Five ways to eat green
Organic ingredients are good for you, good for workers who produce the food and good for the environment. To get started, here are some tips:
Coffee
Look for coffee with the Fair Trade seal to ensure that the farmers received a fair price for their labor and crops.
Look for coffee with The Rain Forest Alliance seal, the Bird Friendly Seal, or the USDA organic seal. These labels certify that the coffee was grown in a sustainable manner without chemicals and fertilizers that can damage or destroy local habitat.
Fruits and veggies
Seek out organic versions of these fruits and vegetables whose conventional counterparts are laden with pesticides: Apples, cherries, imported grapes, nectarines, peaches, pears, red raspberries, and strawberries, bell peppers, celery, potatoes and spinach.
If your budget is tight, you can get away with purchasing some types of non-organic produce less likely to be produced with heavy use of chemicals. Examples: bananas, kiwi, mangos, papaya, pineapples, asparagus, avocados, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet corn, onions and sweet peas.
Whenever possible, buy fruits and vegetables that are in season and have been locally grown.
Also when buying produce at the grocery store, you don’t need to put each individual type of fruit or vegetable in its own (petroleum based) plastic bag.
Chocolate
Look for chocolate with the Fair Trade Seal. The majority of chocolate is grown in western Africa and there have been documented cases of forced labor in the chocolate industry.
Cocoa plants are also extremely vulnerable to pests, so farmers use some of the harshest chemicals on them, including lindane, a toxic cousin of DDT, which poses health and environmental risks. Look for the USDA organic seal.
Salad dressing
The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition says fat in salad dressing helps your body absorb the healthy nutrients from the fruits and vegetables in your salad. Look for the USDA organic seal, which means that at least 95 percent of the ingredients in the dressing are organic. Avoid dressings with cheaper synthetic fats such as soybean oil and partially hydrogenated oils.
