FOOD, along with water and air, it is essential for the body to have, not only for humans, but all living things. Lets look at the human side of it, ideally for me, the best source is straight from the garden to the plate, no snap frozen or refrigerated for weeks on end, its a hole different taste than store bought along with the feel of it and smell, its fresh. This brings me to the topic, Organic or Non-Organic, Natural or Processed?
Organic or Non-Organic
Organic is the top of the line, its food as it was many, many years ago, no poisons sprayed for pests, no chemicals to grow, no hormones, natural grass feeding, free range…… and it doesn’t last as long. Its not supposed to, it falls to the ground/dies and feeds all the other animals and bugs and the soil
Organic food can be expensive when compared to Non- Organic, mainly because of the certification they have to go throw to label them organic. If everyone suddenly started to change to organic, it would become cheaper, that’s just the way things work, consumer dictates
There are reports out there to say there is no difference between Organic to Non-Organic, I kinda don’t believe that. I will throw this at you: What is the difference between giving hormones to animals and chemicals to plants, it ingests it to survive and passes it on to the plate. Compare that to natural growing, there has to be a difference
If you really want to get into the nuts and bolts about it all, study the structure of soil, its its own little world. If the soil is healthy, so are the plants that grow from it that feed the animals and then we feed from the plants and animals. Look at Biodynamic Agriculture, developed by Dr Rudolf Steiner back in the late 1800 early 1900
I like to grow a lot of food myself in the garden, pick, wipe the dirt off and eat, doesn’t even get to the plate most times. I can’t have the animals but do get meat straight from the farms without preservatives at the Farmers Market. Other vegetables and fruit from the Farmers Market as well and when I can’t, from the shops
For me, Home Grown first, Organic second, Farmers Market third and Shops last
Natural or Processed
Times have changed, ‘back in the old days’, processed would be done at home, bottling fruit, make sauce etc., now its all on the shelf and made it so convenient to buy than to make.
Processed to me is take this natural item and then add this and that to make it taste a little different and last a lot longer, some of the ‘this and that’ have names I cannot even pronounce. So I wonder, is it good for me?
Processed can also be having juices instead of the fruit, did you know the first part of food breakdown in the body is in the mouth hence the old saying, chew twenty times before swallowing. I used to tell clients that juicing is good if you are on the run in your job, but only in moderation.
I make jam and use honey and green apples instead of sugar and pectin, its not as thick but just as nice. Made bacon the other day and doesn’t taste to bad either. So there is a lot of things you can do at home without adding in ‘this and that’, and also control the sugar and salt in your food. There is another topic, good food, bad food, table salt is bad, sea salt is better, margarine is bad, butter is better specially unsalted and the list goes on
So overall for me, natural is way better