Quick! Run! Eat more organic food!

Global warming! Health issues! Dodgy ingredients in conventional food courtesy of multinational corporations! Dodgy ingredients in cosmetics from our lovely “self regulating” cosmetics industry! In other words, they do what they want. After all, who DOES guard the guards?? Why DON”T we eat more organic food? I swear, every time I turn around there is yet another issue dominating the news on health scares and production scares from lead in toys to unsafe food colourings. The temptation to chuck it all and move to desert island where I can grow my own food is quite strong. Unfortunately I lack the funds to do so, as I understand that there are plenty of island about the place for sale, it seems one also requires a small army to guard it (at least in Asia pirates are a reality). Can one pay mercenaries with organic fruit and vegetables??

So here I am, doing what I can to eat well and try to counteract all the other things going on.

And I must say that I think I’m doing quite well! As far as lifestyle goes, there are only so many things a girl has control over and others that are forced upon consumers. I spent my Friday night having a fascinating conversation with someone who works for a chemical company.

Me: A chemical company?
Him: Yes
Me: So you work for the dark side, then?
Him: Errr… I guess so.

The conversation did actually improve from this not so scintillating beginning. At least from my perspective it did. Half a bottle of red wine may have assisted in this impression and the bloke in question may keep running shoes in his bag so he can sprint in the opposite direction when next we meet, but it did open my eyes.

So I try to keep chemicals out of my life as much as I can. I buy organic fruit and vegetables. I have my own import and distribution company for these fruit and veg. I buy organic body care, cosmetics, and toothpaste. We use vinegar and hot water to clean our floors, and I’ve stopped buying anti-bacterial products. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The paint on our walls contains all kinds of chemicals. Our floors are treated. When we get our airconditioners cleaned they use a chemical wash. Plastics are everywhere - in our computers, our cars, our phones, even ordinary things like sticky tape, the seals on our jars of herbs… And so the list goes on.

I suppose the trick is balance. Buy organic or at least reduce chemicals where you can and the rest? Well, next time you meet someone who works for a chemical company, give ‘em bit of a hard time *lol*

If you’ve been reading my blog, then you know a little bit about why I want to import and sell fresh organic foods into Singapore. A big part of my motivation is to encourage everyone to buy organic (where they can afford to) - from anyone they can. When you spend money, you vote with your dollars.  So every dollar you spend on organics is one less dollar going to the conventional producers. Which, if enough of us do, will make the conventional producers stop and think. Although do note that when I say ” buy from anyone” I’m talking about purveyors who are reliable and honestly buy organic products that are certified by a recognized certifying body.

Some days it seems as though loads of people think organics are a way to make lots of money really quickly (she says, wistfully, dreaming of a snazzy car that will never happen). From what I’ve seen, some of these people don’t know much about organics, just that it is an up and coming niche. My advice is this; talk to whomever you buy your organics from and see if they know what they’re talking about and even better, if they’re passionate about it.  Because buying organic food is simply better for the planet.  And it’s better for our children whom we hope will inherit this charming joint we like to call “earth.” Mind you, the way things are going, it’s going to be marketed by some pushy real estate agent as a “planet for the do-it-yourselfer.” Or maybe “a handyman’s dream!” Oh that Handyfix (local Singapore hardware store) could help us now! They have enough trouble with some of my simpler, yet apparently bizarre requests I make so I can’t imagine looking for a continental size water purifier.

“Do you mean, industrial strength madam?”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” I’d reply. “I need something that can take remove toxins from the Yangtze/Danube (whatever) River.”

Not that I can afford to buy everything organic, but the majority of fruit and veg we consume in our own home is organic, and for my two boys I make sure that everything they eat at home is organic. When we go out, they eat whatever we eat, but at home I won’t compromise.
Why? I hear you ask! What does it matter if children eat non-organic food? Well, studies have shown there is a benefit in feeding only organic food to children under the age of six. It is because their bodies have less fat and more water than adults so they are less able to trap and store water soluble chemical toxins in their fatty tissue. Organs such as their kidneys have less ability to detoxify their bodies as these organs are still maturing. So it only makes sense to limit what they can’t process and eliminate safely. That includes all the pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, as well as antibiotics, hormones, and more.

I mean, we’ve all heard stories about how girls are becoming mature earlier and earlier, and when you consider the amount of growth hormones and other nasties that are being fed to cattle, pigs, chickens, and other animals that end up on our table, it isn’t that surprising. Antibiotics are a standard part of farming now, as the conditions the animals are kept in mean they are more prone to falling ill. So all of this … stuff … ends up in our meat, and in our soil, and in our water. Anyway, since no-one knows what the long term effects of consuming chemicals are, I’m not standing in line to make my kids part of this global experiment. If you want to read more about this then visit the Environmental Working Group (see the link on the sidebar or else go to www.ewg.org) which has loads of fantastic information. It is American based, but let’s face it. If it’s happening there, it’s happening (on some level) in pretty much any developed country. And heck, even in Singapore we have loads of American products both fresh and grocery, so it does rather behoove us to pay attention, does it not?

