nutritional value and add some things we should not be ingesting.
Organic is expensive due to the market being much smaller. But it’s growing since so many corporate companies are trying to water down the organic standarts. You can support them by buying natural organic food whenever possible.
It’s funny now a days kids grow up and think that KFC and Burger King is how meat should taste like.
Because this is the wrong time of year for conventionally grown produce in most of North America, organic or otherwise, I would check to see where the produce came from, how old it is, etc. Produce that sits on shelves under lights can lose nutritional value.
I thought organic was pure propoganda until I lived on a small european farm for 2 weeks. I ate MUCH less, and felt better eating organically grown foods.
Each day I ate an egg or 2, 2 cups of raw milk “yoghurt”, maybe a cup of wild mushrooms, raspberries, garden vegetables and maybe 1/2 a small trout per day.
I truly believe that our foods grow big faster than they can absorb micronutrients that we may or may not be aware of. I think that in organic foods, these are in higher concentration because the food item is smaller but still grows in the same time frame. I also think that the micronutrients might be one signal to our brain that we are full.
Guys, just because Paul Check said something does not make him right!!!
I posted on this in the Check thred, but clearly an agricultural scientists thoughts aren’t as important as a strength coach talking out of his ass.
The main difference between foods is where and how it is grown and raised. As with the meat example (feeding corn to cattle, rather than grass) there are similar situations where poor soils are used to grow vegetables and fruit and don’t have the trace elements in them (plants don’t need them to grow, but we need them in our diet).
But this does not make organic any healthier, nor does it mean that the foods have any better nutrition. What it really means is that instead of controlling pests and diseases in a crop organic farmers do chants and plants cows horns with dung in them at the full moon (this is not an exageration, though not every one does this, some leave out the chanting). So you pay good money for produce that has large amounts of fecal contaminants and has usually been attacked by diseases and pests in some way or another.
Most organic farms would not survive if they were not surrounded by conventional farming.
Also conventional farming doesn’t have to prove a thing!!! It has gotten to the way it is through years of research, thats pretty good proof!
i call bullshit on the whole organic craze. Farmland has to lay unused for years in order for all pesticides and other chemicals to be leeched from the soil in order for the produce to then be truely organic imo.
Can someone tell me where this happens?
Just a way to get cash out of people that mean well.
Also conventional farming doesn’t have to prove a thing!!! It has gotten to the way it is through years of research, thats pretty good proof![/quote]
Years of research? LOL, I guess the current rise in cancer rates is just coincidental? Granted, there are other pollutants for cause, but one can’t deny that more people die from cancer now than they did in 1900 when farming was much different.
And I’d rather my produce be contaminated with fecal matter (which btw I have heard, and still is disusting) rather than dangerous chemicals supposedly said to be safe by our ever trust worthy gov’t.
Now, I’ll still by regular produce at times when organic isn’t available, but I won’t sit here and deny that something natural the way it is intended is not better than a man-made attempt at improving.
[quote]supermick wrote:
i call bullshit on the whole organic craze. Farmland has to lay unused for years in order for all pesticides and other chemicals to be leeched from the soil in order for the produce to then be truely organic imo.
Can someone tell me where this happens?
Just a way to get cash out of people that mean well.
[/quote]
Uhh, yeah, farming without the use of sophisticated, industrial chemicals sure sounds like craziness to me. Damn hippies…
Ok, while leaching pesticides from the soil is a reality, I’m sure that constantly spraying vegetables with pesticides is much worse.
When Organic veg became popular I noticed there was significant size differences between certain organic and conventionally grown products. Now there is much less of a difference and I really want to know why ! What happened ? Less strict Organic rules ? Here is some info why I think much of the so called organic produce is not necessarily so.
One of the dubious roles I had working in the food industry was trying to replicate conventional products (in this case deserts) with organic products. In fact one of the first products I ‘designed’ was an Organic Apple pie for one of the the UK’s largest multiples. When I see that pie on the shelves of the supermarket, I get a fuckin warm glow inside. That is MY pie !
Now the firm I worked for went under but I presume that same product is made by another firm now. The first problem I had with this pie (as an example) was that under Organic rules you can’t use Hydrogenated vegetable oil. So this leads to a soggy pie. Truth of the matter is, our pie was soggy.
When I started trying to take these products and source organic ingredients to knock up in our test kitchen and verify cost, the first thing I noticed was, the cost was inhibitive most of the time and the range of organic replacements for conventional was thin on the ground.
About one year went past and the situation changed. Suddenly you could get just about any fruit you like Organic. Organic flour was all over the place, sugar and even the salt (!) was available with organic certificates.
I even took my ass to Poland to audit a grower who was supplying someone we bought from with Organic produce. Guess what, the shit they were growing was not strictly organic, they were using all sorts of stuff deemed dubious to Organic production rules.
