What Foods Should I Buy Organic?

This is one question that people ask me all the time and it’s a very good question!

With everything that’s out there, GMO, conventional foods, new products on the market and big billion dollar companies trying to and trick consumers into buying things that they claim to be healthy; its pretty difficult to determine what’s good for you and what is not. The goal today is to help you find out what foods are worth paying more for and why.

But before we get into what to buy organic or not let’s find out what organic means, what conventional means and what is the difference is.

Organic: Foods that are grown without the use of pesticides, petroleum based fertilizers, sewage based fertilizers or bio engineered genes (also known as GMO’s). Organic foods are also required to have access outdoors and must not be fed with animal byproducts, hormones or antibiotics.

Conventional: The opposite of organic. Foods can be grown and fed with the products listed above.

Great. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s see what foods should be bought organic.

There are 12 fruits and vegetables that SHOULD be bought organic. These are called the dirty dozen:

1.    Apples

2. Strawberries

3. Grapes

4. Celery

5. Peaches

6. Spinach

7. Bell peppers

8. Nectarines

9. Cucumber

10. Potatoes

11. Hot peppers

The reason why you should buy these organic is mainly because these fruits and vegetables contain the highest amount of pesticides. If you notice, these fruits and vegetables have a very thin outer layer (or have no skin layer at all) which means that when pesticides are sprayed onto these fruits and vegetables, we are eating them directly.

Now that we’ve talked about the dirty dozen I wanna share with you the cleanest dozen! These fruits and vegetables can be bought conventionally as they contain the least amount of pesticides.

1. Sweet Corn

2. Onions

3. Pineapples

4. Avocados

5. Cabbage

6. Sweet Peas

7. Papayas

8. Mango

9. Asparagus

10. Eggplant

11. Kiwi

12. Grapefruit

If you notice, most of these fruits and vegetables have a really tough outer layer that has to be peeled off to eat or have many layers to go through which means that even if they are sprayed, we aren’t eating them directly.

There you have it! The next time you go grocery shopping you can feel confident about buying the right organic foods. If you think someone you know can benefit from this, please like, comment and share this post! Happy organic shopping!

Author Bio:A Dean’s List graduate of Humber’s Fitness and Health program and founder of Elation Nation, James has been in the fitness industry for 5 years and counting. He strongly believes that fitness found him and not the other way around.With his passion for fitness James’ clients have seen tremendous results, from weight loss and muscle gain to increased strength, endurance and energy; lowered blood pressure; a wider range of motion; and decreased joint, knee and neck pain.Beyond his diploma, James is also Can-Fit-Pro PTS, ACSM PTS, CPR & First Aid, and Trigger Point Therapy certified.

While James believes that working out is definitely a great start, with his past experience he knows there is much more that he can do to help you reach your goals more quickly. Having always wished for more thorough and holistic guidance, he is here to share all the tips, tricks and secrets he has learned through his many years of experience and extensive, personal trial and error.