Eating/living Organic Anyone?

[sportyj]

I am trying to eat as much organic and natural foods as possible. Thought it would be fun to post some of your favs in here and some of your rants about the cost of trying to eat healthy these days!

Some favs:
-SO Delicious Soy ice cream
- Soy yogurts (lactose intolerant here so anything soy and organic is fabu to me)
- Dr. Timas all natural KOLA (no caffeine, artificial sweeteners, etc.)

I will add more if the thread is of interest.

Rants:
- Organic MILK! 6 bucks a gallon?!?!?
- Hormone free meats, good lord those are expensive!
- Deoderants...any suggesstions on the GOOD ones that are organic and alumnum free? I like them but need to reapply often.

[Jazz]

Hey Sportyj -- I'm interested!

I'm not 100% organic, maybe close to 50%? I'm really big into eating local and seasonal foods, though.

Let's see, meat is the big one for me, after reading Fast Food Nation, which is what got me interested in eating more organic / small farm / local food in general. I'm really lucky that we actually have local beef, pork, and lamb ranchers. Their products aren't organic, but are raised without hormones, and treated humanely. For chicken, I stick to buying it from stores that only sell organic or non-hormone / humanely raised chicken. We eat veg ~50% of the time, which helps offset the cost increase.

I did organic milk for a couple years when I still lived in Boston and it was actually comparable price at Trader Joe's to regular milk at the (overpriced) local grocery (I was in grad school and didn't have a car at the time). We also have local dairy farmers that are not organic, but do not use hormones, and that's $3/gallon, so that's what we drink now. I'll probably switch when we have kids, though.

Last summer, we did a CSA (organic), which was fun, but deliveries are Mondays, and I do most of my adventure :) cooking on the weekend, so I'm back to the farmer's market this year ... they sell there (as do other organic growers), so I don't feel like I've abandoned them!

[tlew12778]

We eat a lot of organic but it's not as expensive here as it seems to be there. Organic milk costs me about $1.50 for a liter... regular milk would cost about $1.20 so it's not that much more. Same with the eggs.

The cheapest way (IMO) to go organic is to grow your own veggies. MIL's nieghbors keep chickens too so that's where her eggs come from (I know that's not common in the US unless you have a farm).

I do agree with the farmer's market though. Also, see if the local veggie wholesaler (you might have to hunt on the internet to find it) has days of the week where they are open to the public.

[sportyj]

Hi ladies! Yeah I do the Farmers Market I get hormone free milk for comparable price its just the "organic" milk is outrageous. I only drink Soymilk so I could care less but Dh refuses to drink soy.

I love the idea of having my own chickens!

I wonder how people would do 100% organic, it just seems impossible. I can do it almost but there is always something that I end up eating that I am not sure or is not "USDA certified organic" ya know?

I do want to start my own garden to offset fruit and veggie costs. Although i do not mind spending more for my health.

What are the biggest changes you have noticed?

I have so much more energy, and I am hoping that it really helps my headaches too, that is honestly the reason i went organic to begin with.

[Mrs. M.]

I think there is a thread on this already :)

http://www.constantchatter.com/showthread.php?t=11984

[sportyj]

Thanks M! Thats fantastic!!!