For those who eat and feed their kids Organic - does that mean everything?

[youreactinglikeafunmum]

Following on from an interesting thread about healthy living

If you buy organic food for your kids - is everything organic or just some stuff

I talked to a dietitian who said that buying non organic fresh vegetables was 'pointless' (her words) due to a lack of nutrients and to buy either organic or frozen veg

Do you buy organic meat? Potatoes? Fruits?

Do you buy organic snacks? I imagine squash thats organic is hard to come by. Same with crisps

Is your shopping bill much more expensive?

Do you buy from independent butchers or do the cheap supermarkets (asda/sainsburys/lidl) offer good value?

I bought organic once when weaning dd and then swiftly moved on to cheap fruit and veg.

Sorry if the post is confusing, it just occurred to me that I could be making healthier choices for dd(6). Shes physically healthy, thin, gets exercise though.

As shes autistic, its already a nightmare so I would be looking at trying to do like for like swpas

Non organic fruit and vegetables do not lack nutrients.

I was surprised to hear it from a nutritionist tbh, but took her at her word

I still eat my fresh fruit and veg but maybe I could change to organic. Just seems so expensive and i'm not sure we will benefit really

Organic fruits and vegetables are not more nutritionally beneficial than those produced in conventional farming systems. Keep doing what you're doing.

We buy as much as we can organic. All fruit, veg, beans and pulses. We don't eat meat, but if we did we'd buy organic. We do our weekly shop on Ocado as they have a very good selection.

We have never offered squash. We don't routinely have processed snacks. I'll buy the odd thing like Nakd bars or those fruit yoyo things as a backup for a day out sometimes, so we don't worry about them being organic as it is very occasional. Generally snacks are seeds, nuts, nut butter on wholegrain bread, fruit and veg, homemade fruit or veg based muffins or energy balls etc. It sounds a lot of work but it really isn't. I make big batches to freeze and pull out a few at a time.

I have preferred (and therefore prioritised) organic food for about thirty years. I get a weekly organic fruit and veg box, including bread, cheese, muesli, yoghurt, etc. Given a choice I do generally prefer organic fresh produce, particularly if it’s from the UK or Europe. From further afield than that I suspect there’s neglible benefit from an organic label once produce has been transported thousands of miles.

But it’s a preference not an obsession. I choose the nicest crisps, even if they’re not organic. Same with olive oil or tea or whatever.

So anyone being fed by me will get a mixture of organic and non-organic food, of the best quality I can muster. I don’t eat meat, but do eat fish - and don’t buy fresh fish from supermarkets. I cook from scratch and am aware of the whole HPF debate and make my choices accordingly. I’m very, very committed to organic and biodynamic wine.😄

My feeling is that rather than focussing on one narrow area, you would do better to look to all the ways you can access the best possible food, from people who care about its production. This website is a game changer:

https://farmstofeedus.org/

Go straight to the database (you do not have to donate anything!) and view it in landscape mode on something bigger than your phone screen. You’ll never look at supermarkets in the same way again.

I suspect my food bill is comparatively expensive. I’m always quite surprised by how eager some posters (not necessarily struggling financially) are to cut their food budget to the tiniest amount possible. But I come from cultures where good food is important and it’s not seen as extravagant to spend a substantial part of your income on it.

Oh dear, have I exterminated all interest in this subject? 😂

We probably eat 80% organic- this is mainly concern for non-organic farming methods on the environment rather than health. Of course non organic veg contain nutrients!

If you are concerned, I’ve read that the most important food that should be organic is oats due to the fact that they use a herbicide, glyphosate, as part of the drying process in non-organic farming and oats absorb a large amount of it.

I don't think non-organic hasn't any nutrients but I would certainly be more fearful of the chemicals that the crop has been sprayed with.

I’d be very sceptical about anything else stated by that nutritionist tbh.

She was wrong. And nutritionist or dietician? Nutritionists don’t need any qualifications.

I buy organic meat because it has better welfare standards and organic f&v for the environment and workers’ health, especially things like bananas. But I don’t think the quality is any different. Yes it is more expensive and if you want 100% organic then you will have to accept having hardly any premade treat type food, other than chocolate or biscuits. IME Sainsbury’s and Waitrose have the biggest ranges, or you can get veg boxes from local farms or from Riverford/Abel and Cole.

I’ve switched to organic milk but not anything else.

I buy organic mince (or used to, now we just eat dust)

I also buy organic baked beans so I can continue feed the dc crap while feeling morally superior about it.

No 😄 i got distracted but will re read your, i'm sure helpful post x

😅 my first thought was, i could feed dd organic chicken nuggets

I go with, ‘if it’s available organic I’ll buy it’ - but I don’t stress about it or even think twice if they’re out of organic broccoli, for example, I’ll grab a non-organic one.

I talked to a dietitian who said that buying non organic fresh vegetables was 'pointless' (her words) due to a lack of nutrients and to buy either organic or frozen veg
This person needs reporting to the HCPC. That's not just a bit of an opinion, that's a fundamental misunderstanding about how food works. Which means they somehow didn't learn enough on their 4 year degree to actually practice as a dietitian.

Re the nutritionist, she was seeing dd due to her autism meaning she is on a restricted diet - [rice, pasta, instant noodles (I know), meat, oats, veg is blended into food]

That's what she said to me, I was surprised but just believed her without question 😅

I've got a steamer so will steam all veg

And I dont think that organic oats are much more expensive

I agree that i can't do 100% organic though, how will we eat out!

I have a nut allergy, but got a terrible reaction from what I could only assume were the pesticides from asda apples 😬

I can do organic oats 🙌🏾

I grew up working class, having the money for non 'asda smart price' food is very new 😄😄 - buying the more expensive tins of tomatoes was a revelation!

Yes, i think it could be better as a whole to buy better quality ingredients for a start, which would then incorproate organic foods

I will check out the website as I would love for dd to eat better than I did growing up, even if her diet is restricted

Also - i'm partial to any wine but will try an organic one and see if I like it 🤭🙌🏾

I buy 80-90% organic at home but don’t stress about eating out and about the other 10-20%.

I shop on Ocado but buy grass fed/free range meat at a local butcher. Milk and all other dairy is organic and unhomogenised (you’ll never drink homogenized milk again if you read the implications to the body). Ocado do a good range of brands of good producers such as Daylesford.

When it comes to fruit and veg have a look at the ‘dirty dozen’ which is the twelve most highly sprayed crops to avoid. For example strawberries are very highly sprayed with pesticides and the soft outer skin means a lot is absorbed whereas a banana or an orange are fine to be non-organic as they have thick skins and are only lightly sprayed.

@youreactinglikeafunmumNo registered dietitian ever told you that! It's total nonsense

I try not to stress too much about it. When I shop, I select organic when it’s available (almost always is). If my boys eat outside the house, they eat whatever is available. It’s not an all or nothing thing for me. I wouldn’t buy non-organic meat, fish or eggs though. Don’t know why I have a hard rule about that!

I once watched at tv show many years ago where they looked at the nutrient values of vegetables and the outcome was that in the olden days when farming was not so intensive, the veg had more nutrients so you didn't need to eat as many to get the same amount and that nowadays organic was the closest thing so going by that the nutritionist is onto something

@youreactinglikeafunmum you may not notice much difference with organic wine. I started investigating biodynamic wine in middle age when normal wine began to affect me quite badly, but I wasn’t willing to give it up. You can google the details (which I’ve forgotten) but fewer and more select additives mean fewer physical and psychological ill effects in the days after consumption. (And the whole conceptual area is just so fascinating to pursue …)