Feeding My Family Organic

I struggle into the house with bulging bags of groceries. My four sons immediately surround me. "Mom, did you get any good food?"

"Good food." A loaded term indeed. I believe good food is tasty and, well, good for you. My boys prefer the more colorful TV version: Vivid cereals, happy rabbits selling neon shades of yogurt, bland bread that disappears as it hits your mouth.

They equate "organic" with "food that doesn't taste so good," as my 12-year-old is quick to tell me. I blame the media and the constant assault of "fun, exciting food." We've certainly always been pro-organic parents, so the reverse bias must have come from elsewhere.

Not only do I have to try to sneak organic food past my suspicious children (I've even mashed organic beans into peanut butter for sandwiches... shhh, don't tell them!), I--and, no doubt, many parents--have to take price into account. While organic has become less expensive, it often costs more and can tax a family budget.

So how do you figure out the importance of organic to your family and how to strike a practical balance?

"Overall there is growing evidence that foods grown organically in healthy soil contain higher nutritional value than those grown conventionally," reports Kate O'Keefe, RN, CFNP, HHP, a family nurse practitioner with a holistic health practice in Cold Spring, New York. She cites a study by researchers at the University of California at Davis published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry online in January 2003 that points to higher levels of antioxidants in organic compared to conventionally grown corn and berries. "They also taste better!"

O'Keefe is especially concerned about the impact chemicals on conventional produce can have on developing children. "Organic foods do not contain pesticides, herbicides, or other chemicals to enhance the growth and production of crops. There is growing concern about the cumulative effect of even small amounts of pesticides and herbicides on fetal development and growing children." However, switching children from a conventional diet to an organic diet, "provides a dramatic and immediate protective effect against exposures to organophosphorus pesticides that are commonly used in agricultural production" according to a study published in the February 2006 Environmental Health Perspectives.