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Which Foods Are Most Important To Buy Organic?

Which Foods Are Most Important To Buy Organic?

Most people know it’s a good idea to buy and eat organic foods whenever possible. Even those who aren’t particularly health-conscious are aware of this. However, it’s all-too-common for consumers to stare blankly at their kitchen’s subway tile backsplash, trying to make a shopping list filled with organic options that don’t empty their wallet. Healthy organic foods are almost always more expensive than nonorganic items — often dramatically more expensive. This can leave many people wondering if it’s even possible to be health-conscious and budget-conscious at the same time.

Fortunately, it’s absolutely possible, as long as you know which foods to buy organic and which you’re safe buying from the regular aisles.

Some foods aren’t much different, whether they’re organic or not. However, the foods on this list should always be purchased organic to avoid accidentally ingesting nasty chemicals. Knowing which foods are most important to buy organic will help you stretch your dollars as far as possible, helping you stay healthy and save money.

Coffee

Coffee is the third most sprayed crop in the world, just behind tobacco and cotton. And while neither cotton nor tobacco ever makes its way into our diets, 30% of the entire population drink coffee occasionally. For many people, two or even three cups of coffee is a part of their daily routine. So if you’re only going to buy one organic food regularly, you should make it this one.

Pesticides used on coffee plantations are supposed to be partially neutralized during the roasting process, but even worse than the effects they have on your body may be the effects they have on nature. These herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides can have negative long-term effects on farmers and the environment. If more people choose organic coffee, however, this won’t have to be a problem forever.

Dairy Products

The right dairy products are an essential part of a balanced diet. They are also important in having strong teeth and a healthy smile, which 99.7 percent of adults believe is socially important. Don’t settle for the cheapest butter, cheese, or jug of milk on the shelf, though. Nonorganic dairy products usually come from cows that received antibiotics, growth hormones, and a grain-only diet. What goes into the cow eventually makes its way into the milk and unhealthy animals can only produce poor-quality products.

And as if that wasn’t enough, animals in conventional industrial farms typically aren’t treated well and don’t enjoy lives that are healthy or pleasant. Not only does this ultimately mean poorer health for those who consume the animals or their milk, but it also means the animals themselves suffer needlessly while alive. Buying high-quality organic dairy products is a better option for you and our animal neighbors.

Grapes (and Wine, Too)

There are a lot of reasons to buy organic, but when it comes to grapes and products made with grapes, the reasons become even more convincing.

Many people enjoy a glass of wine now and then, especially at celebratory events like weddings and anniversaries. Even if you don’t drink wine, you probably eat grapes at least once in a while. Unfortunately, grapes have been found to contain multiple different types of pesticide residues. To make sure that your healthy treat or relaxing drink doesn’t carry any adverse effects with it, always buy organic grapes and wines and try to wash your grapes well before eating them.

Apples

As we all know, you should visit your doctor at least once per year and you should eat an apple a day so you don’t have to see them more often. One reason apples are so famous for being healthy is that they’re a good source of fiber, which helps keep your digestive tract in shape. But if your apples aren’t organic, you may want to reconsider: most apples contain residue from at least one pesticide.

Besides washing your apples before eating (which is something you should do with just about any fresh food you buy), try to find apples that are organic. This also applies to products like apple sauce and apple juice, which can be even worse than nonorganic apples because they’re so highly concentrated.

Tomatoes

If you love topping hamburgers with tomato slices or adding grape tomatoes to salads, you’ll want to make sure the tomatoes you’re buying are organic. The USDA Pesticide Program showed that tomatoes can carry 69 different pesticides. And since you always eat them with the skin left on, you’re even more likely to get those pesky chemicals in your system. When you’re looking for tomatoes for your next barbecue, go organic.

Peppers

Peppers are fascinating fruits. Not only do they possess an unusual flavor spectrum, from mildly sweet to intensely spicy, but they’re also known for a variety of health benefits. That’s because peppers contain a chemical known as capsaicin, which may help relieve nasal congestion and even fight off cancer.

Unfortunately, nonorganic peppers are likely to contain other chemicals that aren’t so helpful. Conventional grocery store peppers can carry up to 75 different pesticide residues, including recognized carcinogens and neurotoxins. No matter what kind of budget you’re on, when you buy peppers, they should always and only be organic.

