4th day in, and again not totally vegan. This is tough stuff.
Breakfast: toast w/ peanut butter and banana vegan- success!
Lunch: Left over Hoppin’ Jose Salad- vegan-success!
Snack: protein shake- not vegan- fail,
a hand full or two of cashews and a cup of coffee at around 4.
Dinner:
P-O double is a groom’s man in his friend’s wedding this weekend and tonight was the rehearsal. It went smoothly and didn’t take to long. After, we had dinner at Geatano’s , a little Italian place in P-O’s home town. It was a set menu so I ordered the chicken broccoli and ziti and just picked the chicken off. Definitely not vegan with all that cream sauce, and the chicken touching the meal. The food was good. The cream sauce wasn’t to heavy but there is never enough broccoli for me. Always plenty of leftovers for P-O Double. The servings were huge!
(sorry no pictures, I still feel a little awkward whipping my camera out at a table, especial with so many people. I didn’t feel like explaining myself.)
Oh yeah, I almost forgot. So my one cheat day to drink during lent is Saturday at the wedding. But tonight when I refused wine P-O told everyone I had given it up for lent. Then the peer pressure started. “She is pregnant”, “No I’m not”, “”fine then you’ll have some wine if you are not pregnant” The bottle of pino was sitting right in front of me tautening me, “come on, just one little sip” it was saying. And the crowd chanting, “your pregnant if you don’t do it.” So I did. I had about three sips. And you know what, it wasn’t that great. I have been craving it a little and could almost taste it on my lips. Maybe it was the wine, maybe it was me but I had those three sips and it wasn’t as great as I was hoping. (I hope it was just the wine.) So I guess I have one cheat day and three sips. I hate peer pressure. I guess DARE in middle school didn’t help me much.
Sorry if this reads a little preachy or “term-paperish”. I did some reading on this topic and wanted to share what I learned.
I have been reading a lot about organic eating lately. I told P-O double I was going to start buying more organic produce to eliminate eating pesticides. He then came up with a good question. How do they keep bugs and animals from eating it if it doesn’t have pesticides? Good question. Then the investigation began.
Did you know that organic doesn’t mean free of pesticides ? I was surprised by this too. After doing some investigation, it’s not a bad as it seems, but it is still concerning. Since the types of pesticide used on organic food claim to be “natural” there haven’t been many studies on their safety.
Let’s start from the beginning. First of what does organic mean?
“In 1939, Lord Northbourne coined the term organic farming in his book Look to the Land (1940), out of his conception of “the farm as organism,” to describe a holistic, ecologically-balanced approach to farming—in contrast to what he called chemical farming, which relied on ‘imported fertility’ and ‘cannot be self-sufficient nor an organic whole.’” [6] Source
“Organic foods are those that are produced using environmentally sound methods that do not involve modern synthetic inputs such as pesticides and chemical fertilizers , do not contain genetically modified organisms , and are not processed using irradiation , industrial solvents, or chemical food additives .” [1] Source
Organic produce are heavily regulated by the USDA . There are strict rules and regulations about the soil, land, types of pesticides, and techniques for farming. With that being said, they do allow organic farmers to use pesticides, but they must be of natural sources. source and source .
Even though the pesticides used on organic procure are natural, there is little known on their effects or if they are safer than synthetic pesticides. source
At ConsumersUnion.com I came across an article about pesticides in both conventional and organic produce. This study focused on the levels of synthetic pesticides found in each. (Not on the “natural” pesticides used by organic farming). The study showed that organic produce is exposed to pesticides 1/3 as often as congenital produce. source
This study concludes by say that even though organic farmer do not use synthetic pesticides, there are some unavoidable factors that contaminate the produce:
”Our analysis does show, however, that organic foods are not pesticide free. Most of the residues in organic foods (and some residues in conventional foods as well) can readily be explained as the unavoidable results of environmental contamination by past pesticide use, or by ‘drift’ (sprays blown in from adjacent non-organic farms)….”
Pesticide residues in conventional, IPM-grown and organic foods: Insight from three U.S. Data sets.
Ok, So should I start buying organic produce?
The above info clearly shows that organic produce are exposed to far fewer synthetic pesticides than conventionally grown. It still bothers me that there is little know about the pesticides used on organic produce. Just because the pesticides are from natural source does not necessarily mean they ok for consumption. Even though the effect of pesticides on the body are not really know, better safe then sorry and try to reduce intake.
With that being said, I am going to start buying some organic produce. Even though the effect of pesticides are really unknown, it’s better to be safe than sorry and cut back on exposure.