So now I’ve decided to be an educated consumer and actually read labels. The evil oligopoly deodorant was ditched and then I started using something called a deodorant crystal. Had to love it, it was a mineral salt stone. By that, I mean something that looks like a medium size roundish rock.

The theory is you put it under running water to make it damp then rub it under your arms. Fine in theory. In practice, holding a slippery, round rock with nothing to act as a handle first thing in the morning is simply begging for trouble. I can’t count how many times I was chasing that damn thing around my bathroom, feeling like an extra from a Tom & Jerry cartoon.

Anyway, that was how the whole “natural” thing started!

It was a short step from looking in wonder at the label on my moisturizer, to closely scrutinizing food labels, to then glaring suspiciously at the food I bought in the supermarket. Although to be honest, the icing on the cake was when I was roasting a chicken for dinner and my husband came home to ask if we were having fish! and then I started to wonder what they were feeding the chickens! I’ve since learned that it sin’t just a question of feeding chickens with ground up fish and other odd things, it’s the conditions the birds are kept in. Now I could probably spend another three days just writing about those poor avians, but instead I’ll give you the bald facts. In the pre-growth hormone days it took a chick about 42 days to grow to eating size. Now it takes 21 days, and apparently they’re looking to make it even shorter (time, that is). The birds have such weak skeletal systems because they grow so fast that they can’t even stand, but it doesn’t matter anyway because there are so many of them crammed in one cage that they couldn’t move even if they had the space.

Think about it! Chicken is in everything! Soups, gravies, chips, noodles, crackers, the list goes on. And that’s not even touching on chicken burgers/wings/drumsticks in the fast food chains, or the restaurants, hotels, supermarket with fresh chicken, frozen chicken, chicken nuggets… the global demand for chicken must be phenomenal.

And eggs? Whew! Another one is if you have egg allergies you really have to be careful because egg is something else used all over the place. You would even find it in some form in dried papaya! How strange (revolting, really) is that? And people want cheaper and cheaper food, so someone, somewhere has to cut costs. And the pressure is usually on the farmer. So when something like bird flu pops up, all I can think is that we as a society have been asking for it. Put pressure on the farmer to keep costs down by maximizing the number of animals they raise and minimizing cost centers like space required to raise these animals and hey presto! Health disaster waiting to happen.

So what’s the answer? I know there aren’t enough desert islands for us all to take ourselves off and hide. Personally speaking, I’m not really a commune kind of girl, and not eating at all doesn’t quite appeal either. So instead I made a decision to go organic where I can, natural where I can’t (or can’t afford it), and cut out as much chemicals in my own home as possible. While I’m not quite single-handedly saving the world from disaster (my superhero suit is at the cleaners), I’m doing what I can to minimize my contribution to the damage. How virtuous. Now where has my halo got to??

My first exposure (sans dirty raincoat) to organic food was actually in Florida, USA where I was living. It was during the time when they made a complete mess out the presidential election and there was loads in the newspapers about chards and whether Bush or Gore had the most votes. Hardly the most auspicious start to my stay there, but there you go.

While my husband Roland was working at the Ritz Carlton as Executive Chef, I ended up studying and teaching at a university for a year (a story in itself!). There I learned to juggle studying for a master’s degree, teaching, and running a house for the first time in my life. What was great was the discovery of two things 1) an organic shop called Wild Oats and 2) cooking magazines - both the Americans do very well. Wild Oats was like heaven. They had the most amazing food counters where you could lunch pre or post shopping and served fresh salads, soups, and fab hot dishes made with all organic ingredients. And the main shop? Oh my word! Like Jasons Supermarket but all organic/natural products. The fresh fruit and veg section had about a 100 varieties daily, and some were cheaper than conventional!ÂThe meat counter was wonderful too with loads of easy things like sausages (at least 10 different varieties) as well as chicken and beef with a variety of cuts to choose from. Read the rest of this entry »

A little knowledge is indeed a dangerous thing. Who was it who said that ignorance produces interesting arguments? Anyway, regardless of who was originally response for those particular words of wisdom, it was ignorance that initially propelled me along a rather odd path. One that ended with me discovering the joys of fresh organic food and keeping a healthy lifestyle.

It started with, of all things, what I later entitled The Great Deodorant Scare. At the time I was living in Florida and had received from a friend an email that went into great detail about how antiperspirants were directly linked to breast cancer. It continued with the theme that it was the evil oligopolies that owned the deodorant companies who were not allowing this information to be disseminated to the general public because they’d lose billions in revenue. A conspiracy! Read the rest of this entry »

• Oct 4 : Quick! Eat More Organic Food!
• Jun 14 : You Are What You Eat - So Eat Organic
• Jun 13 : Becoming An Educated Consumer
• May 6 : How I Discovered Organic Food
• May 6 : A Little Knowledge is Indeed a Dangerous Thing