Tell someone a food is organic and you can almost immediately see a sense of relief, like they have been given permission to now enjoy the food.  Fruit, vegetables, meat, even cookies feel healthier if they are certified organic.  Organic foods have only grown in popularity over the past seven years or so that the government started certifying food as organic.  Many people buy organic, but more find it hard to afford organic foods.  Then what?  If you can’t afford it are you slowly damaging your health with pesticides and hormones? 

Consider the diet of the average American.  It is not loaded with fresh ingredients, fruits and vegetables are not in abundance,  and dairy is hard to find.  We spend our money on diet foods that have less calories or convenience foods.  We eat out often and cook home less.  The main problem is not organic, it is balance. 

1.  Add in come more fruits and vegetables.
2.  Find foods with fresh ingredients and less additives.
3.  Stop skipping meals.
4.  Eat vegetarian at least once a week.
5.  Cook at home 1-2x more per week.
6.  Look at how often you eat out and decide if it is often enough to order healthier options half the time.
7.  Try to increase your calcium intake with low fat dairy or green leafy vegetables.
8.  Have fish once a week.

Start with the structure of your diet before you jump to organic.  After all, an organic cookie is still a cookie and should be eaten mindfully .  So is the answer organic?  No.  I support it but do not think it is the right place to start if you have other basic changes to make.  So if you cannot afford organic, you can still make other changes to positively effect your health.  If you want to buy some fruit and vegetables organic, pick from the “dirty dozen” list that is said to have the highest amount of pesticide residue and for the rest buy what is on sale.