All Entries in the "Organic" Category

Healthy Food on the Cheap

You can eat inexpensively and still eat well.

1, 2, and 3) Shop around, look for sales, and use coupons. No brainers.

4) Put aside a little prep time. Homemade tastes better, and is better for you. Make double batches and freeze for up to two months. I’ve gotten into the habit of making a double batch of different kinds of muffins, waffles or French toast on Sunday mornings. I freeze the left overs. The waffles and French toast taste great directly from freezer to toaster.

5) Buy less prepackaged foods.

• The longer the list of ingredients in a product, the less likely it is to be healthy for you.
• Frozen vegetables lose 50% of their nutritional value after six months
• Canned foods have lots of salt.

6) Don’t always buy the least expensive or the most expensive item. Read the label, and buy what makes sense for you.

7) If you have something you particularly like, indulge yourself a little. For example, I like really good Parmesan cheese from Italy.

Buy all your dairy organic ( or know the local source) when possible. The non- organic stuff is really bad for you.

9) Know what your cows and poultry are eating. Again, really important. Make sure their feed is hormone and pesticide free, that cows are eating grass. And it’s humane to think that they all can walk around during their lives. That’s called free range for cows, and cage free for poultry.

10) Do food exchanges or lunch exchanges with friends. Take turns making a lot and share. It will give each of you a break from cooking.

Healthy Inexpensive Foods

Fruits and Vegetables - can actually be a great deal, if you follow some simple rules.

• Buy local when possible. Even grow it yourself. Can’t get any more local than that.
• For fruits and vegetables only, don’t make your grocery list ahead of time. See what looks good for the money when you get there. Planning ahead can force you into buying something over priced or not healthy looking.
• Look for those grown in the USA, where farmers must comply with more stringent pesticide regulations than other countries.
• Buy the “Toxic Twelve” produce organic when possible: apples, bell peppers, celery, cherries, imported grapes, nectarines, peaches, pears, potatoes, raspberries, spinach and strawberries. Otherwise, your wasting your money.
• If you find good cheap produce, buy a lot, cook it, and freeze it in meal size portions.

Yogurt. Buy a reduced fat version. I like 1% fat. Fat free tastes like wall paper paste to me.Cottage Cheese. A low-fat protein source many haven’t tried. Either you like it or you don’t. I grew up on it, and now eat it nearly every day. Buy organic, or at least buy the type without strange sounding additives.

Canned beans - Rinse away salt, if any.

Canned tomatoes - Don’t add any salt to the dish, or get no salt added. Beans and tomatoes are two items that actually taste pretty good out of the can.

Peanut Butter - Buy the good stuff. I know it’s a pain to mix, but those additives that keep it emulsified for you are really bad.

Rolled Oats - Get a BIG container. It lasts a long time. You can make oatmeal and all kinds of baked goods with it.

Pasta - get the healthy kind when it’s on sale.

Tofu - Don’t everybody groan at once. It’s not bad if you marinate it.

Anyone want to add anything to the list?

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“Found Object Meals” and Other Eating Tips for the Frugal

My grocery bill’s up, in spite of coupon fever. Time to pull out all the stops. I still enjoy a night out once in a while, but when eating in, I’m watching my dollars more than ever. Here’s how I’m doing it-

Only eat organic when necessary. Eating organic is important, but costly. It is especially important for children. See this post on “When Eating Organic Pays Off and Doesn’t.”

Try planning a few meals a week without meat. Protein is essential to your diet. You need thirty-five to fifty-five grams per day. Protein is made up of 21 different amino acids. Meat, Poultry, Dairy, and seafood, are good sources of complete proteins because they contain all of these amino acids. Grains, beans, and rice contain some of these amino acids, and when eaten in the right combinations, make a complete protein. And grain, beans, and rice are much less expensive.

Some examples, with a little dairy thrown in:

You just need to eat these over the course of the day, not in the same meal. And eating less meat and low fat dairy products lowers your cholesterol and blood pressure.Buy what’s on sale. Plan your menu around the weekly grocery adds. Stock up. Spending more now is spending less in the long run.

Buy in bulk. Products generally cost less the larger the package size.

