Why Eating Organic Food Matters

For a long time I avoided writing about this topic.

Why? Maybe because narratives had been planted in my head saying this is a privileged preoccupation, or that not everyone can afford to eat organic.

True, organic costs more, but at the expense of what?

I believe that the more nutritiously we eat, the less money we'll spend on junk that doesn't even count as food (and that costs a lot of money), the less sick we'll be, and then we'll waste fewer sick days a year, spend less money on drugs, expensive treatments and visits to practitioners. And if, on the way to health, we also cook our own food, then from that alone we'll save a ton.

In other words, eating nutritious, organic food will be far cheaper if we give up all our unhealthy habits.

As someone who eats organic, which includes organic meat, sea fish, organic free-range eggs, organic fruit and so on, I spend a third of what my less healthy friends spend on eating out, snacks, alcohol, desserts and whatever else.

So maybe I just waited this long to get my truth across.

But while working over the last few weeks on the updated version of the Gut Rules course, I remembered how important it is to know why to eat organic and seasonal, and to think about it too when we choose what to eat every day.

For years I've been saying that most supermarkets are 80% processed food and only 20% real food.

But over the years we're seeing (mainly in the U.S., but lately in other places too) that even the meager remainder of real foods is starting to undergo manipulations by the food corporations, designed to extend the shelf life of natural foods.

Nature's wisdom doesn't just express itself in nutrients, but also in the natural ripening process of food, the relevance of foods to their season, and their ability to adapt themselves to a person's needs based on the region where they grow. It's no accident that certain fruits grow in the tropics, where people are in constant motion and can afford, or even rely on, the natural sugars, while the fruits that grow in upstate New York in February at 40 degrees, with people indoors most of the day, what would they do with all that sugar? So at most they eat an apple or some blueberries.

Over the years we've noticed that you can easily find a pineapple in the supermarket even in the dead of winter, and that's just one example.

We see more and more fruit that sits in the supermarket for days yet looks perfectly fresh, even though a lot of time has passed since the harvest, the truck, the flight, the refrigeration, the thawing and the transport into the store.

So first of all, if there's a sticker showing the vegetable or fruit was imported from another country, there's no reason to eat it.

Beyond all of the above, our vegetables are sprayed, and these aren't just gentle pesticides anymore. It's become a matter of outright toxins, because as with everything, the cheaper and stronger the chemicals, the more profitable they are.

Pesticides accumulate in our bodies and create diseases, allergies, serious problems and whatnot. Of course this varies with the type of food. For the matter at hand, there's a real difference between what we eat with the peel (and with the pesticide) and foods we peel, like pumpkin, banana or pineapple.

One topic that's been discussed for a while is a product founded by the man I consider the most evil in the world, none other than Bill Gates, known for his philanthropic partnerships with the big drug companies and the World Health Organization, which lost their credibility long ago. The same Bill Gates who recommended the COVID vaccine to the whole world and stoked fear about how severe the disease was, said, after making more than a hundred million dollars on the vaccines, that the disease wasn't really that serious.

The popular product Gates invented and markets is called Apeel, a coating substance for vegetables and fruits that can keep them looking aesthetic for up to two months on the shelf. It basically makes vegetables and fruits, which are supposed to look very varied and imperfect, look enticing through technology and chemicals.

Have you ever thought it's strange that all the apples in the supermarket look exactly the same? Where is it like that in nature?

This happens because nobody wants to buy fruit with a blemish. No wonder we're such perfectionists who hate everything that isn't beautiful in this world. (Including ourselves.)

The coating is a colorless, flavorless, textureless substance that can't be removed from the food. No matter how much you try to wash and scrub, it's a coating that can't be removed.

The company claims it's made of natural ingredients sourced, of course, from nature, according to their advertising, and based on a substance derived from grape extract. If you don't dig a little deeper it sounds genuinely cool.

The substance was also defined as safe for use by the FDA, and it was classified as GRAS,

Generally Recognized as Safe.

Isn't that a disturbing definition?

It's a general FDA classification for substances already categorized as generally safe.

On closer examination it turns out the main ingredients of the substance are mono- and diglycerides, which are made of glycerol or trans fat.

Since it's a familiar compound, it got FDA approval as a safe substance, or in short, GRAS.

The substance is created in a process of introducing oxygen into fat like canola oil or other vegetable oils, in order to solidify it at room temperature. These substances are used to extend the shelf life of food products, enhance flavors and maintain the appearance of food over time. You can find them in products like bread, margarine, sweets like gum, meat substitutes and fast food. Triglycerides and their relatives are known to raise bad cholesterol and harm the heart, a truly fascinating and "healthy" experience.

On top of that, glycerol is known to harm the gut microbiome. Think about eating a fruit that's been coated in margarine. You buy an apple to eat a healthy fruit and instead you get a slice of some 1980s parve cake. Byproducts of the manufacturing process.

Don't worry about Bill. Just as he didn't get vaccinated, he won't eat the foods he markets either.

In a conversation I had with a well-known health figure, he told me that the wealthiest families, the ones who market your food to you, actually eat organic food grown specially for them. In other words, they're not stupid, they're just businesspeople.

So what do you do?

First of all, check that the foods you're eating are grown in the country you live in.

If the apple is shiny, avoid it.

If the food isn't organic, the peel isn't necessary, take it off.

And ideally, let go of the junk food and all the garbage in your pantry and switch to eating fresh, organic food. Order from small suppliers, buy in group purchases with friends, and put your health first.

By the way, organic food, grown in good soil and in its season, is also far tastier, easy to absorb and therefore more nourishing for us.