With an eye to making it easier for the average American family to go organic, Dr. Greene, a pediatrician, has written Raising Baby Green. Though I haven’t had a chance to read the book yet, it popped up in a The NY Times article, 5 Easy Ways to go Organic .(I really love the “most popular” sections on most news websites these days…don’t you?)
To my dismay, I discovered that Dr. Greene’s
recommendations for going organic vary from the ones I’ve discussed in prior posts . Not significantly but, one of my favorite pesticide villains, strawberries, isn’t even listed!
I shouldn’t be surprised; expert opinion tends to be that…opinion. If the Supreme Court experts can, with annoying frequency, be divided 5-4 on legal opinions, I guess experts in other fields can too.
But wait…that’s not it at all. Dr. Greene doesn’t differ in opinion. He differs in approach. Despite my claim to parent in the middle, I’ve been told, to my consternation that I am a “purist”. Most recently (yesterday) by my mainstream sister as we discussed how she might improve her daughter’s eating habits while maintaining enough junk food in the house to satisfy the cravings of the rest of the family members.
I’ve concluded she’s right. (Well, duh, I thought you were a college graduate MC!) It’s a wee bit harder to start going organic when you’re already immersed in the dominant eating culture. The last thing you need is some sanctimonious not-quite-crunchy parent going on and on about buying healthy foods when she lives within a few minutes of 4 or 5 specialty stores that stock organic and natural foods….sorry Elle!
So, let’s go back to Dr. Greene. ( BTW- do you think he changed his name or this is just a happy coincidence?) Now that grocery stores across the country stock an ever increasing array of organic foods, which should parents buy organic or avoid buying altogether? Dr. Greene’s top 10 choices:
Dr. Greene is up front with his philosophy – lets’ see where one can make the biggest difference., Ketchup and apples, milk, potatoes and peanut butter are on his list because….those are items that we Americans consume…a lot. Ergo – change these few things and you’ve made a big impact on your diet! The same goes for baby food which is what babies eat…ummm…besides milk/ formula that’s all they eat.
The other 4 items on his list, I’d say are a bit harder for the average American to buy organic and...he agrees. Organic beef is expensive and he details the complicated reasons and sleuthing required to avoid non-organic soy, corn and cotton.
Purist I may appear to be but….I didn’t know potatoes were something I should buy organic and organic beef isn’t in the budget. But, I can certainly start reading labels a little closer and avoid corn and cotton and stick with organic KAMPP (Ketchup, Apples, Milk, Potatoes and Peanut butter).
Let’s start a movement…can we call it going to Kammp?
Bookmark this post:
To my dismay, I discovered that Dr. Greene’s
recommendations for going organic vary from the ones I’ve discussed in prior posts . Not significantly but, one of my favorite pesticide villains, strawberries, isn’t even listed!
I shouldn’t be surprised; expert opinion tends to be that…opinion. If the Supreme Court experts can, with annoying frequency, be divided 5-4 on legal opinions, I guess experts in other fields can too.
But wait…that’s not it at all. Dr. Greene doesn’t differ in opinion. He differs in approach. Despite my claim to parent in the middle, I’ve been told, to my consternation that I am a “purist”. Most recently (yesterday) by my mainstream sister as we discussed how she might improve her daughter’s eating habits while maintaining enough junk food in the house to satisfy the cravings of the rest of the family members.
I’ve concluded she’s right. (Well, duh, I thought you were a college graduate MC!) It’s a wee bit harder to start going organic when you’re already immersed in the dominant eating culture. The last thing you need is some sanctimonious not-quite-crunchy parent going on and on about buying healthy foods when she lives within a few minutes of 4 or 5 specialty stores that stock organic and natural foods….sorry Elle!
So, let’s go back to Dr. Greene. ( BTW- do you think he changed his name or this is just a happy coincidence?) Now that grocery stores across the country stock an ever increasing array of organic foods, which should parents buy organic or avoid buying altogether? Dr. Greene’s top 10 choices:
Organic Milk
Organic Potatoes
Organic Peanut butter
Organic Baby food
Organic Ketchup
Cotton – as in avoid cotton seed or unidentified oils
Organic Apples
Organic Beef
Organic Soy
Organic Corn
Dr. Greene is up front with his philosophy – lets’ see where one can make the biggest difference., Ketchup and apples, milk, potatoes and peanut butter are on his list because….those are items that we Americans consume…a lot. Ergo – change these few things and you’ve made a big impact on your diet! The same goes for baby food which is what babies eat…ummm…besides milk/ formula that’s all they eat.
The other 4 items on his list, I’d say are a bit harder for the average American to buy organic and...he agrees. Organic beef is expensive and he details the complicated reasons and sleuthing required to avoid non-organic soy, corn and cotton.
Purist I may appear to be but….I didn’t know potatoes were something I should buy organic and organic beef isn’t in the budget. But, I can certainly start reading labels a little closer and avoid corn and cotton and stick with organic KAMPP (Ketchup, Apples, Milk, Potatoes and Peanut butter).
Let’s start a movement…can we call it going to Kammp?
Bookmark this post:
7 comments:
We started buying all of our fruits, veggies, potatos, and baby food organic(I don't eat meat but would buy hormone free if I did). Oh and milk(sometimes cheese-tillamook). the potatos are hard to find. Regular stores do not have them so I just buy them on our trip to whole foods. We have tried the ketchup and it is good but we do not eat much of it so I went back to the regular. I am surprised about peanut butter. I really like the list of the dirty dozen on ewg.org. Yeah, what is the deal with not listing strawberries(or peaches)? Sounds like we have gotten it down and we don't need that book!LOL
Interesting stuff...
annie's organic ketchup is da bomb. :)
and yes, potatoes are high up on the dirty dozen list of most contaminated produce.
Great post! We've been slowly moving over to organic. I now buy only organic milk, apples, and ground beef. I'm also much more aware of the label on other items.
A mnemonic! Good one.
We've been getting all of our produce this summer from a CSA...I am already anticipating sadness when the deliveries stop in December.
Trader Joe's has an organic ketchup.
I'm a HUGE ketchup consumer (hence my blog, The Catch Up Lady) - I literally go through a large bottle in less than two months. I just love the stuff.
However, lycopene aside, I know it's really bad for me (sodium, HFC, etc.) I was at Legal Seafood recently and they have the organic ketchup you have pictured in this post - to be honest I couldn't really tell the difference. Which is SAYING something b/c I'm a Heinz fanatic (and CAN tell the difference between Heinz and Hunts, etc!)
Next time at Whole Foods I'm going to pick some of it up and try it out, I'd love to get that HFC out of my diet before I pickle my liver!
I like the picks for things that should be organic- idea being, I think, that those are the basis of a LOT of food, corn for example seems to be in everything these days!
I think strawberries aren't listed because they are not a staple. We eat them, and they should be organic, but it is not something most people eat at least 4-5 times a week, compared with potatoes, apples, milk, etc.
For myself (no kids here, just a cat who eats local organic food), I try and buy the majority of my food local and organic, the rest organic, with a few items here and there that are neither.
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