Healthy Organic Food - The Environmental Working Group Dirty Dozen

There has been much debate about organic versus non-organic foods. Organic farming uses companion and rotational planting as well as composting without the use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. Most of the media coverage and many proponents of non-organic food argue on the nutritional content and taste of the organic food not being significantly different from non-organic foods. The one main point that is missed or rarely discussed is the difference in the amount of pesticides used between organically grown and non-organic crops. The absence of heavily sprayed pesticides in organic crops grows the resilience of the plant, which helps us, the consumers with our immunity. The lack of commercial pesticides also helps reduce the burden on our body to deal with those toxin and heavy metal load.

I have found it useful to refer to the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen and Clean 15 when deciding whether or not to buy organic, especially when there is a large price difference between the organic and non-organic variety. For more information on the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen and Clean 15, download the Healthy Organic Food article on our Free Articles page.