Organic Cooking to Get Fit

March 10, 2011 · 4 comments

This is a guest post by Mike Rocha.

Sometimes, progress has a dark underbelly. In the case of mass-produced food, we have seen that quite often we have sacrificed nutrition and environmental conservation for the sake of convenience. While disease has been by and large eliminated when it comes to the food from our local grocery, the real downside has been much more insidious. The long-term effects of exposure to meat treated with antibiotics and hormones, or fruits and vegetables coated in various pesticides have not yet been fully realized, but initial studies have not been good. So now people are waking up and realizing that we need to get back to our roots. Nowadays, more and more folks are looking towards organic food as a way to get healthy and fit.

What Does it Mean?

The term “organic” gets thrown around quite a bit, but most people don’t know what it means. The term goes back to 1940, when Walter James described in his book Look to the Land a farm that was treated as an organism, rather than a commodity. His idea was that this organism needed to be kept healthy and free of synthetic influences, such as manmade chemicals and the like.

“Organic” refers to:

Vegetables, herbs, and fruits that have been grown, picked, and shipped without the use of non-approved, synthesized herbicides, fungicides, or pesticides.
Livestock that have not been treated with antibiotics and/or hormones and have had significant time at pasture.

Visiting Your Farmers’ Market

One great way to start organic cooking is make it a part of your plan to lose weight and get in shape. While exercise is just as important as eating right, there is no substitution for good, healthy food. Organic food is by default exactly that; good and healthy.

First things first; you have to find your closest farmers’ market. It may have passed under your radar up until this point, but you best believe that it is there. If you’re lucky, you may even have more than one close by. Farmer’s markets aren’t hard to find by design. You can usually find out when and where they’re held online or in the paper. They are also usually held on the same day every week in the same place, as long as it is in season. For organic foods you can’t get at a farmer’s market, such as meats, try a grocery store that carries organic foods – most do nowadays.

Organic Cooking

Upon return with your organic food, look on the Internet for some easy organic recipes that you can implement. There are thousands of other folks that are cooking organically to lose weight, and chances are you’ll find ideas and information you never thought about. While substituting organic olive oil for butter is a pretty common organic solution, it doesn’t end there by a long shot.

Whatever you do, don’t believe that your organic diet has to be unpleasant. Cuisinart food processors are going to see a lot of action in organic homes, as there is no limit to what you can do with all the food you can get from your organic grocery or farmers’ market.

Mike Rocha is an engineer from Florida with a passion for food and the Cuisinart brand. As an engineer and hobbyist chef, he uses and stands by Cuisinart because of the ingenuity, quality and functionality of the brand. Being an electrical engineer who designs and develops medical imaging systems, Mike understands more than most what is necessary in creating these advanced appliances. Check out his website if you are looking for good deals on Cuisinart slow cookers.

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{ 4 comments }

julie March 10, 2011 at 6:36 pm: Be careful making assumptions. I can find organic oreo-type cookies, and my farmers market sells a lot of non-certified produce of all types. I don’t think organic chickens are necessarily pastured, and pastured eggs cannot be referred to as organic (as they eat bugs and slugs and non-certified organic food).
Alex "Dude Where's My Muscle" Siddy March 11, 2011 at 10:32 am: I am glad more people are becoming health conscious and are starting to understand the value of getting organic produce. Where I live in Australia, more and more organic produce stores are opening up which is providing a wonderful opportunity to get more wider range of organic products.

But due dilligance must be done with all organic foods (if possible), because there are a lot of “crooks” getting on the organic bandwagon and selling high priced products that are claimed to be organic but are not.

So ask questions and do your research.

If you’re not sold on the value of organic, hopefully this article has offered some insight!
Russ March 21, 2011 at 7:54 am: Good post as a lot of people don’t quite understand what organic really means. A lot of people also confuse it with “all natural” but they have very different standards. I think going organic is great, I just don’t want to see companies try and take advantage off of it, which has already started happening. Hopefully they can keep regulation tight on this.
Steven B. March 22, 2011 at 12:42 am: I write extensively about exercise, but there is no question in my mind and experience that exercise is only part of the losing weight and health equation. Healthy eating is equally important. In fact, eating well, including organic foods (I focus on buying organic dairy and produce) can aid weight loss, and more importantly, result in a healthier body quickly.

I don’t really cook much differently on account of eating organic food. I use healthy oils such as olive, sesame, and coconut oils. I believe using the right oils with cooking is an important element of eating well. In fact, I don’t buy the “low-fat” or “sugar-free” options because I avoid sugar substitutes such as aspartame as much as possible. I believe the obsession with minimizing or eliminating fat intake is not the right approach. We need fat, and good oils are beneficial to health.