Based on the info below, I am going to buy “the dirty dozen” organic. These items have the highest amount of pesticides when grown conventionally. “The clean fifteen” are fifteen items that are ok to eat non-organic because they have relatively low levels of pesticide exposure.
The Dirty Dozen & the Clean Fifteen
source
I make this colorful chart to hang on my refrigerator. That way, when I am writing out my grocery list I will remember to note which to buy organic and which are ok conventional.
I’m pooped. Time to do some of this.
Night.
~Nicole
Tags:
4th day in, and again not totally vegan. This is tough stuff.
Breakfast: toast w/ peanut butter and banana vegan- success!
Lunch: Left over Hoppin’ Jose Salad- vegan-success!
Snack: protein shake- not vegan- fail,
a hand full or two of cashews and a cup of coffee at around 4.
Dinner:
P-O double is a groom’s man in his friend’s wedding this weekend and tonight was the rehearsal. It went smoothly and didn’t take to long. After, we had dinner at Geatano’s , a little Italian place in P-O’s home town. It was a set menu so I ordered the chicken broccoli and ziti and just picked the chicken off. Definitely not vegan with all that cream sauce, and the chicken touching the meal. The food was good. The cream sauce wasn’t to heavy but there is never enough broccoli for me. Always plenty of leftovers for P-O Double. The servings were huge!
(sorry no pictures, I still feel a little awkward whipping my camera out at a table, especial with so many people. I didn’t feel like explaining myself.)
Oh yeah, I almost forgot. So my one cheat day to drink during lent is Saturday at the wedding. But tonight when I refused wine P-O told everyone I had given it up for lent. Then the peer pressure started. “She is pregnant”, “No I’m not”, “”fine then you’ll have some wine if you are not pregnant” The bottle of pino was sitting right in front of me tautening me, “come on, just one little sip” it was saying. And the crowd chanting, “your pregnant if you don’t do it.” So I did. I had about three sips. And you know what, it wasn’t that great. I have been craving it a little and could almost taste it on my lips. Maybe it was the wine, maybe it was me but I had those three sips and it wasn’t as great as I was hoping. (I hope it was just the wine.) So I guess I have one cheat day and three sips. I hate peer pressure. I guess DARE in middle school didn’t help me much.
Sorry if this reads a little preachy or “term-paperish”. I did some reading on this topic and wanted to share what I learned.
I have been reading a lot about organic eating lately. I told P-O double I was going to start buying more organic produce to eliminate eating pesticides. He then came up with a good question. How do they keep bugs and animals from eating it if it doesn’t have pesticides? Good question. Then the investigation began.
Did you know that organic doesn’t mean free of pesticides ? I was surprised by this too. After doing some investigation, it’s not a bad as it seems, but it is still concerning. Since the types of pesticide used on organic food claim to be “natural” there haven’t been many studies on their safety.
Let’s start from the beginning. First of what does organic mean?
Organic produce are heavily regulated by the USDA . There are strict rules and regulations about the soil, land, types of pesticides, and techniques for farming. With that being said, they do allow organic farmers to use pesticides, but they must be of natural sources. source and source .
Even though the pesticides used on organic procure are natural, there is little known on their effects or if they are safer than synthetic pesticides. source
At ConsumersUnion.com I came across an article about pesticides in both conventional and organic produce. This study focused on the levels of synthetic pesticides found in each. (Not on the “natural” pesticides used by organic farming). The study showed that organic produce is exposed to pesticides 1/3 as often as congenital produce. source
This study concludes by say that even though organic farmer do not use synthetic pesticides, there are some unavoidable factors that contaminate the produce:
Ok, So should I start buying organic produce?
The above info clearly shows that organic produce are exposed to far fewer synthetic pesticides than conventionally grown. It still bothers me that there is little know about the pesticides used on organic produce. Just because the pesticides are from natural source does not necessarily mean they ok for consumption. Even though the effect of pesticides on the body are not really know, better safe then sorry and try to reduce intake.
With that being said, I am going to start buying some organic produce. Even though the effect of pesticides are really unknown, it’s better to be safe than sorry and cut back on exposure.
Based on the info below, I am going to buy “the dirty dozen” organic. These items have the highest amount of pesticides when grown conventionally. “The clean fifteen” are fifteen items that are ok to eat non-organic because they have relatively low levels of pesticide exposure.
The Dirty Dozen & the Clean Fifteen
source
I make this colorful chart to hang on my refrigerator. That way, when I am writing out my grocery list I will remember to note which to buy organic and which are ok conventional.
I’m pooped. Time to do some of this.
Night.
~Nicole
Tags: