Is Organic Food Really Worth the Cost?

[Yayfordoritos]

I've been eating organic food for the past year, and just recently I heard it's not any healthier for you. Is that true? I spend about 1/3 of my paycheck buying organic, it is really expensive and now I find out, that it's not any better for you. I just want to know if that's true?

 

[Evo]

I've been eating organic food for the past year, and just recently I heard it's not any healthier for you. Is that true? I spend about 1/3 of my paycheck buying organic, it is really expensive and now I find out, that it's not any better for you. I just want to know if that's true?

Yes, it's true, the only reason people might want organic is for no pesticide residue, but even then, they now say that if the fruit or vegetable will be peeled, there is no reason to pay extra since you're removing any traces that would be there.

Article about the study.

A new large-scale study from Stanford University finds that when it comes to nutrition, organic foods, such as meat, dairy, and produce, may not be worth the extra cash. While organics come at a premium, researchers say they are no healthier and not significantly safer than conventional foods and produce grown with pesticides.

Continued...

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2012-09-04/news/33587268_1_organic-food-conventional-foods-organic-products

 

[dlgoff]

I've never purchased anything claimed to be "organically" grown. Does it taste better? My garden crops taste better than most vegetables you can buy at a market and even thought I use manure, compost, and other natural materials, I still use some chemical pesticides. Just sayin'.

 

[Evo]

I've never purchased anything claimed to be "organically" grown. Does it taste better? My garden crops taste better than most vegetables you can buy at a market and even thought I use manure, compost, and other natural materials, I still use some chemical pesticides. Just sayin'.

Fresh, and vine ripened is what I like. Can't get that at the grocery store. The organic produce is usually the oldest and therefore the most tasteless, in my experience.

 

[Integral]

I enjoy going into to produce departments and asking for the inorganic bananas.

 

[Jack21222]

I live right next to a Whole Foods, so I sometimes eat organic just out of convenience. Sometimes, their organic products taste worse, sometimes they taste better. I've found myself really enjoying their organic meat (particularly the bacon and ground beef), but I dislike most of their organic products.

 

[Evo]

I enjoy going into to produce departments and asking for the inorganic bananas.

Mmmm, inorganic.

 

[Yayfordoritos]

I've never purchased anything claimed to be "organically" grown. Does it taste better? My garden crops taste better than most vegetables you can buy at a market and even thought I use manure, compost, and other natural materials, I still use some chemical pesticides. Just sayin'.

To be honest I never tasted a difference.

 

[russ_watters]

IMO, organic food is a crime against nature.

 

[Monique]

I've been eating organic food for the past year, and just recently I heard it's not any healthier for you. Is that true? I spend about 1/3 of my paycheck buying organic, it is really expensive and now I find out, that it's not any better for you. I just want to know if that's true?

As Evo said, only worry about the pesticides if you're going to consume the peel, like lemon rind.

Then, why don't you look at the quality of the food? For some items in the grocery store I definitely buy the organically grown, because the quality is so much better: it's worth paying the extra price.

Also look at the place that the produce comes from, locally grown is often fresher and thus better. Green beans in the Netherlands often come from Egypt: they are fresh when they leave the plant, but they are transported by truck for several days and are usually a week old before they are bought by a consumer. By that time the beans bend and do not snap, the Egyptian producers were horrified that all their hard work resulted in such an inferior product. A bit similar to Evo's encounter with organically grown food that spends too much time laying around before it's bought.

 

[turbo]

Maine is far off the beaten track WRT to produce deliveries, so it is best to pick and choose. Not all produce is "fresh"' in the sense that it hasn't been in the pipeline for a week. Still, more and more growers are putting up hot-houses to supply the organic market locally, making that option more viable and tasty.

Backyard Farms is installing yet another multi-acre greenhouse to produce hydroponic tomatoes. They are not organic, but they are better than most of the stuff you can get from Florida, California, etc. It makes sense to buy their tomatoes off-season. They don't taste like vine-fresh home-grown, but they are quite reliably tasty.

We all have to make compromises WRT food quality, and that is nowhere more evident IMO than in the produce department. My wife and I pick our own berries, apples, green peppers, etc, and process them and freeze them for use during the winter. We live out in the woods, so there is no pesticide "drift" and that's the way we like it. Our fresh-frozen produce usually tastes better than the the "fresh" produce from the stores.

 

[Monique]

Our fresh-frozen produce usually tastes better than the the "fresh" produce from the stores.

I've recently also switched to fresh-frozen produce, mostly because I was throwing away too many veggies that were laying around too long. The frozen produce is pre-chopped and cheaper than canned/fresh food (especially the pre-chopped fresh veggies). Things like spinach, leek, cale, endive, pumpkin, soup veggies are all sitting frozen in my freezer and taste excellent when defrosted.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Because of the expense, we only eat inorganic food here.