As someone who continues to be somewhat stymied about what to eat and what not to eat and about the quality of what I am already eating, I am thrilled to share with you that I found a GREAT book to help simplify things for me. It’s called Living Green by Greg Horn. And even though Greg and his family are truly living green in almost all aspects of their lives, the author provides great information for the “going greenies” like me. Some of the information really gets one’s attention and inspires change of habits. Baby steps —

The Top Ten Foods to Buy Organic

1. Meats: These are high on the food chain, and thus can concentrate chemicals from the animals’ diets in their fatty tissues.
2. Dairy Products: Also high on the food chain and rich in fats, which is where harmful chemicals become stored.
3. Fish: while not strictly organic, it is critical to buy wild fish and avoid ALL farmed fish, which can contain high levels of contaminants.
4. Berries: Strawberries, raspberries and other berries including grapes have a thin, absorbent skin that you eat. These fruits are heavily sprayed and tend to absorb more of the chemicals that they come in contact with during production.
5. Salad crops: Lettuce, spinach and celery are highly sprayed and have no outer shell to protect the part you eat – the leaf!
6. Mushrooms: mushrooms are highly absorbent and conventional growing uses powerful fungicides between crops to keep stray species from invading the intended crop.
7. Root crops: Conventional potatoes, yams, carrots, onions and other root crops can be sprayed with fungicides as well as pesticides, and the parts you eat grow in direct contact with the chemicals.
8. Bananas: Banana plantations use up to 20 times more pesticides per acre than crops grown in industrialized countries. Conventional bananas are often grown with a blue plastic bag of pesticides placed over the soft, absorbent skin of the fruit. (my comment: are you kidding me right now? This is scary awful!)
9. Waxed fruit: That shiny apple has a wax coating that locks in the pesticides and makes them very difficult to wash off.
10. Coffee and Tea: Technically not “foods,” but hot-water brewing can concentrate the residual pesticides used in the growing process while it is extracting the good stuff.

To your health! Remember – baby steps.