This post is a little different than the others that I typically write... More or less, this is a challenge that I want us to try in our household. I use the word challenge because that is what eating organic can often feel like. It has almost become like a shameful thing to want to eat organic. As if only the rich or "hippies" eat this way...
Anyways, this is something that I am now trying my best to learn about. My mother has been interested in all kinds of foods for a long time. As as "foodie" and an amazing cook, she is all about delicious tasting food and trying new things. I'd say for the past 3+ years, she has been learning about GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) in our food supply. I see the foods she buys since learning about GMOs and started paying attention.
I have always been interested in eating well and getting my fair share of exercise, but never really cared enough to look at at the label on everything I stick into our grocery cart to see what chemicals are in there. I mean, I still get excited when something we like is "Buy One Get One Free" when I walk into Publix and see their displays. I load up!
But after reading about more and more cases of cancer, obesity, food allergies, young women having infertility issues, etc. increasing in our country - it is pretty much safe to say that I am listening now!
[Attention to my friends planning on trying to get pregnant soon: try altering your diet so you're not working against yourself and your chances of conceiving.
Go to this link for awesome information on foods and the healthy diet's effects on your fertility (and a healthy diet for a man's fertility too!)
Follow this link:
[take a look at the foods to avoid like the sodas and artificial sugars]
for the men, go to:
Maybe it is because I am pregnant and now eating is not just for myself, but for another little person as well? Maybe it is because I don't want Ava having food allergies to common foods that were never an issue before the introduction of GMO's (Genetically Modified Orgnaisms) to our foods? Maybe it is because I see my husband's issue with Eczema that never seems to get better? Maybe it is because I have some friends that seem to be having a harder time getting pregnant at a young age? Maybe it is because I see our declining health rates in our country?
Whatever the reason is - I want to try and start doing the best that I can to feed my family REAL food. The kind that your good 'ole farmer works hard to do. He or she feeds the animals grass ( you know, what they eat naturally in the wild and not modified corn - wow, what a concept!) and then when they slaughter the animal for us to eat, we eat their meat...not meat that is filled with chemicals that tear up our stomach and give us diseases, allergies, and cancers.
Oh! And just when did it become OK for other countries to NOT allow food companies to sell them "foods" with ingredients that have not previously been through long term studies and have not yet proven to be safe to eat, but our government allows those same companies to sell us those "foods" to us UNTIL THEY ARE PROVEN TO BE UNSAFE?!
Other countries need proof that GMOs are safe before they even look at them... while we eat up until we get cancer or other illnesses. Backwards, huh?
I didn't know this country was okay with having lower standards than others? That is embarrassing, America. Wouldn't it be nice if we demanded the same from these companies?
"The problem has become so great that the EU has actually banned the use of GMO products throughout Europe, while the United States continues to allow them throughout our nation. While some of the top food manufacturers like Kellogg, Heinz, Pepsi, Coke and Kraft, have changed their recipes in Europe, no longer using GMO ingredients in their products, those same products sold in the States continue to sue these dangerous ingredients, thanks to the inaction being taken by the FDA." -
There is something a bit backwards about that. Don't you think? It infuriates me. Why do those countries' citizens get safer and more studied products and Americans get GMO products put onto our shelves until it is too late resulting to being pulled off the shelves due to recalls, market withdrawals, & safety alerts?
What is happening here is that it is all about the profits for these huge food companies that basically own all the smaller food companies as well. Not only are they the one's controlling how the government votes on allowing the American people to eat this crap, while also controlling how organic (and responsible farmers) price their foods. It costs more for an organic farmer to prove that their food is safe because they do not use the pesticides and chemicals in their products. So basically, they are being punished for just wanting to feed their cows, chicken, pigs or soil their produce with what they naturally want and need to grow. Backwards again...
So it all boils down to trying (the best that I can) to buy organic (non- GMO) food. If it has been injected or altered from the way that it was meant to grow- I will try not to eat it. I understand that we do go out to eat (all the time), and that sometimes it is a lot harder to eat an organic diet.
I will not sacrifice going out to have dinner with friends for fear that it is not an all organic meal. What I will do, is control what I can when I am eating at home or making Ava's food one day. I also know that Mark may take a while to warm up to newer food brands, but have faith that he will get on board. When I first got pregnant, I remember mentioning this information to him and he simply said, "Buy whatever is best for the baby."
( I am actually super excited to make Ava's natural, pureed food when she can have more than breast milk. No store bought baby food for that little one! :)
Anyways, here are two videos that I really enjoyed and helped me to understand the whole food thing a bit better. I watched the 1st one that I posted on here at the beginning of the year. It is a mom who now educates others after her findings. She wasn't a "hippy- tree hugging- rich woman" who was always into this sort of thing...she was a mom from Texas who was shocked when her kid was having food allergies to every day foods.
Click on the video below and watch:
The 2nd movie I posted on here is one that my mother came across about a week ago. We started to watch it together yesterday and I finished it this morning.
Ladies, at the 00:45:52 part of the video below they talk about eating non- GMO foods especially before trying to conceive.
This post is not meant to try and "sell you" on eating tofu and seaweed the rest of your life.... it is just to fill you in on how we will be trying (the best that we can) to eat our REAL fruit, vegetables, milk, cheese, eggs, meat, fish...and so on! If we are paying for a steak, I think we are entitled to eat meat that has not been chemically altered which in turn can make us sick. That is all. :-) The issue for me will be making the effort to drive to Whole Foods and Fresh Market which is 20 min away, rather than Publix which is 2 min away from me. Publix does sell some organic food (and I will still shop there because I do love my pub subs once in a while!) but other healthy grocery stores can offer more of a variety in the long run.
This link below (a PDF) of a list of non-GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms) food brands. I will be taking this to the grocery store to swap out some common things that we eat for the all natural brand.
http://responsibletechnology.org/media/docs/IRT_sg.pdf
or click below on:
Responsible Technology PDF
Also, take a look at the prices out there...Whole Foods, for example, is not a big price difference than shopping at Publix. In fact, my mother finds that she spends less at Whole Foods on produce than she does at Publix. So if this interests you at all...it is not some expensive, life altering expense. It is just common sense for your health and rewarding responsible, American farmers and food companies.
EAT & ENJOY!
*The Ava Countdown*
33 weeks pregnant today! 7 weeks until her Due Date!
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