Why go Organic?

As many of you know, I serve a great deal of organic food and milk products in my house. We also try to stay away from artificial sweeteners (aspartame, sucralose....) that are found in many drinks. Yes, Margaret LOVES water. She is very proud to order it at resturants. Sometimes she wants a sprite, lemondae, or juice (which I water down to cut the sugar and or artificial sweetener) and that is ok. I feel that I have done her a service in helping to build her love of drinking water. We also strive to avoid products that have partially hydrogenated anything or high fructose corn syrup (read labels and you will be amazed to see all the products that contain this junk)in them. This is not always easy but we (Jonathan and I strongly agree on this) think it is really important to put healthy things into our bodies and into our child. I have had several friends call me a "food natzi" and tease me about depriving Margaret of things that "normal" kids get to have. I find this funny and I almost take it as a compliment. I am VERY proud to say that I really regulate what my child eats and drinks and really hope that everyone who cares for and about her does the same in my absence. Anyone who is around us knows that Margaret gets her fair share of sweets, I just prefer for her to have things that are organic, home made and whole wheat (figuring out what is REALLY whole wheat can sometimes be tricky). I have an outstanding whole wheat chocolate pound cake that she LOVES. We also have quite a weakness for chocolate, but tend to keep it dark (more antioxidants)!

OK, back to organic foods/milk products......I have read and been told many things about how pesticides and hormones used in producing food today affect kids in the way of causing issues such as premature puberty (especially in girls). This makes lots of sense when you think about it. When a mother is breast feeding she is put on a different type of birth control pill because hormones ARE transferred through milk. I don't want Margaret ingesting hormones through dairy products! YUCK and YIKES if it would cause puberty to happen any earlier. I have heard of little girls as young as 8 years old starting their period! So, I want to do my part to keep my child's diet as "clean" as possible. Organic milk is no longer hard to find. It costs more but in my opinion is well worth it. However, cheeses, cottage cheese, and sour cream are not as easy to find. I have been substituting plain organic yogurt for sour cream and it works well. I also plan on talking to our local grocer about ordering some organic milk products. I spoke with a grocer at BiLo today about ordering organic celery. He said he would have it by Thursday....wow, it was just that easy! All I had to do was ask. Imagine if more people were educated and just asked for some products that are more healthy....even this small town like this could be a more heathy place to shop and live! Hopefully, it will be that easy at our small grocery store. Here is a link to the 12 most important foods to eat organic......

http://green.msn.com/galleries/photos/photos.aspx?gid=164&ocid=T003MSN51N1653A

Some great organic/healthy brands/sites that I have come across are:

http://www.fullcirclefoods.com/

http://www.stacysnacks.com/

http://www.horizonorganic.com/

http://www.organicvalley.com/

http://www.producedbynature.com/

There are soooo many more that is can get almost overwhelming. The take home message I am trying to get across, I guess, it this is important and avaliable with some effort (at least for many products). I hope this post will facilitate some thinking and some awareness about the importance of "going organic." As I learn more I plan to post about it.