Sadly, organic hot peppers aren’t as easy to find as other organic options, especially in smaller grocery stores. If you can’t find or can’t afford hot peppers, try using onions instead. They offer a similarly spicy flavor and they’ve been shown to be fairly clean, even when they’re not organic.

Leafy Greens

Dietary experts recommend that you eat five servings of vegetables every day and for many people, those servings come from tasty salads. From spinach to kale, leafy greens are worth splurging on to get organic. This is because the leaves offer a wider area for chemicals to stick. Considering that you can’t peel leafy greens and you need a lot of them to make a satisfying salad, the result is a concentration of pesticide residue on your plate. To avoid this problem altogether, go organic and be diligent when you’re rinsing or soaking greens as you prepare them.

And there you have it: these are some of the most important foods to buy organic. Even if you’re on a budget, to enjoy the best health possible, try to always buy these foods in the organic section.

Save Money With Fish Heads And Potato Scraps

Save Money With Fish Heads And Potato Scraps

By Chris Taylor

NEW YORK (Reuters) – We all like to moan and complain about how there is not enough money in our budgets at the end of the month.

Well, here is a simple step that could save a family of four $1,500 a year: Stop wasting food.

It sounds flippant, but it is not. About 40 percent of the food America produces goes to waste.

Separate out households from commercial entities like restaurants, and around 20 percent of what we purchase at the supermarket eventually finds its way into the trash bin, estimates Dana Gunders, senior scientist at the National Resources Defense Council and author of the new book “Waste-Free Kitchen Handbook.”

It is not a minor expense: The USDA estimates that food waste amounts to around 2 million calories a year for a family of four, costing roughly $1,500, which is over $100 a month for the family, or $375 per person annually.

“Nobody wakes up in the morning wanting to waste food, but it happens in little bits and pieces,” says Gunders. “We are so price-sensitive in the store, but when we get home and eventually throw out a quarter of the cheese we just bought, we don’t realize that’s another $1.50.”

Reducing food waste takes planning and discipline.

The book by Gunders gives 85 tips for reducing waste in various food items. Some of these are:

  • Shop deliberately, from a list, for just a couple of meals ahead of time. Otherwise your eyes will be bigger than your stomach, and much of what you buy will end up in the trash.
  • Use up leftovers by making catch-all dishes like soups, stir-frys, fried rice, frittatas and risottos.
  • Stale bread? Make menus involving croutons, French toast, or bread pudding.
  • Learn to store food properly. For instance, lettuce usually lasts longer in the crisper, while apples, mushrooms and peppers need more aeration and do better outside those drawers.
  • Do not get freaked out by expiration dates, Gunders advises. These are just a manufacturer’s best guess about peak freshness. Use your judgment; do not throw away food just because of a number on a carton.

For more pointers on maximizing food budgets, we talked to a few high-end chefs. In the restaurant world with its razor-thin margins, if you do not utilize every possible scrap of food in your kitchen, you are out of business.

  • Fish heads
    Most consumers toss them, but Marjorie Meek-Bradley, executive chef of Washington, D.C.’s Ripple, and a contestant on “Top Chef,” likes to debone the head and make lettuce wraps with the meat.
  • Carrot tops
    Along with the leafy tops of other root vegetables, says Meek-Bradley, they make the foundation of an excellent pesto sauce.
  • Potato scraps
    Don’t get rid of them, say Bruce and Eric Bromberg of Blue Ribbon Restaurants. They are ideal for making potato pancakes.
  • Kale stems
    The natural instinct is to toss them, but they make crispy, healthy, kale fries, say the Brombergs.
  • Citrus juice
    If you have some left over, it makes an ideal kitchen cleaner, says John Johnson of Four Seasons New York. It is biodegradable, non-toxic, and degreases like nothing else.
  • Bones
    “I always use leftover chicken or turkey bones to make soup,” says Troy Guard, chef of Denver-based TAG Restaurant Group.
  • Plant scraps.
    Tomato insides, carrot peels, day-old brown rice, mushroom stems? You have got yourself a tasty veggie burger, says Guard.

