Try it Tuesday: Best & Worst Produce to Buy Organic

Unless you're made of money transitioning to organic won't happen overnight. Despite my frequent fantasies of throwing out all of our things and restocking with organic, we still house garbage like Heinz ketchup and Old Spice deodorant.

So if you, like me, want to go-orgo over time you should know which fruits and veggies should be your priority and which can take some time.

The Environmental Working Group has come out with a list of 12 fruits and vegetables, known as the "dirty dozen" that should be the very first that you transition to organic with. They are notorious for high pesticide levels.

The offenders are:

1Apples

2Celery

3Strawberries

4Peaches

5Spinach

6Nectarines – imported

7Grapes – imported

8Sweet bell peppers

9Potatoes

10Blueberries – domestic

11Lettuce

12Kale/collard greens

Here are my suggestions.

There are 8 items on this list that you need to begin growing in your own garden right away (celery, strawberries, spinach, bell peppers, potatoes, blueberries, lettuce and kale). If you don't have land, rent through the Community Gardens program in your city. Though they don't keep long fresh, most of these fruits and veggies can be put by with a few easy steps. Chop celery or bell peppers into the size pieces that you'd use for a stirfry or other similar recipe, then freeze as such in a freezer bag. Strawberries and blueberries can be made into jam or sauce and canned in mason jars. They freeze well also. Spinach and kale can both be blanched and frozen in glass storage containers. And potatoes should last in a cool, dark place but if they go green, throw them out. Lettuce is the only trick... try growing it indoors all year ground with a simple grow light that you can purchase in any hardware store.

Organic apples can be u-picked at Avalon Farms in Innisfil (near Barrie) which is my recommendation, or any organic farm in your area. Peaches, nectarines and grapes are often found organic in the grocery store. If you don't see them there, request them.

These 12 items are a great place to start when transitioning to organic.

Try It Tuesday: The Vaccination Book by Dr. Sears

Choosing whether or not to vaccinate your children is an important decision, the outcome of which can affect their ability to attend public school and travel globally. Vaccinating your child without doing ample research runs you the risk of suffering severe consequences, on the flip side being cavalier about not vaccinating your child could hold equal risk. I have seen both sides of this dilemma. One friend now parents a child with mental and social delays that she credits to additives in her young boy's vaccination. Another lost her newborn to a preventable disease after choosing to opt out of its vaccination. Which is worse, a loss caused by action or inaction? These are the questions I've weighed since becoming pregnant last November.

Oliver is nearly 3 months now. With his 2 month pediatric appointment come and gone, and his next one in a few days, I am knee deep in this decision. Even if he receives all of his shots this Friday he will still be on a "delayed schedule" as we opted out last time. Currently our decision stands that we will choose to vaccinate him (on the basis of preventing death, but also making access to future school and travel easier) for only severe illnesses. This means we will opt out of the chicken pox (varicella) vaccine and all seasonal flu vaccines. We will, however, boost his immunity through the homeopathic flu shot which you can read about on one of my earlier blog posts. He will, therefore, be receving the mandatory DPTP and MMR but I have to say I am not looking forward to helping him through this tough appointment.

Recently I read "Your Child's Best Shot" by Ronald Gold and was very disappointed to see how biased it was. It was essentially 400 pages of assurance that there are barely any risks or side effects of vaccination, and scare tactics about the potential risks of the relevant illnesses. The book also featured information about past, subpar vaccinations put out to the public and how we've miraculously (note my sarcasm) improved them. By my logic, if a previous shot was, at that time, promoted as safe and is now seen as risky, could we not assume that future editions of this book will feature information on how 2011's vaccination versions were inadequate? We never know what future research will show us about things that we currently have confidence in: see thalidomide.

But here's a book that's worth its weight in gold: Dr. Sears' The Vaccine Book. He is a brilliant man, promoting concepts and philosophies well before his time. I believe future generations will look back on his books and say "This is what changed everything." Because the public library does not offer it, I recommend purchasing it now!



What a hard decision for any parent, but how lucky we are to have this information at our finger tips.