This is a guest post from Suzanne Boothby, an author and health coach, and one of my very good friends. It was thanks to her I attended the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and learned how to live happier and healthier than ever before.
I first learned the meaning of eating local while living in New Zealand in 2003. I was a young writer “wwoofing” around the country. Wwoofing is a great way to travel—you can hook up with local farmers and garden owners and stay with them for free in exchange for work on their land.
It was the end of November and I wanted to cook an American Thanksgiving meal for my Kiwi friends. Armed with a list of ingredients, I set off to the grocery store and scoured the shelves.
To my surprise, I couldn’t find many of the traditional harvest vegetables. The grocer said to me point-blank, “They are not in season.”
And so began my journey of understanding where food comes from and why local, organic and sustainable food is so important for the planet and our bodies—and it’s delicious, too!
Why Go With Organic?
During my time working on organic farms, I harvested everything from apples to saffron. At many of the places I stayed, when we got hungry, we would head to the garden to see what looked good.
It was fun to connect with the rich smells, textures and colors of all the vegetables. Nothing beats the sweet juiciness of a tomato picked off the vine or the fresh crispy flavor of lettuce leaves from the earth.
I use this same approach at the grocery store or the farmers’ market today. I start each meal I create with fresh, delicious, organic vegetables.
Are you still one of those people that thinks Whole Foods is stealing your whole paycheck? Do you think a salad at a fast food joint is just as good as something from a garden?
It’s time for an upgrade. Your taste buds don’t know what they are missing.
Wondering why organic vegetables are so important? Here’s what I wrote in my book, The After Cancer Diet: How to Live Healthier than Ever Before:
All food used to be organic. People used to grow a lot of their own vegetables in their backyard. Local farms provided food for their communities. My mom loves talking about when she was growing up in the 60s and how she would regularly find bugs on her vegetables. It was common to find a worm in your apple back then. I remember it happened to me once when I was young. I think the worm and I were equally scared of one another.
With today’s large-scale farming system, it’s rare to find a pest on any of your produce. Farmers routinely use an assortment of chemical pesticides to protect crops from insects, rodents, bacteria and other outbreaks.
It’s a much easier system for the farmer, but these substances eventually make their way to our food supply. No more bugs on your lettuce means you could be ingesting a cocktail of chemicals that the U.S. and international government agencies have linked to health issues, especially in children.
“Pesticides, while designed specifically to kill certain organisms, are also associated with a host of very serious health problems in people, including neurological deficits, ADHD, endocrine system disruption, and cancer,” said Andrew Weil, MD, Founder and Director, Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine in a press release about organics. “My advice to consumers is to whenever possible avoid exposure to pesticides, including pesticide residues on food.”
My friend and rockstar health coach Andrea Beaman says it really well: The chemicals designed to kill bugs will eventually kill us, too—it just takes longer because we are bigger.
One environmental group has been tracking the residue of pesticides on our produce for years. Environmental Working Group created and annually updates the Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce, which ranks the most common fruits and vegetables found on grocery shelves for their chemical load. The researchers analyze data collected from the U.S.D.A. and the F.D.A. All samples are washed and peeled prior to testing, so their final rankings reflect the total amount of pesticides people can consume.
The group highlights the worst offenders with its “Dirty Dozen” list and the cleanest conventional produce with its “Clean 15” list. Apples, lettuce and berries tend to top the dirty dozen list, while foods with a thicker skin like avocadoes, onions and pineapples are on the clean list. It makes sense. Any food with a little protection from pesticides will have a lesser load. So even if you don’t go shopping with your list, you can always remember it that way.
What I love about this list is that it works well for people transitioning to organic food. You might have sticker shock at first, as organic produce continues to be more expensive than non-organics. I understand the need to only buy some organic products. It’s ok to start small. Don’t be afraid to order some organic seeds and start your own windowsill (or however large a space you have) farmers’ market.
Don’t let the idea of organic overwhelm you or scare you away from eating your veggies. Ultimately, the best thing is always to eat more fresh food. But once you have that step mastered, you can then move on to organics. Start in the same way as your greens. Try one organic food a week. You can even do a taste test and see if you can tell the difference. I find organic foods to be sweeter and more flavorful.
Making Organic More Affordable
Fresh vegetables can be yours. If you don’t have access to a health food store or you think those places are too pricey, then you can grow your own. You don’t need an acre of land. You can use a backyard, porch or even a sunny kitchen window to get your garden on! All plants need is soil, sun and water.
What are you waiting for?
Here are my top 5 reasons to get your vegetable garden going:
- You know the food you’re growing is fresh and hopefully organic.
- You can meet new varieties of your favorite veggies. Imagine beets with rainbow colors inside or Black Krim tomatoes that look dead on the vine, but make any tomato dish sweet and delicious.
- You will experience flavors that truly pop in your mouth.
- Kids get more excited about vegetables when they get to grow their own. Teach your children and create a healthier future for them.
- Make new friends. Once your harvest is going, you can share with neighbors, friends, coworkers. Homegrown vegetables are always a crowd pleaser.
If you are interested in starting your own veggie garden, I highly recommend the amazing seeds from Renee’s Garden.
Join a local gardening club or just ask your neighbors. Start your own garden revolution today. You can thank me later.
Share With Us
Do you have a garden? What do you grow in it? And if not, have you ever considered starting one?
About the Author: Suzanne Boothby is an NYC-based writer and editor with a focus on cutting-edge nutrition, health, garden and food stories. Her book, The After Cancer Diet: How to Live Healthier than Ever Before, published by Diversion Books, is now available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble.com and iTunes.