Use what’s on your shelf. We have “found object night” once a week, usually the day before I go grocery shopping. We’ve come up with some imaginative food combinations. OK, sometimes they weren’t so tasty, but, with an inexpensive bottle of wine, who cares?

Cook extra, and freeze it for later meals or for packed lunches. No brainer here.

Eat less processed foods. Processed foods are more expensive, have higher salt levels and lower nutritional value. And, they don’t taste very good!

Find International recipes. Other cultures have developed cuisines around locally abundant foods. Try expanding your repertoire with Mexican bean enchiladas, Mediteranean falafel in pita, or vegetable lasagna.

Make a game out of eating healthy for less. Have some fun with it. Don’t just eat for less. Anyone can do that. But can you eat healthy for less?

Watch for future posts with healthy frugal recipes. Does any one have any tips or recipes they’d like to tell us about?

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The Price of Eating Organic- and Coupons!

I realized about thirty years ago that, if I wanted to be healthier, I would have to incorporate more organic foods into my diet. Even back in the late 1970’s, when I was just entering college, scientific studies were available showing the dangers of many common foods. Fruits and vegetables were covered with carcinogenic pesticides. Meats and dairy products were filled with carcinogenic hormones and immune suppressing antibiotics.

So, it was time to say good-bye Purdue, hello Bell and Evans.

The world was a lot different thirty years ago. Only “hippies” ate organic foods. My father thought the whole organic concept was some sort of communist plot. About once a month, I would drive into Boston, MA. from my small suburban town, and stock up on organic dairy, dry goods and antibiotic/hormone free meats. Because availability was scarce, prices were exorbitant.

Fast forward to 2008. At forty-nine, I still try to eat healthy. How has fulfilling this goal changed? The good news is, now I can find organic, antibiotic free, and hormone free foods at almost any grocery store. No more driving to the Big City. What’s the bad news? The price is still higher. Cha-Ching.

Being the ever vigil frugal freak, I’m always looking for ways to reduce that organic pain in my budget. Here’s some examples:

1) I only buy organic products that are necessary. For example, organic bananas and oranges provide no added health benefits. However, any dairy, meats or certain fruits and vegetables like blueberries, spinach and lettuce, are certainly worth the extra organic cha-ching. If you’d like more information, read “When Eating Organic Pays Off and Doesn’t.”

2) I’ve joined a local organic CSA Farm. The cost is only $22 week for vegetables over the 5 month period.

3) Organic product coupons are hard to come by in the weekly ads. I have found several good websites offering printable coupons. Here’s some links:

Dairy:
Stonyfield Farm.
Organic Valley
Brown Cow

Cereals/Soups
Health Valley

General sites offering organic coupons
Organic Coupons
Living Naturally
Eating Well

4) I’ve made a commitment to eating to live to 100. Here’s a free life-expectancy calculator. See how you do.

I’m curious to know how others feel about this. Anyone care to comment?

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When Buying Organic Pays Off and Doesn’t

The following article was obtained from Consumer Reports:

Know when it pays to buy organic food products to reduce your exposure to pesticides and other additives, when it might sometimes pay, and when it’s a waste of your money.

Buy these items organic as often as possible:

What: Apples, bell peppers, celery, cherries, imported grapes, nectarines, peaches, pears, potatoes, red raspberries, spinach, and strawberries.

Why: The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s own lab testing reveals that even after washing, some fruits and vegetables consistently carry much higher levels of pesticide residue than others. Based on an analysis of more than 100,000 U.S. government pesticide test results, researchers at the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a research and advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C., have developed the “dirty dozen” fruits and vegetables, above, that they say you should always buy organic if possible because their conventionally grown counterparts tend to be laden with pesticides. Among fruits, nectarines had the highest percentage testing positive for pesticide residue. Peaches and red raspberries had the most pesticides (nine) on a single sample. Among vegetables, celery and spinach most often carried pesticides, with spinach having the highest number (10) on a single sample.

(For more information on pesticide levels for other types of produce, go to www.foodnews.org .)

