I’ll be up front I am pro-organic. If I can avoid unnecessary chemicals in my food I do.
My decision meant something else has to give.. and that’s what I’ve done. I made changes to my lifestyle to empower me to eat organic foods or foods and that are GMO free.
My intake of fast foods was never high even growing up in a household where fish and chips was a treat. Indian meals were made from scratch at the time looking down at a plate of lentils, veggies and chapati thinking omg I can’t wait till I’m older! But oh boy!! when our boys arrived that all changed, it was all about homemade and the story began..
Moving to the U.S.A was the best decision ever quality of life is pretty spectacular as long as you're willing to hard and put yourself out there. It's the best decision ever! In large people are amazing and incredibly friendly. People here just love to entertain and so do i!
Around 2006 my journey switching from conventional to organic had became a necessity when I watched a program reflecting on the negative effects of high fructose corn syrup, a sweetener containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs.) Reflecting back.. those GMOs were everywhere, they had spread through our food system like a virus.
The following morning I reached out for my trash bags and trashed all the food from the cupboards, the refrigerator and the pantry just about anywhere i could find food.
I was shocked to see it was in cereal, flour, beverages and just about every food apart from frozen vegetables. What was shocking how this stuff could impact the health of males. Yikes! If it’s not good enough for a male - "forget that!!." and that was my Ah.. ha..moment. Like the crazy person i had become I immediately switched gears, went full throttle to ensure we were pro-organic.
The following weeks continued with mountains of research on the health and environmental impact of genetically modified organisms in our food system. It was an eye opener that snowballed.. where I even removed enriched flours.
Thankfully to the rules and regulations from the USDA the use of GMOs are prohibited in all certified organic foods from vegetables - livestock, I was relieved!
In the upcoming weeks what we did all notice the Asian meal that we were once fond of gave us cramps, in fact eating out at that time became challenging, until we started asking the servers questions. In a matter weeks by switching to an organic diet it created a intolerance to a lot of foods. Around that time in South Bay, CA we were experiencing a movement a shift towards the awareness about how our food was grown and or raised. It was then I became a member of Slow Food USA soon after I became a board member at Slow Food- South Bay, a local chapter of Slow Food USA. Connecting with like minded people who bared the same passion for real food. Believe me I’m not a food snob, i was concerned for my family's health and my own.
Most conventionally produced crops will be Genetically Modified- crops that have already been engineered for resistance to pathogens and herbicides. Typical high yielding and popular crops that will be genetically engineered are: cotton, corn and soybean. A byproduct of these crops is cottonseed oil, canola oil, maize oil and soybean oil.
Theses conventional crops are also sprayed with toxic pesticides-herbicides to reduce the effects of crops being damaged by rodents, insects and pests in general. As understandable that may be, it is unfortunate that our bees are also affected through combined process. Bees are mother nature's pollinators with a reduction of bees we have less food- without bees we have no food. One nibble of this crop has enough toxicity to kill whatever attacks or lands on it.
The negative impact of toxic pesticides and spraying of herbicides affects the health of the farm workers, it's been proven. The level of toxicity from these toxins has a detrimental environmental-impact that causes concern from air quality, water contamination, ground contamination and driftinging into neighbourhoods.
My compassion goes out to the livestock that is raised conventionally for human consumption, it is them who are unnaturally fattened up with feed containing GMO’s. For all those reason stated above are the reasons why I have chosen to go organic.
On a lighter note there's good news! I'm often asked "what kind of foods have the least amount of toxins?"
Every year the "Environmental Working Group" publish a list, referred to the
"Dirty 12" and "Clean 15."
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