Sprouting Whole Foods

Back when Owen was still LBA, I started to dabble in organic foods more for the possible taste benefits than any health reasons. Initial forays were (and still are) in eggs, occasionally milk, some processed foods (we got Fig Newmans once; and Costco has some organic "back to nature" crackers that are quite tasty), stuff from Kashi, and so on. But not too much in the way of fruits or vegetables--not much beyond carrots, which is a little odd since that's where one would think the greatest difference would be. I recall reading a discussion of what fruits and veggies had the biggest differences, but I failed to utilize google notebook to keep track of that info, so I've been reluctant to spend twice as much to take the taste test.

Driving home from the store Sunday, I listened to an interview on NPR to a rep from the Environmental Working Group, which analyzed
pesticides in fruits and veggies based on the results of nearly 43,000 tests for pesticides on produce collected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration between 2000 and 2005. The suggestion was to think more about going organic for those at the top of the list (peaches, apples, lots of berries and potatoes) and not to spend extra for those at the bottom (broccoli was suprisingly near the bottom). In looking at the list, though, I think I would focus more on the pesticide parts per million over the overall score. The total amount would seem to be more important than the other factors, but I haven't taken the time to look at the methodology of the final score.