What is Organic?

“Organically grown” food is food grown and processed using no synthetic fertilizers or pesticides. Organic food differs from conventionally produced food in the way it is grown, handled, and processed. Most of the organic foods that have this USDA Organic sticker on it are guaranteed to be at least 95% organically grown.

There are other labels on products that you do have to become aware of when shopping for your next meal. Other truthful claims, such as free-range, hormone-free and natural can still appear on food labels.  However, don’t confuse these terms with “organic.”  Only food labeled “organic” has been certified as meeting USDA organic standards. Non-GMO foods may not be genetically modified, but still use synthetic pesticides.

So why chose organic over the alternative? Big issues with the other conventional food we eat are antibiotics and pesticides – when used to grow our food, they are harmful to your health. Pesticides have been shown to lead to food allergies, memory loss, and cancer. In 2010, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the CDC all testified before Congress that there is a connection between the routine use of antibiotics for meat production and the declining effectiveness of antibiotics for people.  Dr. Thomas R. Rieden, Director of the CDC, noted that “there is strong scientific evidence of a link between antibiotic use in food animals and antibiotic resistance in humans.”

In the end, your safest bet to make sure you are eating the best mother nature has to offer is to either grow your own fruits and vegetables, or buy organically produced foods. If space or time stops you from being able to grow your own food supply, Wellness Origin has some simple methods of adding minerals and nutrients back into your foods and beverages – check out  Humic Fulvic Focus.

If you are looking to expand on your knowledge of healthy foods, learn why you should create a healthy lifestyle.

About the Author:

Nathan Orr is a massage and bodywork therapist who incorporates his knowledge of massage techniques with organic oils to provide relaxing, rejuvenating body services at Wellness Origin Spa.

Health: It’s Not a Diet, It’s a Lifestyle

Changing you eating habits can be a challenge, but the end result is life changing in the best way possible. In today’s society, we are surrounded by fast food and media advertisements. In a better world, we would surround ourselves with fresh fruits and vegetable advertisements geared towards educating the public about the importance of not eating processed and GMO foods. I didn’t know about this before I started working at Wellness Origin about what was really going on with the food situation.

Knowledge is power. I was powerless before, food consumed my mind for years. Convenience was of the up most importance for me at that time in my life, the quicker the better. If we actually take the time to slow down and enjoy life, life is much more enjoyable.

As I slowly started to cut out certain things from my diet, first dairy then grains I started feeling different. I started feeling better, happier, lighter and full of energy. A kind of energy I had not felt in years. I was finally motivated again. I wanted to clean my house, read lots of books and make art again. It was as if I was living life through foggy glasses before. Things started to taste better, colors looked more vivid and even my reflexes started to improve. I began to ask myself if this was just a diet I was going to try out for a while or if this would lead to something bigger and better, a better life.

Right now, many Americans are on a diet. Many others gave up on their diets and are on a binge. Collectively, we are overweight, sick and struggling. Our modern food choices about what and how much to eat have gone terribly wrong. The time has come to return to a more sensible way of eating and living, but which way? Maybe we should just eat the way our ancestors did. In addition to understanding early humans and other hominids, we need to understand the diet of our ancestors during the times when the main features of our guts, and their magical abilities to turn food into life, evolved.

So far studies of foragers like the Tsimane, Arctic Inuit, and Hadza have found that these peoples traditionally didn’t develop high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, or cardiovascular disease. “A lot of people believe there is discordance between what we eat today and what our ancestors evolved to eat,” says paleoanthropologist Peter Ungar of the University of Arkansas.

Diving into one of the possible avenues for developing a healthy lifestyle, the earliest records of vegetarianism as a concept and practice amongst a significant number of people concern ancient India and the ancient Greek civilizations in southern Italy and Greece. In Greece during classical antiquity, the vegetarian diet was called abstinence from beings with a soul. As a principle or deliberate way of life it was always limited to a rather small number of practitioners belonging to specific philosophical schools or certain religious groups.

There was a widely held belief, popular among both vegetarians and non-vegetarians, that in the Golden Age of the beginning of humanity mankind, were strictly non-violent. In that utopian state of the world hunting, livestock breeding, and meat-eating, as well as agriculture were unknown and unnecessary, as the earth spontaneously produced in abundance all the food its inhabitants needed. I understand why our ancestors lived that lifestyle. Health is not a diet – our ancestors show us how it can be a lifestyle.

Learn more about how to maximize a healthy lifestyle with relaxation techniques.

About the Author: Melissa Hamer is a Spa Coordinator and Hollistic Practitioner at Wellness Origin Spa. She combines a her knowledge of health foods with artistic talents to create health and beauty in her daily living.