I had decided that organic food was probably just an expensive gimmick. I mean if the food and the plastic packaging was allowed to be sold, it had to be safe, right?
Or maybe not...
It all started when I gave up artificial sugars and lost a bit of weight and massively decreased my sugar cravings.
"Hmmm that was interesting..." I thought to myself. I wondered if there was more to this whole "chemicals and food" thing.
Then I started doing some research about eating organic. Reading books. Watching movies like Food Inc. Reading blogs, news sources, and magazines. And I started to become convinced.
What stood out most to me was some of the alarming stuff about pesticides/chemicals and fertility. So I decided to make it a part of my "Baby Bucket List" to stop eating non-organic food from the "dirty dozen" list and limit the amount of BPA in our home.
(BPA is a compound used in some plastic that is an endocrine disruptor, which means it mimics or alters the effects of a particular hormone, in this case estrogen, potentially throwing your body way out of whack. It's found in the highest quantities in certain plastics and canned goods. You can read a great article about it here.)
I'm happy to report that I've now accomplished both!
Here's how I did it...
First, I realized my biggest obstacle to eating organic food was just getting into my house. So I looked into getting an organic food delivery service, and found a great one called Beach Greens.
We signed up and now two times a month we get a crate that looks like this:
It's filled with some of most delicious fruits and veggies I've ever had!
Like juicey oranges...
And crunchy kale...
I supplement the deliveries with additional "Clean 15" fruits and veggies from the local grocery store. But overall we're eating a lot more fresh produce and a lot more organic produce and loving it!
(Note: To find a CSA like Beach Greens in your area, go here.)
Then I went on a BPA purge.
I got rid of every plastic bottle that has #3 or a #7 on the bottom. Then I went to Costco and bought glass food storage/microwave dishes and got rid or the plastic ones.
The left container is what I got rid of and the right container is what we have now.
And (sadly) I stopped buying by my beloved canned soups.
I know I can't purge all BPA from my home, but these were the best places to start according to my research.
Obviously, I can keep improving my green ways of eating and living, but overall I feel like I'm off to a good start. My next "green" task is to start making more of my own organic cleaning supplies!
Note: This post is not intended to tell you how you should or should not eat. I know people still having conflicting opinions about organics, BPA, chemicals, etc. So I won't judge you if you're not on the organic food train. This post is simply my story and journey.
23 comments:
I just wanted to say that I didn't know really much about the green eating and now I think I'm going to do some reading up on it. I know my husband will not go with it full scale but if I can sub here and there its better than nothing. Thanks
good for you! you live in the mecca of fresh fruits and veggies! So jealous!
They have those delivery services here in Charlotte too.
Good for you!!! I went through last week and got rid of a lot of my plastic. I just realized that I had been drinking out of my Nalgene that has a #7 plastic.
Thanks for the heads up. My water bottle has a 7 on it. Going this weekend to find a safe replacement!
I just bought those same containers at costco. LOVE THEM!
I loved reading this post and love you even more for being willing to talk about your decisions and journey without being preachy and condescending. It actually makes me willing to give it a whirl, haha!
Congrats on conquering those two big obstacles!
Good for you and thanks for sharing! I definitely want to move towards using glass containers and buying more organic fruits/veggies, but it is not an easy transition. Thanks for the heads up on canned goods, I had no idea.
Another thing I hope to do in the future is to buy more naturally raised meat.
Thank you for all the helpful links!! I'm off to look at them RIGHT now. Chemicals are so scary :S
Those are great ways to start, I'm going to check out those links.
Thanks for sharing those links. I'm slowly trying to eat greener and cut out all the chemicals.
Love this Post!! After learning a little bit about some of the chemicals in my chemistry classes I also started doing my own research. I don't eat as much organic as I should, but I think I'm going to try to find a CSA. Thanks so much for sharing!
interesting post. i think you'd like a book called teh Harcombe Diet, its not about organic but is a really good book about removing all processed food from your diet and the ailments they cause.
That is awesome what you are trying to do! Do you think it really makes a big difference? Loving that I ran across your blog... you and your hubby are sooo sweet and too cute! Beautiful wedding photos!
Thanks for sharing!! I am inspired to look into this.
Thanks for the info! I've been starting to think about this too lately but this takes it to the next step.
I don't do a lot of this, but I do try to stay away from artificial sugars. I also use real sugar in my coffee, and try to stay away from diet sodas. I know I could probably be doing more, but for now I'm happy with that decision.
love the title of your blog, i found that by using the natural sugar replacements my energy didnt spike up and down as much even though the amount of coffe i was suing remained the same, tom
Ooh that's like a CSA! I want to do one next year for sure. I find that in NYC especially it's hard to shop organic without hitting up like 3 different grocery stores in one shopping trip. I do have a farmer's market on Sundays across the street which is awesome though.
Hi I'm a new follower and I loved this post! Thank you soo much for all the helpful tips and links I will be doing the same thing after we return from vacay! Great inspiration!!
we are looking into this delivery! this would be perfect! thanks for the info!
That's awesome!! I love that you guys get that giant tub!!
just found your blog, i am a high raw vegan in san diego!
i do my best w/ organic, use glass when i can, recycle everything,do a CSA, shop locally, etc but no one is perfect and life happens and we do what we can, without stressing. Cuz that defeats the purpose when we stress out!
I have to say, this was really encouraging. I've been thinking about doing the same thing for awhile, but have been scared about the type of produce I'll receive and this just sounds great! And I think it's about time that I purged all my bad plastics too.
Post a Comment