What you’ll pay: you’ll pay about 50 percent more on average for organic produce, but prices vary based on the item and the time of year. A Consumer Reports price survey conducted in the New York City area in October 2005 found a premium of 24 percent on organic strawberries and 33 percent on grapes and spinach. Organic Idaho potatoes cost 101 percent more than conventional. When you buy organic produce in season at a farmer’s market or directly from local providers, however, you might avoid paying a premium at all.

What: Meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy.

Why: You greatly reduce the risk of exposure to the agent believed to cause mad cow disease and minimize exposure to other potential toxins in nonorganic feed. You also avoid the results of production methods that use daily supplemental hormones and antibiotics, which have been linked to increased antibacterial resistance in humans.

What you’ll pay: Often double the price of non-organic, though you might save money by buying direct from local farms. For instance, in December 2005 the Organic Trade Association reported that in Iowa, organic ground beef was available for $4.25 a pound and beef tenderloin for $16 a pound.

What: Baby food.

Why: Children’s developing bodies are especially vulnerable to toxins and they may be at risk of higher exposure. Baby food is often made up of condensed fruits or vegetables, potentially concentrating pesticide residues. Michelle Faist, a spokeswoman for Del Monte, says that even though its baby foods are not organic, pesticides and heavy metals are kept below government-recommended levels.

Buy these items organic if price is no object:

What: Asparagus,avacados,bananas,broccoli,cauliflower,sweet corn, kiwi,mangoes,onions,papaya,pineapples,and sweet peas.

Why: Multiple pesticide residues are rarely found in conventional vegetables.

What you’ll pay: Varies widely by store. So if you’re buying organic only for health reasons, you may not want to pay 22 percent more for organic bananas or 150 percent extra for organic asparagus- the premiums we found in New York City markets.

What: Breads, oils, potato chips, pasta, cereals, and other packaged foods, such as canned or dried fruit and vegetables.

Why: Although these processed products may have lower levels of contaminants in them, they offer limited health value because processing tends to wash away important nutrients. The process of milling organic whole grains into flour, for example, eliminates fiber and vitamins, though they are sometimes added back in. The more a food is processed, the less health value its organic version offers, especially in products such as cereals and pastas with labels that say “made with organic ingredients.” Read the list of ingredients and you might find that while the flour is organic, the eggs aren’t. The processed foods with the most added value are labeled “100% Organic” and “USDA organic.” Price premiums vary. In our survey, organic Heinz ketchup cost 25 percent more than the conventional product; organic minestrone soup was only 8 percent more.

Don’t bother buying these items Organic:

What: Seafood

Why: Whether caught in the wild or farmed, fish can be labeled organic, despite the presence of contaminants such as mercury and PCBs. Some wild fish such as bluefish are very high in PCBs, and tuna and swordfish are laced with mercury. The USDA has not developed organic certification standards for seafood. In the meantime, producers are allowed to make their organic claims as long as they don’t use “USDA” or “certified organic” logs. California, however, recently passed a law that prohibits the use of any organic labeling on fish and other seafood until either state or federal certification standards are established.

What: Cosmetics.

Why: Unless a personal-care product consists primarily of organic agricultural ingredients, such as aloe vera gel, it’s pointless to buy organic in this category. Most cosmetics contain a mixture of ingredients, and USDA regulations allow shampoos and body lotions to carry an organic label even when water is the primary ingredient. Hydrosol may also be listed as a primary ingredient in organic products even though it may be primarily water infused with only a small fraction of organic plant material. While the USDA claims that organic labeled cosmetics follow the sames standards as food, we have found indiscriminate use of synthetic ingredients and violations of food labeling standards. “Many of the ingredients in personal care products didn’t grow out of the ground but in test tubes. they’re just chemicals,” says Lauren Sucher, director of public affairs at the EWG. Just because a product has the word “organic” or “natural” in it, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s safer. Only 11 percent of ingredients found in persona-care products, organic or not, have ever been screened for safety. In fact, when EWG conducted its own safety rating of these products (available at www.ewg.org), scoring them on a scale of 0, for those posing the lowest level of concern, to 5, for the highest concer due to potentially unsafe ingredients, those with scores of 4 or more incuded benign-sounding Naturessence All Day Moisture Cream.

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