My previous opinion of organic foods was "I'm sure there is a small difference but not enough to justify the higher price."
That changed today.
I have really gotten into juicing recently. I suggest you do too but that's a whole other blog. You can google "benefits of juicing" and find articles in which someone spent more time researching why it's good than I have. (I spelled google with a lowercase g because I am using it as a verb, not as a noun. I'm assuming that is grammatically correct?) I also highly recommend a documentary called "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" which can be found on Netflix Instant streaming. I'll just sum it up by saying juicing makes you feel how you hoped vitamins would make you feel.
I've been experimenting with all sorts of fruit and vegetable combinations so I had some apples sit in my refrigerator for a while. When I cut them open they looked like this:
Concerned something was wrong, I asked my wife if I should eat them. She didn't know what was wrong with them but quickly found out that companies will dye their apples to make them look more appealing in stores. I was under the impression buying an apple was a simple way to eat raw natural food with nothing unusual in it. I loved the idea my juices were 100% natural juice. Finding out there was something as unnatural as dye in my apple really shocked me.
The juice wasn't 100% juice as I assumed, it was mostly juice, propylene glycol, and propylparaben. Propylene glycol is produced from Propene, which is petroleum based. I'm don't know enough to tell you if propylene glycol is bad for you but I would just prefer in general not to have fossil fuel based chemicals in my juice. All I want is juice.
Here are some links pertinent to artificial food coloring:
http://www.cspinet.org/new/200806022.html
http://www.ehow.com/about_5341387_ingredients-food-coloring.html
I've decided to make a change in my buying habits. On the way to the grocery store I frequent there is a fruit stand. I'd go there on occasion as they had great prices, bought locally grown fruits and vegetables, I liked supporting a local small business and the people were very friendly. Many times I would skip it however to have the convenience of going to the produce section of the grocery store and saving a stop.
This will no longer be the case, I plan on doing all my shopping of fruits and vegetables at this stand. I bet many of you have a stand like this near you and if you as fortunate as me it's right on the way to your grocery store. I suggest paying them a visit. You will need to ask them what their policies on foods are, if it's grown locally, if they are organic etc... it only takes about 2 minutes to pull in and out of the parking lot to stop on the way to get the rest of my groceries. It's not a lot of time and if it helps me make 100% pure juice I can afford a couple more minutes.