As the availability of Organic produce grew so quickly I can’t honestly say that its as strictly organic as its made out to be, particularly stuff that’s not grown in strong economic countries, i.e USA, Canada, UK, France etc.
Also, organic products aren’t a “craze” or “fad” or whatever you want to call it. Organic stuff is more healthy for you. Plain and simple.
Two words: Monosodium Glutamate
That is one of the reasons why Americans are so overweight. It’s in a lot of conventional foods. It will make you want to keep eating and eating and eating.
The Stig - I think its cool that you did the type of work that you did in the food industry (or still do).
The thing that you mentioned about how some organic products aren’t truly organic due to some farmers “breaking the rules” is disturbing, but I guess the person buying the food “thinks” its the most healthy type of cheese/fruit/vegetable there is available. It produces a “placebo” effect. Let’s just say its NOT organic, yet it says organic on it. I bet the buyer will think to themselves that it is the best and they will get, like I said, that placebo effect.
Just like people say they love NO2 when it has been proven to be a hoax.
[quote]HouseOfAtlas wrote:
The Stig - I think its cool that you did the type of work that you did in the food industry (or still do).
The thing that you mentioned about how some organic products aren’t truly organic due to some farmers “breaking the rules” is disturbing, but I guess the person buying the food “thinks” its the most healthy type of cheese/fruit/vegetable there is available. It produces a “placebo” effect. Let’s just say its NOT organic, yet it says organic on it. I bet the buyer will think to themselves that it is the best and they will get, like I said, that placebo effect.
Just like people say they love NO2 when it has been proven to be a hoax.
Get what I’m saying??[/quote]
I don’t work in the food industry any more. I have a Food Science background amongst other things but my knowledge is pretty limited.
Did see some weird stuff at food processing places though. Went for an interview for a chicken processor and was shown a barn full of cute little yellow chicks milling about eating seeds from computer controlled hoppers and special burners keeping the temperature just right. The chicks had loads of room to hang out with their buddies in this high tech barn.
Went back for 2nd interview some time later…walks past window of same barn, says to the guy, is that the same barn as last time. He says yes.
Barn (or rather it was like a huge warehouse) is now full of big muscular super chickens crammed together. Such is the wonders of science. I bet it wasn’t particularly natural what made these Chickens grow so fast
[quote]The Stig wrote:
Did see some weird stuff at food processing places though. Went for an interview for a chicken processor and was shown a barn full of cute little yellow chicks milling about eating seeds from computer controlled hoppers and special burners keeping the temperature just right. The chicks had loads of room to hang out with their buddies in this high tech barn.
Went back for 2nd interview some time later…walks past window of same barn, says to the guy, is that the same barn as last time. He says yes.
Barn (or rather it was like a huge warehouse) is now full of big muscular super chickens crammed together. Such is the wonders of science. I bet it wasn’t particularly natural what made these Chickens grow so fast[/quote]
That sucks
Maybe the chickens were just dedicated to eating clean and working out constantly while getting enough rest. LOL.
[quote]HouseOfAtlas wrote:
The Stig wrote:
Did see some weird stuff at food processing places though. Went for an interview for a chicken processor and was shown a barn full of cute little yellow chicks milling about eating seeds from computer controlled hoppers and special burners keeping the temperature just right. The chicks had loads of room to hang out with their buddies in this high tech barn.
Went back for 2nd interview some time later…walks past window of same barn, says to the guy, is that the same barn as last time. He says yes.
Barn (or rather it was like a huge warehouse) is now full of big muscular super chickens crammed together. Such is the wonders of science. I bet it wasn’t particularly natural what made these Chickens grow so fast
That sucks
Maybe the chickens were just dedicated to eating clean and working out constantly while getting enough rest. LOL.
[/quote]
? reduces the amount of food additives and colourings;
? increases the amount of beneficial vitamins, minerals, EFAs [essential fatty acids] and antioxidants consumed;
? appears to have the potential to lower the incidence of common conditions such as cancer, coronary heart disease, allergies and hyperactivity in children."
[quote]supermick wrote:
Farmland has to lay unused for years in order for all pesticides and other chemicals to be leeched from the soil in order for the produce to then be truely organic imo.
[/quote]
In order for something to be labeled organic, the soil it grows in has to be chemical free for 3 years. Yeah, may not get everything out, but better then nothing.
Years of research? LOL, I guess the current rise in cancer rates is just coincidental? Granted, there are other pollutants for cause, but one can’t deny that more people die from cancer now than they did in 1900 when farming was much different. [/quote]
Buddy, cancer rates are higher now because people are living long enough to get cancer. Life expectancy in 1900 was 48 [ Life Expectancy by Age, 1850–2011 ], not a heck of a lot of time to develop breast cancer which peaks in 55 year olds, or prostate cancer which peaks in 65 year olds.
If farming were so damn healthy in 1900 you wouldn’t expect us to be living on average 17 years longer in 2006, would you?