Organic food availability has increased over the past few years in the marketplace. Now they can easily be found in not only health food stores like Whole Foods, but also in your basic, more generic stores and even places like WalMart and Target.  Organic foods are generally more expensive than non-organic foods, which can turn many people off from purchasing them, so read on to learn about the benefits of eating organically, and which foods should top your organic to-buy list.

Why eat organic?

Whether or not organic food are more nutritious has been a long on-going debate.  However, recent studies suggest that organically grown plant products contain more minerals and antioxidants then conventionally produced products. Producing organic food is also better for the environment.  Environmental benefits of organic production include improved soil organic matter, reduced energy use, reduced pesticide residues in food and water, and lower nutrient pollution.

Why is organic food more expensive?

Due to a smaller production scale and higher labor costs, organic foods tend to cost more at the grocery store.  However, you may notice when certain fruits and vegetables are in-season, the organic to non-organic price is fairly similar.  Focus on eating organic fruits and vegetables that are in season to avoid the high mark-up.   Refer to the website fruitandveggiesmorematters from the Produce for Better Health Foundation for lists of foods that are in season monthly and year-round.

What does organic mean on a food label?

In order to use the term “organic” on a food label, specific guidelines must be met as defined by The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Organic Program.  These guidelines ensure that all organic meat, dairy, eggs, and poultry came from animals that were given no antibiotics or hormones. Plant-based foods can be labeled USDA organic seal of approval, like pictured above, as long as they are grown without most pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, sewage fertilizers, bioengineering or ionizing radiation.

What are the different levels of organic claims on food labels?

A product will be labeled “100% organic” as long as it is completely organic or made from completely organic ingredients.  The USDA allows foods to be labeled “organic” as long as 95% of the ingredients are organic.  By law, products can be labeled “made with organic ingredients” as long as it is made from 70% organic ingredients.  However, you will not find the USDA organic seal on these food labels.

The Dirty Dozen & the Clean Fifteen

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) is a non-profit research team whose mission is to use the power of public information to protect public health and the environment.  EWG accomplishments include helping to ban BPA plastic in baby bottles, reform toxic chemical laws, and fighting for safer tap water.  The EWG also helps determine which produce is the greatest  contaminated and which is the least contaminated by pesticides in the US.  The produce found to be the most contaminated make up the “dirty dozen” list and is recommended to be purchased organic, washed, and eaten.  The “clean fifteen” list of foods are those that are the least-contaminated and deemed O.K. to eat non-organic by the EWG.  You may notice that the foods on the “clean fifteen” list tend to have thicker skins that are either peeled or tossed away before being eaten.  The hard exterior of foods like watermelon, cantaloupe, and avocado may help protect the inner, edible portion from absorbing pesticides.

Dirty Dozen:Buy these organic

• Apples
• Celery
• Strawberries
• Peaches
• Spinach
• Nectarines, imported
• Grapes, imported
• Sweet bell peppers
• Potatoes
• Blueberries, domestic
• Lettuce
• Kale/collard green

The Clean Fifteen: Lowest in pesticides

• Onions
• Sweet Corn
• Pineapples
• Avocado
• Asparagus
• Sweet peas
• Mangoes
• Eggplant
• Cantaloupe, domestic
• Kiwi
• Cabbage
• Watermelon
• Sweet potatoes
• Grapefruit
• Mushrooms

“Executive Summary | EWG’s Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides | Environmental Working Group | EWG.org.” EWG Home | Environmental Working Group. Web. 06 Feb. 2012. <http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary/>.

“Fruits & Veggies More Matters » What’s In Season? Winter.” Fruits & Veggies More Matters. Produce for Better Health Foundation. Web. 06 Feb. 2012. <http://www.fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org/?page_id=795>.

McCullum-Gomez, Christine, and Anne-Marie Scott. “Perspectives on the Benefits of Organic Foods.” Eatright.org. Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Sept. 2009. Web. Feb. 2012.

“Question of the Day – What Does ‘ Organic’ Mean on a Food Label? – from the Academy.” Eatright.org. Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Web. 06 Feb. 2012.    http://www.eatright.org/Public/content.aspx?id=6442451536

Some other blogs claim that they never show a full feed of their content since people would stop visiting their site (which is filled with ads).

We say, “To hell with that.” Sure, we have more advertisements on our site than in our feed, but what matters to us more than revenue is “helping people”.

We noticed the click through rate from our teaser feed to our website is about 25%-33%. After looking at this, we suspect that the a “click” is too much of an information barrier. If a click action is preventing us from helping our readers, we are going to remove that barrier.

Please enjoy and best of luck to your health!

The Problem

There are tons and tons of information out there on the internet about how to lose weight and get in better shape, but how much of that information can really help YOU? Here are some reasons why many fitness articles out there on the internet probably won’t help you all that much:

1. Many fitness articles are motivational pieces and lack practical instructions on how to get fit.
2. The remaining articles, which are non-motivational pieces, will most likely present false information in order to try to sell you something.
3. The remaining articles, which are non-motivational pieces and non-sales-pitch, will most likely only present shallow tips that overgeneralize its target audience, making their tips ineffective for the reader.
4. The remaining articles will have great in-depth content and show people exactly how to get fit, but will only be able to target certain types of people. These articles get read by a general audience and the tips only work for a group of the readers while wasting other readers’ time.

The Solution: myTWEAKS^TM

Since we are a multi-personality blog, we have different blog posts that help different types of people.

Why should we show “bulking up” articles to somebody who’s trying to lose weight? Why should we show a plyometrics article to someone who is 55 years old? Why should we show a booty workout article to a dude?

The simple answer is, we shouldn’t!

I recognize that there needs to be a solution for this confusion in the fitness world (well, at least for this blog). myTWEAKS will let you personalize who you are, and show articles that are only relavant to YOU.

Less Noise => More Focus => Better Results

Try it!

Go ahead and try it right now (it takes less than 1 minute to do – no registration required), tell us a little bit about you and we’ll only show you articles that are relavant to you!

BONUS: Once you’re done personalizing, you can even subscribe to the feed and have personalized fitness tips delivered to your RSS reader.

When happens when you purchase

• You are helping others get fit by spreading the word about this website.
• You are helping us fund our site from the few dollars we make from every purchase (allowing us to continue to bring you great content).
• You are helping yourself stick to your fitness goal as these products will help remind you of your resolve to get fit.

Please let us know if you have any feedback on these products in the comments section below.

What next?

PageRank is really just what Google thinks about us. What we care about more is what YOU think about us. Because of that, we will continue to work hard at bringing you great fitness articles to help optimize your workout routine or improve your diet.

To help us serve you better, feel free to leave any comments or suggestions in the comments section below!

My name is Thaya Kareeson.  Thus far, I have been overweight for the majority of my life.  I have tried many workout routines, crash diets, and supplements with little or temporary success. My weight kept yo-yo-ing for the majority of the time, and my blood pressure and cholesterol levels were often above the norm.

In August 2008 at 240 lbs. with 39% body fat, I finally decided to put an end to my unhealthy cycle. I started doing a lot of research and started pursuing new workout concepts, healthy/sustainable diets, and safe nutritional supplements. Exactly one year later (August 2009), I weighed in at 195 lbs. with 21% body fat and I felt like I have reached my goal of becoming healthy.  Since then, I have made a new goal.  Now my next goal is to reach 175 lbs. at 14% body fat by August 2010 and sustain that weight.

After successfully attaining my fitness goal, I decided to launch TweakFit.com in September 2009 with the hope of helping many others become healthier.