Seeing Orange and Green

I’ll never forget feeding squash to my niece when she was nine months old. Her mom was introducing new foods to her and squash was the vegetable of choice that week. Rhiannon LOVED squash. She loved to eat it, squash it (hence the name I suppose), smear it on her face, in her hair, on the high chair and watch it fall as she pushed it off the tray. The dog and the cat would wait patiently under her high chair and check out what was falling. We have a picture I will always cherish of orange: orange kid, orange high chair, orange walls and even an orange hat on the dog’s head where a falling piece of squash had landed and Rhiannon grinning from ear to ear. Now that Rhiannon is older, she has decided she doesn’t like squash anymore…oh well, maybe she will re-discover the wonders of squash some day...I just hope not as a hair product!

Memories like these are precious to me. Food was always an important part of growing up for me and it continues with the next generation in our family. Many of our family stories are based around food in some way or another. It tells the tale of childhood, maturing (or not) and becoming adults and making our own choices about what foods we eat, what foods we cook and the source of our food.

We had a lengthy discussion at dinner the other night about the source of our food. We all believe organic is better than conventionally grown food, but who can afford to buy all organic? We can’t; this is particularly true when tuition is due every quarter. So what should the priorities be when considering which foods to buy organic?

After almost two years in the Masters in Nutrition program at Bastyr University, here are my top two rules for buying organic. Number one: Buy organic meats and dairy. Organic meat and dairy are expensive but I believe the most important because animals concentrate any pesticides, herbicides and antibiotics they eat in their muscles and milk; and number two: if you can’t buy all organic fruits and vegetables than use the shoppers guide to pesticides from the Environmental Working Group website www.EWG.org to guide your choices. They list the fruits and vegetables with the highest pesticide content (they also list the fruits and vegetables with the least amount of pesticides). The dirty dozen are: peaches, apples, bell peppers, celery, nectarines, strawberries, cherries, kale, lettuce, imported grapes, carrots and pears. I will only buy organic for these. If money is tight I will buy conventionally grown fruits and vegetables with the least amount of pesticides. These include: onions, avocados, sweet corn, pineapples, mangos, asparagus, peas, kiwis, cabbage, eggplant, papaya, watermelon, broccoli, tomatoes and sweet potatoes.

Following these two rules helps keep me and my family healthy and I am able to sleep better at night. I hope it helps you too.