The organic food thing

My wife is a cancer Nazi.

There's no other way to say it.

So we have to pick all our weeds by hand, or spray them with vinegar. We had to buy a special matress that doesn't have memory foam in it. And, most important of all, we have to eat organic.

So we buy $6 gallons of milk. When the grocery store has regular cucumbers or apples, but not organic ones, well, we just don't eat cucumbers in our salads or eat apples for our snacks.

I have, at times, questioned the organic food movement, whether it's essentially just really good marketing. I no longer do this, not to her. Essentially, we are no longer allowed to talk about this subject with one another. It's too loaded. It's too emotional for her.

But, ah, you, men and women of SportsJournalists.com, I can talk to. Do you eat organically? Do you think it's a scam? Or, quite the contrary, do you think it will save your life some day?

 

My wife is right there too, though her big things are GMO foods. We will buy organic if available, but will buy stuff that is not if organic is not available. In general, I am OK with it. She absolutely refuses anything that is GMO, which basically eliminates anything with corn or soy.

 

Yeah, she's also big on no GMO. She says that they haven't been around long enough yet to know the long-term effects.

 

There is a comedian who said, "Organic is a euphemism for three times the price..."

If you can afford it, do it. Keeping your wife happy is more important than saving $$$ on groceries.

Also, if you find an article that says that there is no proof that organic milk is better than regular milk or anything like that, I wouldn't run and point that out to her. Let her find out on her own and come to her own conclusion because more than likely there's no study you could show her that will convince her that she's wrong.

 

Stanford study last year said there was very little benefit.

http://med.stanford.edu/ism/2012/september/organic.html

The organos were not pleased.

 

I would love to support the farmerd who raise organic meat but just can't get past the price point.

Organic items we consistently buy; milk and eggs, mostly for the kids, not us.
Organic items we try to buy are apples, grapes and other thin skinned fruit.

There is a grocery service in our city that does home delivery that we use, prices are close to organic prices at grocery store.

 

Every word you've written here is true. Wish you'd have posted it a few months/years ago, though - would have saved me a lot of arguing!

 

Well, for many, I think the benefits -- perceived or otherwise -- of organic food is less about it being healthier as far as nutrition goes, but healthier because you are avoiding pesticides and the like.

 

That's called ... a mattress. 8)

(Actually, lots of people are allergic to the memory foam and there are plenty of other problems with them that aren't related to the ethos of organic national socialism, so that's not an uncommon or unreasonable request.)

As for organic food, I don't have much of an opinion. I'm less concerned with where fruits and vegetables come from, and more concerned with buying food products that have the fewest ingredients (and the most pronounceable) in them. If a food has 15 types of multisyllabic preservatives listed on the label, there's no way it's better for you than an apple, no matter what it's been sprayed with or whether it comes from Washington or Fiji.

And you know I love you, man, but I just read your post and wanted to go hug my wife for being so awesome.

 

Humans are living longer than ever. I'm not paying more when there's no evidence my food is killing me; my health is doing fine. If you eat balanced meals and don't overeat, you'll be fine.

 

I would guess that most married couples have an issue where you have to find out the hard way that it's not worth arguing about because you're never going to convince them otherwise...

 

This guy does not see eye to eye with the winsome Mrs. Whitman ...

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/eat-run/2012/09/04/is-organic-food-better

At best, it seems the case for organic being better is mitigated. I'm leaning toward the effective marketing theme here, and I'm not judging at all when I say that if consuming organic gives you a better attitude toward your food (or, as in your case DW, keeps the peace with the Mrs.), by all means, ante up.

The big-picture problem with organics is their scalability. As agricultural practices go, it's simply insufficient to feed everyone, unless everyone is willing and able to grow their own food. Which they're not.

GMOs are a separate subject, and I've concluded that there is a mass irrational fear of boogeyfood where GMOs are concerned. People have watched too much SyFy and have concluded that all science is bad. The truth is, there isn't one thing you've eaten in your entire life that has not in some way been genetically altered through one process or another. The outcries about GMOs continue despite the fact that large-scale studies by the National Academies of Science, the UNFAO, the WHO and the AMA and others have found no evidence to support fears of that GMOs pose more risk than other foods.