Eco friendly? Organic?

[squirrley]

The last couple of yrs my hubby has been concerned with our household cleaners, the way we eat, etc and has actually opened my eyes, somewhat.

He recently doesnt want to eat meat, not full fledged vegetarian, but making the effort to eat less.

The last week we've talked about switching all of our household cleaners. Trip to Whole Foods.

The majority of what we eat comes from Whole Foods now. All organic. We make our own ice cream, own yogurt, own bread. Now were trying homemade rootbeer.

Im reluctant to give up my meat. I still eat it when I can, but have made the effort to eat less too. My cooking has changed which Im happy about too.

Were going to this Eco-friendly house here in Sarasota this week, just to see what the company does and how effects your house. I cant see us completely changing to it, but I do see my hubby becoming VERY conscience of our over all health and living. Its a good thing, but I wont give up some stuff! I have to give up my bleach, damnit!

What do you guys think of this stuff? Anyone else do things like this? And what do you do?

[Kiechi]

Bleach?


_______

[TheSphinx]

I think you're making a great decision, squirrley.

These lifestyle changes are usually more expensive, but you'll reap incredible benefits from the investment.

I, personally, notice a sharp decline in my drive if I leave meat out of the diet for too long (though this might have more to do with having trouble consuming enough calories from whole produce).

I would recommend that you read up, if you haven't already done so, on what foods to combine to meet your amino needs if you do drop the meat.

Good luck.

~Sphinx

[squirrley]

YES BLEACH! My goto cleaner for EVERYTHING! I love the smell of it. I think its in my head because when Im done cleaning it just leaves me feeling like the house IS clean.

We have 2 dogs, chihuahas, and this is a big reason to give up the bleach, so not good for them or us.

[vashti]

I would never give up the bleach. I have a BIG issue with bacteria. I don't mind the little-or-no-meat bit, but organic produce doesn't do much for me personally. I think it is an expensive rip-off that makes grocery stores richer and doesn't actually make you any healthier. To each his/her own...

[boobaa]

Oh god. Women... always want everything and can never give up on anything... and then whine...

[misombra]

how do you get your whitey's white without bleach?

[Tiay]

wasn't there a whole big reveal about how some whole foods "organic" stuff wasn't organic?

I'm not saying you shouldn't do it. It certainly is great to be more aware of what you can do to be eco-friendly. But, really, if you bought a nice energy-efficient car (and I don't mean a lexus) you'd probably be doing more than by quitting bleach.

I was just doing some research, and there is LOTS of conflicting information. check this out: [url]http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/00000002D21D.htm[/url]

btw, my family has a small organic farm. We used to have more, and go to the market with it and such, but now it's just for personal use. We also used to be an approved organic farm. We stopped because it was kinda expensive, our stuff is still mostly organic.

a few interesting points:

1. Do organic foods taste better or contain more nutrients? Well, in my opinion, yes and no. A tomato is not a tomato. The types of tomato plants grown by organic farmers are often types that are more naturally pest-resistent, but have smaller yields and a shorter shelf life, etc. These tend to be plant 'breeds' (i'm missing the proper word for this..?) that we were growning before we even had chemicals. These plants were maintained so that they had a distinctive taste and quality.

However, non-organic Tomatoes? The companies don't care about that stuff. Just develop a plant that produces as many tomatoes as possible, with a long a shelf-life as possible. In the process no regard was given to taste or nutritional value.

Therefore, yes, organic tomatoes may well taste better and be healthier than the regular ones. But that doesn't mean that the organic-ness of the tomatoes is necessarily the reason for the tomatoes being nicer. Quite possibly the non-organic tomatoes could be just as good and healthy, if they grew the organic variety.

This brings me nicely to my second point;

2. Due to the rise of the organic-industry, the non-organic industry has had to wise up. The availability of organic milk, for instance, means that non-organic producers have to stop pumping cows full of antibiotics. That was the scandal in the news here about twenty years ago. Farmers would give antibiotics much more than needed, and then not wait the prescribed number of days before milking the cow.

The non-organic industry is going to have to work hard to win over health-conscious people and improve their image.
So, supporting the organic crowd is a good idea. However, there is no need to be religious about it. There is no conclusive proof about whether organic is healthier, the same or worse than non-organic. It is simply a good cause to support. (edit: especially if you buy from a local farmers market). So if there's something you really like but they don't have it in organic, there is no need to give it up.

why cut out bleach completely? I'm sorry, but there are just some cases in which you NEED something to be clean for the sake of your health.