Or, if you have some wildflowers or leftover herb cuttings from your garden, they can provide delicious flavoring for jars of honey, says David Wardynski of Omni Amelia Island Plantation Resort.

  • Protein trimmings
    Obviously not every scrap of meat will make it onto a nicely plated steak, chicken breast or pork chop. But Guard says those extra trimmings can easily go into enchiladas, tacos, or on top of homemade pizzas.

(Editing by Beth Pinsker and David Gregorio)

Photo: Vegetables are seen at a farmers market in Los Angeles, California, United States May 10, 2015. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

Here’s Why Buying The Ripest Produce Isn’t Always Best

Here’s Why Buying The Ripest Produce Isn’t Always Best

By Russ Parsons, Los Angeles Times (TNS)

We all want to shop for the ripest fruit we can find. Or do we? In some cases, the ripest fruit is not the best buy. In fact, in some cases it should be avoided.

To understand why, we first need to delve into the complexities of ripeness and maturity. And while we’re at it, let’s think a little about climacteric fruits.

Ripeness and maturity are separate but linked processes. Think of it this way: Maturity is when the fruit has assembled all the building blocks necessary to create flavor; ripeness is the process by which those blocks are assembled into something greater. When fruit is maturing, it’s developing sugar as well as all the chemical compounds that will eventually make it delicious.

Ripening is a little more complicated — it’s a bell curve that begins with hard green fruit and ends with rot. During that process, the cell walls of the fruit soften, allowing the various separate chemical compounds to mingle, turning what was once simple flavor into a perfume that’s much more complex and grand.

Some fruits mature and ripen at the same time. Citrus, berries, cucumbers, and grapes, for example, will only ripen while they’re on the plant.

But other fruits — apples, peaches, plums, nectarines, tomatoes, and some melons — will continue to ripen after they’ve been picked. We call these climacteric fruits (this is a rough outline; botanists take a somewhat more nuanced view).

This is important because one key part of the ripening process for most fruits is softening. And with softness comes vulnerability. Fruit that is completely ripe is fragile and can be damaged very easily.

So there you are at the farmers market, pawing through a wooden bin full of peaches. You’re probably not the first to do this and besides, someone had to dump them in there in the first place.

Do you want a piece of fruit that is perfectly ripe at that moment? There’s a very high probability that it is going to be beat up and bruised.

On the other hand, if you’re willing to wait a day or two, you can pick a piece of fruit that may feel firm now — and thus is much less likely to be damaged — but that nevertheless will become fully ripe without you having to do anything.

There are ways you can speed up the ripening of climacteric fruit (put it in a paper bag, add an apple or banana), but if left alone at room temperature, the fruit will take care of itself.

One big caution — ripening of climacteric fruit stops when the fruit is chilled. So store them at cool room temperature, not in the refrigerator.

Photo: Loren Javier via Flickr

An Apple A Day — Or Many

An Apple A Day — Or Many

It’s been said that an apple a day keeps the doctor away, and for good reason. Apples are low in fat, have fiber and lots of nutrients, and they’re a delicious alternative to eating processed sugar and carbohydrates.  As a fruit in our culture, apples and apple products like juices are omnipresent. The good news for apple lovers is that apples are undergoing a surge not only in popularity, but in diversity, and anyone who has grown tired of apples needs to head to a local orchard or  farmer’s market and check out the variety now available to us.

In a Q&A with Salon, author of Apples of Uncommon Character: Heirlooms, Modern Classics, and Little-Known Wonders Rowan Jacobsen answers our most gnawing questions about apples. Jacobsen explains how a few varieties like Delicious, Macintosh, and Granny Smith became the standards. He also discusses the effects of climate change on apples, experimentation with new varieties, whether or not we’ll be seeing GMO (genetically modified) apples in the future, and where are the best places to kick your taste buds up a notch.

For the DIY crowd, orchards in apple-growing parts of the country like the northeast and northwest have days set aside when you can come and pick your own. Many orchards also sell apple products like juice, cider, applesauce, dried apples, and of course pies; others also provide lessons on the best apple recipes.

Photo: Pål Alvsaker via Flickr