Yes, we are a healthy family and fitness focused blog, but no, we don’t always shop organic. Why not? Well to put it simply, we live on a budget and organic food doesn’t always fit within our price range. Recently, however, we came into a few Whole Foods gift cards (it was part of an incentive for switching wireless providers) and we decided our family should give the whole organic thing a try.
We are excited to share the results of our organic eating experiment with you and to let you know whether or not we’ve been convinced to switch our family’s eating habits!
First off, what exactly is organic food?
Plain and simple: organic food is grown without pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, GMO’s, as well as, no antibiotics or growth hormones in any meat. It is basically pure food, grown the way nature intended–without science.
Organic food has always somewhat appealed to me. I love knowing what goes into every meal we make and so the purest and more chemical free the ingredient the better. It just gives me peace of mind. But, does that mean it’s better for me and our family? I wasn’t 100% convinced.
The facts on organic.
Honestly, all we know at this time is that it just contains less chemicals. It is unclear what impact that actually has on the food’s nutritional value. No evidence currently supports the claim that organic food is safer or healthier than conventionally grown food (source 1, 2).
So what did we notice and will we continue buying all organic?
What was the biggest difference? Well. You probably could’ve guessed it, organic food is expensive! Spending over a dollar for ONE white onion is a little ridiculous to me. It is crazy how quickly the money racked up and how little we were able to actually purchase. Now, it’s not all organic food’s fault. It could partially be due to the store. There are other places where you can get organic for a decent price. For example, Costco does have some good options.
The one organic product that we did fall in love with was Whole Food’s fruit leather. We [baby Farrah] loved their 365 brand. I loved that they dissolve pretty easily in her little two-toothed mouth presenting little to no choking hazard.
But honestly, after eating all organic for one week, our family did not notice any significant difference in health. We did not feel any different and we did not magically shed pounds or experience any detoxification side effects.
So will we continue buying organic? Yes and no. We have not been convinced that it is worth breaking the bank for so we will if it works within our budget. If the item is roughly the same price as the non-organic version then we will definitely go organic for the peace of mind aspect alone.
In the meantime, we will continue doing what we’ve been doing. We will focus on eating healthy, getting in lots of veggies and limiting our fat & sugar intake.
Wiesia
Saturday 10th of December 2016
I think this is ridiculous to post "results" after eating organic foods for a week. What did you really expect, a miracle??? obviously non organic food is not killing anyone within a week either. Your organs especially liver will filtrate most of the bad stuff - until cannot do the job any more and whatever stays as heavy metals will stay in your body and might cause disease later in le. There is no question organic food is the way to go. Even Walmart has organic foods, it's a matter of choices that we make, and what we spend money on. Most can safe on other stuff we buy. I make my own coffee with organic milk and I don't supppose costs me more then daily Starbucks. I eat less but better.
Lexi @ That Fit Fam
Tuesday 13th of December 2016
Wiesia,
Thank you for taking the time to read our post "We ate all organic food for 1 week and this is what happened." We appreciate your comment.
While you may not think so, we actually agree on quite a few points. We mentioned in our post that we will buy organic when in fits into our budget, as well as the fact that certain stores have more affordable organic options.
You said that you cannot expect a miracle change in just one week's time. While it is true that nothing happens overnight, we know from experience that you can feel a change in your health in just 1 week. If you don't believe us, see the difference from going from not working out at all to working out everyday for a week or cutting out soda or sugars for one week. Miracle weight loss might not happen, but your body will feel different.
At this time, as we cited in our post, no study has confirmed a significant difference in health from eating all organic. And that was the point of our post. So many people get discouraged when deciding to eat healthy by the price tag of organic. Many take on an all or nothing mentality. If they can't afford to do it the "right" way they get discouraged & forget it all together. With this post we wanted to let others know that if you cannot afford to eat all organic, it will not be a "make it or break it" decision in your health & fitness goals. We apologize if that point was not adequately conveyed to you and hope it will not keep you from reading our posts in the future.
Best of luck!
Nicole | The Professional Mom Project
Saturday 3rd of December 2016
I buy some items organic and others regular. I try to buy organic fruit and veggies with peels that we eat and don't really worry as much about things like bananas and oranges. It is so expensive though.
Lexi @ That Fit Fam
Saturday 3rd of December 2016
definitely agree! if it's got a peel, we don't worry about the "organic" label since the inside of the fruit/veggie probably wasn't touched by any pesticides. great tip! but yes, it is so expensive! One day we will have a garden and we will be able to avoid all this high priced produce!