Organic Problems...at the Grocery Store

I don't know about you, but I have an ideal in my mind. This ideal involves only growing or purchasing organically raised food of the heirloom sort. No pesticides, no artificial fertilizer, no chemicals, no hybrids.

There is one thing that stands in the way of this ideal for me...and that is a thing called reality. I can't just afford to buy everything organic. I do buy some things that are organic, but if it comes down to paying the power bill or buying all organic vegetables and grass fed meat and cage free eggs...you know what I have to choose.

But...my eating habits have changed drastically in the past 15 years. I think an interesting gauge of the change is that while I like using coupons...my grocery habits have changed to a point where seldom do the things I buy have a coupon available.

My chiropractor said a long time ago that the further away a food is processed from its original state of growth, the fewer benefits it will have when it is consumed. Makes sense.

Our changes happened one at a time. First, we fired Little Debby and Hostess, then Lipton and Campbell. We now eat all butter...no margarine. I make most of our own jam, we have goats for milk and chickens for eggs and honey bees. We now grind whole grains for flour. There have been a lot of other changes as well, but they were gradual, and realistic. It kept the changes stress-free, and manageable. I still can't buy all organic, but we are much healthier than we were! And while it may not be the ideal that I still picture in my head...if I really think about it...what we live is ideal for us at this time. More on this in a future post...