[Tiay]

I can say from experience in having an organic garden, there is a VAST difference in taste, depending on the variety. We've grown carrots that tasted like water. Then we got some seeds off a friend, and they were the most delicious carrots in the world. It's all about the type.

this begs the question why don't the non-organic produces not grow these varieties. I bet there are simply still enough people buying their crappy fast-growing high-yield low-quality variety.

[Illusional]

when i take a poop i flush because it's environmentally friendlier.

raverboy

[boobaa]

When a kid, I spent all my summers in countryside in at my grandmothers place and therefore I grew up with organic food. I grew up with organic tomatoes. Today, i don't even eat much tomatoes. They just have no taste, are very hard (raw?) but don't ripe on their own (I used to ripe organic tomatoes on the window) and also don't last very long... or at least, they don't stay in condition, they do preserve the looks though...
There were also, peas, beans, cabbages, beets, potatoes, pumpkins, turnips, carrots, lots of different sorts of cucumbers, apples, plums, strawberries, lots of other bush grown berries and a really small tree of pears. We got our milk from our neighbors non-commercial cow, which meant it was natural and drug free. Meat also came from local market and was preserved the old ancestors way in salt and closed in a barrel at cool place. No deep freezer. And my grandmother truly was the master of preserving meat.

Half the stuff I get from the shops appears dull to me. I don't know what is the problem, but I just don't feel any taste. And this makes me damn angry. I can't even buy proper food goddamnit. Maybe I am just spoiled with the country food.. Oh, and I usually don't drink milk that has less than 3% fat in it, thats the minimum.

And **** it. I don't get those healthy wannabes. Person can be healthy on any food if he wants to. Other thing is the taste. There are lots of people who don't eat pork for example, and not because they are muslims, they just don't like the taste. But of course, the main reason are moral fundamentals. I care for the animals and I care for the land.

[Tiay]

3,5% fat in it, thats the minimum.

I didn't know milk existed that had more than 3.5 % fat. That's full fat whole milk, as far as I know.

[squirrley]

The bleach he said I can still use with clothes. Its mainly the floors. If the dogs walk on the floors than lick their feet.

We are definetly spending alot more money on less. Like seedless grapes, geezuz like $4lb. I think Chris likes the idea of not eating foods that are pumped with insectides and antibiotics. He drinks RAW cows milk and goat milk, oh that I wont drink. The eggs come from farmers that arent stock piling their chickens.

I get his idea of wanting to eat healthier and being more conscience of our surroundings. But there are alot of things I CHOOSE not to give up.

He's more into this stuff than I am. I wouldnt say totally religious of it, but definetly watches or consumes less and better quality of food. Im NOT giving up McD's either. He wont completely give up going out, just cutting way back.

I knew there were controversies surrounding the organic idea. And I definelty taste differences in things. Cheese, milk, english muffins, waffles. Id rather have my Kraft. But Im going to try it and see it how long I deal with it. We do have some local farmers which were looking into too. Id rather have fresh veggies from locals who dont use tons of chemicals. From my understanding thats what it comes down to, the chemicals. But my question is does it really make a difference? Ive been reading many articles of course its the eco-friendly organic websites, but its still scary to think of what Ive been eating. I dont really think its going to take years off of my life if I buy a chicken from the store!

[vashti]

You all live in strange places. We have nice, tasty produce pretty close to year-round here, and although we do have our share of crappy tomatoes, we also have tons of non-organic ones that taste like home-grown (they are all sun-ripened, though). I try to grow my own in the summer (if I remember to plant in time).

I'd be worried about the unpasteurized dairy products. They are actually illegal in many states. There are a lot of problems with bacterial infections associated with unpasteurized milk and other dairy products. That shit can kill you, depending on your baseline health.

Also, I don't think there are any health benefits to free range eggs. People like to buy free range primarily for humane reasons, but as I understand it, the free range chickens are no happier than the caged ones because they have to spend their lives defending themselves against all the rest of those mean-tempered birds who will happily peck each other to death.

[squirrley]

Vash, thats why I wont drink that stuff. He knows its illegal to sell the milk that way. At Whole Foods they dont put it out on the shelf, you have to ask for it and right on the bottle it states not for sale for human consumption, by all means he can drink it but Im NOT!

See he just told me about the largest recall on beef due to conditions those cows were in and it just reiterates WHY he's feeling the way he is about this now.

I guess it does come down to each their own. I do support our local orange grove down the street. OMG fresh squeezed oj, there is nothing like it!