Should I Panic If It’s Not Organic?
Do you remember those drug prevention commercials? An egg, and an egg frying in a pan…”This is your brain… this is your brain on drugs”. It was a very effective image to imprint what drugs can do.
Well, after diving into my study on certified organic and non-organic foods, I can’t but help to recall this commercial, and thinking of the frying egg I think to myself, “this could be your baby’s brain, and nervous system, on pesticides”.
We have all heard the phrase, “don’t panic it’s organic“. Quite a catchy phrase really.
I have always been very pro-organic, and even though my husband thought I was a little overboard at first, he now agrees that organic food does taste better and is better for you.
Going Organic For Our Environment
Along with those two reasons, organic foods and products are worth supporting for what they do for our environment. Not to have the contaminants of thousands of pesticides polluting our water, killing ecosystems, and stripping our soil of essential minerals our bodies need to thrive, is a tremendous investment for the future of our babies.
So I thought that I had plenty of reasons to go organic whenever we could. But as I began to investigate further, I was blown away at how truly important the choice of going organic is for the neurological and brain development of our babies too!
Top 10 Reasons To Feed Your Baby Organic Foods
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Important Facts Concerning Pesticides in Our Baby’s Food
I would like to start by sharing some key facts that really socked it to me as I read Environmental Working Group’s (EWG) 1998 report “Overexposed Organophosphate Insecticides in Children’s Food”.
- Everyday 9 out of 10 children between the ages of 6 months and 5 years are exposed to combinations of 13 different neurotoxic insecticides in the foods they eat.
- Everyday 100,000 children exceed the EPA safe dose by a factor of 10 or more.
- Based on more than 80,000 government lab test results from recent years, and detailed data on children’s food consumption habits, our analysis shows that the average 25 pound one-year-old could receive an unsafe dose of neurotoxic pesticides from eating just a few bites of the more contaminated foods.
The scary thing with all of this ‘neurotoxic’ stuff is that the fetus, babies, and young children are developing mentally, physically, and neurologically at such a rapid rate that we can see it happening in front of our eyes. Their vulnerability, growing immune systems, and small bodies puts them at the greatest risk. Some babies may experience the toxic effects right away with flu-like symptoms. But over the long run, these pesticides “have the potential to cause long term damage to their brains and nervous systems”. 1
Oh yes, and if you wonder what exactly is an organophosphate pesticide, its is a “category of neurotoxic chemicals that are related to nerve gases developed during Word War II”. 2
Pesticides Lurking Deeper Than the Skin
I often wondered how fruits with thick skin, such as a banana, could have pesticides inside the fruit. Wouldn’t it have been protected by it’s thick skin? Well, in Mindy Pennymaker and Aisha Ikramuddin’s Natural Baby Care Book, Nontoxic and Environmentally Friendly Ways to Take Care of Your New Child, I learned that ‘many pesticides are systemic – they spread throughout the plant from the roots into the very heart of the fruit or vegetable’.
Wow. It makes total sense, don’t know why I didn’t think of that. If all of these toxic pesticides are penetrating and ruining our soil, of course it is going straight to the root (and now I know into the nervous systems of our little treasures).
Ten Most Contaminated Foods
So what are the 10 most and 10 least contaminated foods?
Study by EWG – see full list at http://www.foodnews.org/fulldataset.php
Not Getting Fooled By Toxic Marketing Techniques
There are so many different marketing ‘terms’ that companies can use to make their product seem better/healthier for your baby than it truly is. Natural, conventional, and organics, are just a few. What are these terms true definitions? For the long-term health of your baby, know what these labels mean.
- “natural”: When it comes to fruits and vegetables, there is no regulation/law that puts boundaries on marketing your product or food with this term. In other words, it very well could mean, “this stuff is garbage… naturally”, because products that claim on their packaging to be natural, are not required by law to be completely so.
- “conventional”: I really like how John Cloud from Time magazine says, “sounds better than sprayed with chemicals that can kill you.”
- “organics”; does NOT mean organic.
What Does “Organic” Really Mean?
“Organic food is produced by farmers who emphasize the use of renewable resources and the conservation of soil and water to enhance environmental quality for future generations. Organic meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy products come from animals that are given no antibiotics or growth hormones. Organic food is produced without using most conventional pesticides; fertilizers made with synthetic ingredients or sewage sludge; bioengineering; or ionizing radiation. Before a product can be labeled “organic,” a Government-approved certifier inspects the farm where the food is grown to make sure the farmer is following all the rules necessary to meet USDA organic standards. Companies that handle or process organic food before it gets to your local supermarket or restaurant must be certified too.” 3
To be labeled with as organic, the product must be 70% organic. To have the USDA organic seal, the product must be 95% organic. And anyone caught violating the requirements needed to label as organic without being true, may be penalized up to $11,000 for each violation.
Another great question that comes up with really knowing if the produce is ‘organic’ is, how long has this farm been pesticide free? If a farmer wants to turn his farm from a conventional farm to an organic one, he must, for 3 years following his last conventional harvest, not use anything (sewage sludge, synthetic fertilizers, pesticides…) that breaks the organic farming requirements. At this point, he is eligible to become certified.
If you have never been to your local farmer’s market I really encourage you to do so. This is a great season for it too! If eating organic is something that will be new for your family you are in store for the best tasting foods you have ever eatin’.
Once you go organic, you will never go back! Or, confirming that catchy phrase, you could say, “don’t panic, it’s organic.
Some Safe Alternatives When It Comes To Feeding Our Babies:
- Buy certified organic foods that are whole and packaged with the least amount of waste.
- Use veggie wash and make sure to wash your produce properly.
- Buy produce that is in season and local whenever possible. If you can do this at your local farmer’s market, even better.
- Plant a garden and have a wonderful time teaching your children how food grows and where it comes from. Do this, and watch seeds of love and respect for our mother earth grow too.
- Read labels! Look less at the front of a package, and more at the nutrition facts and ingredients. There can be organic ingredients in something, but have lots of preservatives too, for instance. If I don’t know what an ingredient is, or worse yet, if I can’t pronounce it, I don’t want it.
Understanding the basics about your babies nutrition will make a profound difference on the health and quality of their life for many years to come, physically and mentally. Two books that we really like on this subject are Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron and Simply Natural Baby Food by Cathe Olson . Both books give tons of healthy baby food recipes along with information on things such as: preparation and cooking instructions, proper food combination for complete nutrition, what foods to introduce at appropriate times, money saving ideas, and much, much more. This is a wonderful addition to any parent’s kitchen, helping to make mealtime not only nutritious, but fun too!
As always, may all babies everywhere be full of nourishment and love.
Bon appetit!
1 Richard Wiles, Kert Davies, Christopher Campbell, “Environmental Working Group”, Jan. 1988, http://www.ewg.org/files/download.pdf, (Oct. 5, 2007).
2 Mindy Pennybacker, Aisha Ikramuddin, “Natural Baby Care” (John Wiley and Sons, Inc, 1999), p. 204.
3 “The United States Department of Agriculture-The National Organic Program“, Jan. 2007, (Oct. 4, 2007).
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