Why Buy Organic Fruits & Veggies

The info for today’s Island Epicure column comes courtesy of Brad Lemley’s Alternative Health article in Laissez Faire Letter. It’s too valuable to keep to myself. Many of us beg off on buying organic because they are more expensive. Actually, some foods can be bought, and eaten, from the non-organic list because they are never sprayed with the deadly insecticide glyphosate, main ingredient of Round Up. Or we always peel them before eating them. Commercially grown Apples, though are sprayed at petal-fall and several more times before being picked. I never spray my apple tree and it seldom has a worm or a brown spot in it’s fruit--the few apples the deer leave for us humans.
 
Many of these fruits that you and vegetables you buy don’t need to be organic and can be eaten raw. That makes for an even healthier diet because you get their enzymes. Enzymes perish when fruits and vegetables experience cooking.
 
  Foods Okay Non-Organic:
Asparagus            Jicama
Avocado               Kiwi
Cabbage               Mango
Cantaloupe          Onions
Cauliflower         Papaya*
Eggplant         Summer Squash*
Grapefruit              Strawberries
Honeydew Melon            Tomatoes, all kinds
 
*Papayas and summer squash might be grown from GE seed stock Or not. If you want to be absolutely sure neither they nor their ancestors have ever been sprayed with glyphosate, which seriously  disrupts the functioning of brain and body, stick with organic papayas and summer squash. Frozen peas are blanched in salt water before freezing, which kills their enzymes.
 
Foods to Always Buy Organic
Apples
Cherries
Celery
Cucumber
Grapes
Nectarines
Peaches
Spinach
Strawberries
Tomatoes, all kinds
 
The use if glyphosate on fruits and vegetables has grown hugely since 1992. It’s used on pastures, alfalfa and hay crops, wheat, soybeans, rice, and on corn more than any other single food.
 
Monsanto has a lot to answer for. That company sells both the genetically “enhanced” seeds (bred to survive the insecticide glyphosate, which is the main ingredient in Round Up.) and Round Up.  The pitch that got it approved for human use was that it’s nontoxic to human cells. Dr. David Permutter, author of two books, Grain Brain and Brain Maker, says we should avoid glyphosate because it kills beneficial bacterial cells, and we have 10 times as many of those in our microbiome  than we have human cells!
 
Now go back to the list of foods to buy organic. Post that on your refrigerator so you can review it every time you make out your shopping list. I shall. Bon appetite!