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After I started to write this article, I realized that I had far too much information about healthy cooking for just one article, so I decided to write a series of articles about healthy cooking. This one will deal with organic ingredients while the other articles will deal with such subjects as; more information about organics and how to remove refined sugars from your healthy cooking.
When I talk about organics, some people think that I'm just talking about produce. That's not true; there are now organic versions of many animal products available as well.
I advocate switching to organic ingredients for your cooking because most produce is sprayed with pesticides and grown with chemical fertilizers. Animal foods can contain growth hormones and antibiotics.
The hormones can cause premature maturing of children. Also, it's a fact that bacterias are increasingly becoming resistant to antibiotics. A lot of experts say that antibiotics in our food are partly responsible for this resistance.
Before buying organic ingredients, it's normal for people to ask one or more of the following questions;
1) How can I replace my whole menu with organic ingredients overnight?
2) Won't I pay a premium for organic ingredients?
3) How will I know if a product is really organic?
The short answer to question #1 is, "you don't have to". I recently read a book by Kevin Trudeau called, "Natural Cures (they don't want you to know about)". In it, Kevin recommends changing one ingredient of your meals at a time to organic until eventually all of your cooking is with organic ingredients. I experimented with this technique and discovered that my family made the transition to organics a lot more easily then I expected. So far, everything that I eat for breakfast is organic and my other meals are made up of more than half organic ingredients.
The answer to question #2 is that unfortunately, organic ingredients usually will cost more. The number of people that buy organic products has increased, but the numbers haven't increased enough to cause economies of scale in the production and sale of organic ingredients. Organic ingredients generally go for more than non-organics, but if you are willing to do some leg work, you'll pay less than you may expect.
A good way to save money is to do as much shopping as possible at a farmer's market. Farmer's markets can be found in just about every small town in the Spring and Summer. Some big cities even have a year round farmer's market. Prices are lower because you are buying directly from the farmer. Usually, you can only buy fruits, vegetables, spices and eggs at these markets, but you should be able to beat the non-organic prices in the supermarkets.
Another way to get your costs down is to shop at discount chains because many of them now have organic departments. Even the big guys like Wal-Mart have jumped on the organic bandwagon.
Another sure way to cut costs of your healthy cooking is to scratch cook more often. A good example is soup. Canned soup in the store usually has a lot of salt and other non-organic ingredients. Don't buy the package of chicken thighs. Purchase the whole chicken (organic, of course) and then proceed to do the honors yourself. Don't buy the salad in the bag. Whenever possible, don't cook your vegetables. Instead, steam them if you have a recipe that says that they should be cooked. Steaming them will leave in more of the vitamins and minerals than high heat cooking. Remember, every time someone touches your food, it will cost more.
The answer to question #3 is simple. To know if an ingredient you're looking at is organic, look for the label that says, "USDA organic ". This means that the food has been certified by the USDA as being organic in origin.
This article has been meant to show you the logical starting point in your quest to provide healthy cooking for yourself and your family. In follow up articles I shall talk about such things as more reasons why you should buy organic ingredients and how to get refined sugar out of your cooking.
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