Going Organic

As I mentioned in my post on Food, Inc., the movie inspired me to go organic at the grocery store. So, the first time I went to Kroger after having seen the movie, I went out of my way to only buy groceries with the official USDA certified organic sticker on them. Now, when I say groceries, I'm only talking about food, not household cleaners, paper towels, etc... Look, I'm not saying I'm a saint here going green too, I just figured buying organic would only be a little more expensive and would equate to supporting something good while taking better care of my body. Maybe I'll jump on the green bandwagon in a bigger way later, but honestly, this whole organic thing is a big step for me in the first place, so I'm gonna stick with that for the moment...

Now, there are two big questions I've been getting lately: "how much more expensive is going all-organic?" and "can you see a difference in how you feel?" First off, no, it's not prohibitively more expensive, especially when shopping at Whole Foods with their economy-priced organics. Actually, the only items I buy that are ridiculously more expensive are OJ and milk, both of which are around 3x the cost of what you could find at Kroger. Now, the second question is kinda loaded for lots of reasons, but here are some of the more obvious ones:

1.) I'm only buying organic food at the grocery store, not when I eat out (which is frequently), so it's quite possible that only half of my dietary intake is organic these days.

2.) I didn't really eat particularly poorly before I went organic (even then, the ground beef I bought was only 4% fat and came from farms with higher standards).

3.) Just because you go organic doesn't mean the food is better for you in terms of your daily dietary needs...it just means that the food is being raised responsibly and therefore doesn't have any chemicals in it.

So, it's basically impossible for me to tell (at least, without medical analysis) how much healthier I am now than a few weeks ago, but perhaps in the long run I'll start to see some results. In the meantime, I feel really good about my decision and feel like I'm supporting a just cause. =)