Oct 20 2008
Why organic?
Last week, my son was diagnosed with a severe allergy to nuts. Not just peanuts, but nuts of all kinds. Of course, the first reaction any parent has is probably, why him? We don’t have a history of allergies in our family and neither does my husband. My daughter is fine and can consume all kinds of foods, so why him?
The next step (once I recovered from the ‘why him, why me’ phase), is learning as much as possible about allergies, and nut allergies in particular. One of the things I’m trying to do is go completely organic. Yes, it’s more expensive, but I’m sure I can cut down on other stuff to pay for the food bills. Another way to make it more affordable is to cook/bake at home as opposed to buying processed, ready to eat meals. And this is actually much easier to do than one would expect, and not that time consuming. I’ve always cooked lunches/dinners, and our breakfasts usually consist of cereal on weekday and pancakes on weekends. So that part’s been easy and now it’s just a question of substituting organic for non organic food items. What I am beginning to include is baking cookies, making my own granola bars, muffins etc. So we can still have the stuff we love, just not out of a box. Much healthier and once I get the kids roped in to help, a lot more fun too.
So, why organic and will it help?
Organic refers to food that contains no preservatives, no added chemicals, fertilizers, coloring or additives and is not genetically modified. With regards to meat, the animals are reared without any antibiotics or growth hormones.
The benefits of an organic diet are numerous. To name a few:
- Organic food contains lower levels of pesticides – Up to 70% of pesticides which appear in conventional food are banned in the production of organic food.
- Organic food does not have any synthetic additives- They do not have artificial food colors and flavors, preservatives, nitrates and sulphites, artificial sweeteners or monosodium glutamate (MSG). Food is preserved and sweetened naturally.
- Organic food has significantly higher levels of nutrients – Depending on your choice of produce, organic food is shown to have higher amounts of salicylic acid and more Vitamin C, iron, calcium, magnesium and phosphorous.
- Organic livestock production does not use antibiotics or growth hormones- In a lot of cases, antibiotics or growth hormones are injected into cattle to make them larger, fatter and hence deliver more meat. In organically reared cattle, they are allowed to grow and develop at their own pace, and without any synthetics injected into their system.
- Organic food is free of Genetically Engineered (GE) ingredients – Organic farmers do not use GE seeds or irradiation methods. Instead crop rotation and use of natural compost produces a richer soil in which to grown and harvest their produce.
As to will it help with curing his nut allergies? I don’t know the answer to that as yet. I do hope that my research and providing him and the rest of my family with good food will give me the positive answers I’m looking for. And till then, I know at least that they are enjoying a nutritious, healthy meal each time they sit down at my dinner table to eat.




