What Michael Moore Forgot to Tell Us About Organic Foods

Michael Moore's documentary, Sicko, really opened up a can of worms. Even with insurance it would be very spooky to put fate into the hands of a hospital that is near bankrupt with underpaid or disgruntled employees. Heaven forbid something that is preventable happens and a person is forced to deal with the disorganized medical industry.

A few weeks ago, my stepmother was rushed to the emergency room for feeling ill with her bones hurting from violent shakes while she was sitting there in the reception area waiting to be admitted. She belted out a few moans of impatience only for the "nurse" or intern or secretary or whoever it was running the operation to look up from the television and ask her why she is crying.

"My bones hurt," my stepmother sobbed. The person then asked my stepmother if she ever had a baby. My stepmother answered, "Yes, but what does that have to do with my bones hurting right now?" The nurse tells her, "This ain't nothing like when you had a baby." She turned her head back to watching the Pussycat Dolls on the television while my stepmother became even sicker from another patient's germs.

When hearing this, I just thought about how we really are what we eat, not that my stepmother doesn't eat well but she could use some more calcium at her age to help the bones from hurting. Since buying the Sicko DVD and seeing what's behind the scenes in the health insurance industry, I have taken a serious look at the choices in food. "Choice" in food isn't a corporate clown slogan or substituting a smaller size of fries with a bigger burger. Choice means deciding what is best for your body without being influence by the brightly lit, colorful dollar menu.

There is excuse after excuse for not eating organic foods because it's "so expensive." This I find hard to believe because a refrigerator full of real food stretches as far as a week's worth of value-priced combo meals. When you measure organic food portions and are able to control eating habits, organic food really isn't more expensive. Pure organic foods are nutritious, which fill the body up with less calories than eating an entire bag of potato chips. Sugars, carbs, oils and chemicals don't satiate the body. It's when the two bags of pork rinds, chocolate bars, ding-dongs and case of soda pop are gone that a person finally looks away from the television and says, "Oh, looks like I ate too much, better stop now until I get hungry again."

Here are some healthy - and affordable - certified organic staples:

Organic Oatmeal

Organic oatmeal comes in a variety of flavors and since oatmeal is oatmeal, it doesn't matter which brand it is as long as there are no refined sugars in it. Oatmeal is known for lowering cholesterol naturally. The oats contain soluble fiber that helps to move the cholesterol out of the body instead of it being absorbed into the blood stream where it can cause a whole host of conditions. It's been shown in research cases that oatmeal lowers low-density lipoprotein, the "bad" cholesterol. The "bad" cholesterol is what doctors love to prick needles into fingers for at the cost of thousands of dollars.

Organic Soy Yogurt

Yogurt is healthy because it has enzymes and cultures that help to clean out the bacteria that like to set up camp in the intestinal tract. Yogurt can eliminate these guests from the alimentary canal. The problem with yogurt is that dairy is hard to digest for people who are lactose intolerant or it's just plain gross for those who don't want to eat from cloned cows treated with BST. Soy yogurt is made with natural, organic ingredients and comes with the same cultures and enzymes as traditional dairy yogurt. I like the peach, blueberry and raspberry flavors the best.

Organic Vanilla or Chocolate Flavored Soy Milk

Because I can't stand the thought of cows getting sent to the slaughterhouse like it's the guillotine, I drink organic soymilk. I have found that soymilk tastes best when it comes in different flavors: chocolate and vanilla. I use the flavored ones for coffee cream and the original soy milk for cereal although chocolate soy and cereal makes for a great treat sometimes. Soymilk doesn't have to be any particular brand but the most important thing about soymilk is to find one that is made with purified water, organic soybeans and no refined sugars (any ingredient on the food label that ends in "ose").

Organic Soy Pasta

It's only natural that having an Italian family means eating a lot of pasta. Trust me, there is no getting out of it no matter how many diets a person is on. The only way that the subject of eliminating pasta was brought up in my home was because of the problems my stomach has in digesting flour, carbs and sugars in one sitting. To compromise, we have switched to eating soy pasta. Soy is good for helping to lower cholesterol and preventing heart disease. Some of the soy pastas are made with flax seeds, which make for a good boost in fiber. At first, there was a lot of fighting in the kitchen about how pasta is not suppose to be made out of beans. Mixed in with tons of garlic, oregano and a nice red cabernet sauvignon (which helps to lower "bad" cholesterol), no one can tell the difference that the lasagna or spaghetti is made of soy pasta.