Organic Mania, What's the Hype?

Is organic really better? What's the big deal? The big deal is that Americans have some serious health issues that we must face. It is indeed the result of choices that we are making as industries and as communities, as families and as individuals. The corporations in the food industry are aware of the health issues and diseases that American society is facing such as cancer, heart attacks, high blood pressure, diabetes, ADHD, mental illness, and the list goes on. The reality is that families and individuals must realize that their choice to eat inexpensive, highly processed, high in sodium foods is impacting their physical health.

The children obesity rate in American has increased and continues to increase despite the efforts and small amount of changes made by some USA schools and parents. There are vital nutrients that our children are missing. Many of today's children are the product of mothers who carried them in their womb and ate whatever they wanted and may or may not have taken their multi-vitamins. They were born with the tendency for food allergies, asthma, hives, and eczema yet when brought to the doctor for help with these issues topical medications, inhalers, and allergy medications are prescribed.

I have faced these prognoses as a parent. I was raised on garden foods and my parents were very health conscious. When I was given the opportunity to choose my own foods I chose those that I had been deprived of. I chose cereals high in sugar drenched in milk, I chose boxes of macaroni and cheese and hot dogs, I chose candy, and ice-cream several times weekly, I chose sodas and food high in processed sugar. The only time I watched my diet was when I wanted to lose weight and this was done by eating small amounts of foods and starving myself, rather than eating salads, greens, and proteins. By the time I had my second child at twenty three my health already was affected. I had gained forty pounds with each pregnancy and had babies varying in size from 8.6-9.11 pounds.

When my one year old son developed eczema all over his head, body and face I was in a dilemma. What was I to do, listen to the conventional doctor and use topical medication and hope that he out grows it or was I to take my health conscious mother's advice and change his diet? I used the topical cream but additional outbreaks took place more quickly then the clearing up of the previous patches of eczema. I had to consider the foods that my baby was eating. The culprit turned out to be cow's milk. At that point I did not know all the research behind the chemicals and antibiotics and cheap foods that cows were being fed. I only knew that I had to change his diet to find an answer for his health. I switched him to goat's milk and the result was his skin cleared up. I kept him on goats milk until he was around three. Looking back I should have kept Him on goat's milk or at least avoided milk products. By kindergarten he had a hard time sitting in class, by third grade he had asthma symptoms and eczema in his hair. These symptoms almost seemed normal to me and I just went through the steps to accept them and live with them. My second child had more extreme allergies and I needed to carry an epi-pen for injection if he had an allergic reaction. He also had asthma and suffered with behavior problems and was eventually diagnosed with ADHD.

Small changes in diets have helped them greatly. Those changes include avoiding the following: cows milk (we drink soy or rice milk), hot dogs, packaged dinners, high sugar cereals (we switched to organic cereals they taste great and kids love them), fast food chains, pop tarts (we sometimes purchase organic pop tarts they taste great and the ingredients are recognizable), candy, traditional chips and snack foods (they are high in all sorts of ingredients that are not recognizable so we sometimes choose organic or healthy varieties with recognizable ingredients). The kids at school have teased my children about eating organic however my children's improvement in behavior has been directly linked to their food intake, their ability to learn has also improved and they are healthier. One of our favorite organic foods are organic eggs. Try one yourself. Crack a traditional egg in the frying pan and crack a organic egg into the frying pan. The organic egg's yolk is even brighter in color. Go ahead and take a taste test. I can taste the difference see if you can. For more information on the benefits of organic foods check out this sight. http://www.wholefoodfarmacy.com/2005/video_library.asp?mv=tv_drugads.flv This will take you right to the audio/video library where you can get further information on the benefits of eating healthy.