12 foods you should eat organic and 15 you don't have to.

So I’m in the kitchen talking to my husband. And he holds up this box of crackers and asks me: did you buy this?

And I say, “Yes, yes I did. I thought they could be snacks for the kids.”

Him: “What? Because they’re organic?”

Me: “Yes, you know I prefer them to eat organic if possible.”

This is true. I’m not at all militant about it but it assuages some of my guilt about being an inadequate mother and hopeless cook.

Him: “OK, so it’s organic. But it’s also made in Thailand. Who do you think authorises food labelling over there? The military?”

Me: “Good point.”

Then he read out the list of ingredients in the organic crackers which included something that sounded remarkably like MSG.

I wince.

Then he pulls these crackers out of the fridge. And looks on the back of the pack.

Him: “Now these are wholegrain – not organic – but they’re made in Australia. Surely we should have some kind of hierarchy when it comes to what’s most important? Just because it says organic, that doesn’t mean it’s better for you necessarily than something else.”

True. Too true.

I often don’t think things through very well. This is one of those cases. I have been a bit panicked by the organic thing ever since I heard about a study of children in New York. Those who didn’t eat organic food had over 300 different chemicals in their urine. Those who did eat organic, had about 12.

I found this great information about what foods you should buy organic if possible and which you don’t need to. While I realise that budgets don’t always allow for buying organic, I thought the info was worth sharing.

On his website, Dr Andrew Weil refers to a scientific study that came up with these two lists:

12 FOODS YOU SHOULD EAT ORGANIC

Nearly all of the data used took into account how people typically wash and prepare produce – for example, apples were washed and bananas peeled before testing. Of the 50 different fruit and vegetable categories tested, the following “Dirty Dozen” had the highest pesticide load, making them the most important to buy organic versions – or to grow them organically yourself:

• Celery
• Peaches
• Strawberries
• Apples
• Blueberries (Domestic)
• Nectarines
• Sweet Bell Peppers
• Spinach
• Collard Greens/Kale
• Cherries
• Potatoes
• Grapes (Imported)

15 FOODS YOU DON’T HAVE TO BUY ORGANIC

Of the 50 different fruit and vegetable categories tested, the following “Clean 15” foods had the lowest pesticide load, and consequently are the safest conventionally grown crops to consume from the standpoint of pesticide contamination:

• Onions
• Avocados
• Sweet Corn
• Pineapples
• Mangoes
• Sweet Peas
• Asparagus
• Kiwi
• Cabbage
• Eggplant
• Cantaloupe (Domestic)
• Watermelon
• Grapefruit
• Sweet Potatoes
• Honeydew Melon

What factors do you take into account when you’re buying food? Do you try to eat organic? Perhaps you grow your own food? Or is it just a good day when you manage to bung something together from the pantry and nobody throws it on the floor? I hear you……