A fairly recent convert to organic products, I used to be skeptical about organic food… sure, I’ve heard all about the goodness of organic food but, like many people, was put off by the high prices. Over the past year or so, I’ve gradually become more convinced that organic is truly better: not just for our bodies, but also tastes better and is environmentally friendly. I have become more educated about nutrition, having learnt about the effects of ingredients such as sugar and salt on our bodies. It took me some time to find a balance between conventional and organic products and to buy wisely. As much as I wish to prepare everything from scratch, use 100% organic, etc… it is highly unrealistic, because like everyone else, I have constraints such as finances, time, health, and other day to day pressures.
When baby J started having solids, we started him on as much organic produce as we could afford – and it was easy to prepare his food, mainly steaming and cutting into bite size pieces or mashing. Since he eats so little, it is inevitable that our help was needed to finish the food. As he becomes older, I’ve started to include his portion in family meals and meal preparation became slightly more complicated, compounded with the difficulty of putting together a decent meal with a toddler literally hanging onto my legs. I struggled to find a balance between having a healthy lifestyle, home-cooked meals, while being time-pressured and making sure that we aren’t spending everything we have on food!
Hence, currently I purchase organic products if it is for baby J, if we are consuming it raw e.g. salads, or if it is a processed product e.g. cereals, cookies. I particularly focus on processed products because I was so frustrated trying to decipher nutrition and ingredient labels of conventional products - particularly those that list items in vague manner by using E numbers (who on earth can remember what all these numbers represent?!) or stating items like “permitted flavourings”, “permitted preservatives”. None of these tell me what I’m consuming, thus defeating their raison d’être! I found that organic or natural products are labeled in a manner that I can understand and tend to use better quality ingredients like sea salt instead of conventional table salt (which is a chemically derived product devoid of vital minerals) and healthier natural sweeteners like agave nectar or juice concentrates.
Ultimately, I feel so much better knowing that we are reducing our consumption of artificial flavourings, pesticides and artificial preservatives. This peace of mind and the potential savings on medical bills are worth the money spent on organic foods and natural health solutions. I have reached the conclusion that while it may be hard to go 100% organic, something is better than nothing – one just needs to determine the most suitable path to take after prioritizing financial and health concerns.
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