Organic lifestyle??

laureneh01 wrote: »

I am looking start to eat organic food & less meat. Does anyone have any tips on where to shop and finding discounts? (I am a college student- so also maintaining this with a busy schedule)
I have a Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s near me if that helps

I'll have what tips I can at the end here, but the first part, unless you have a fairly high budget, you're going to be out of luck (but you may have a high budget, which is why I'll put some things below).

It's pretty much this issue: organic food is going to cost more than conventionally grown food. I mean, it's backwards that this is how our country does it, because honestly, you'd think people who are using a buttload of chemicals should pay more money to prove it's safe, and instead, it's people who are NOT using a buttload of chemicals who have to pay money to prove they aren't using them. 0.o

But...still true. Organic food is more $. Convenience food, that you don't have to spend so much time cooking...is more $. Convenient organic food? Even more $$.

And convenient, or even just, organic food that you can get a discount on? Pretty darn rare, honestly.

But to find what you can, and cook as little time as possible...
1. Learn what is in season, and look for sales on that. I've seen some organic produce on sale for cheaper than the conventional produce sometimes, during their season. But you honestly have to just get a list of local stores and look at each one's sales, every week. Around my area, as an example, I've found the cheapest organic apples at Whole Foods one week, Natural Grocers the next, and then a local Fry's (Smith's some places) the next. You really can't stick with one store only, if you are looking for the cheapest prices, which makes it tricky as a college student with limited time, honestly.

2. Some stores will have small bags of produce that are about to go bad that they put out for cheaper costs. Unless it is some place that is mostly organic produce, however, it's rarely the organic produce. I see it a lot at some local grocers who cater to certain nationalities, like a local oriental market here, but it's rarely organic. Natural Grocers also does it around me, and is all organic, and some co-ops near here do it, too. I've never seen Whole Foods or Trader Joe's do it - seems to be a bit of a status thing. Can't seem like you can't afford to shop there, or that you might want a sale, after all. :-/

3. Farmer's markets can help. Interview the farmers on what substances they use on their produce for insect protection, killing weeds, and soil amendments - many times, farmers are using methods you would consider organic, but they can't call it organic because they aren't certified (the certification process is expensive). So you can get organic food, even if it's sold at a lower 'non-organic' price. Of course, sometimes this is still more expensive than the stores, so you have to compare prices to be sure.

3. Sometimes, farmers will have cheaper prices at the end of the market, to try and off load veggies they are not going to sell that day. Sometimes you can haggle, even if they haven't done that. But you have to accept whatever foods they have left and just learn how to use that.

4. If you cannot afford all the organic, you can at least look at produce that has the biggest pesticide load-ewg.org makes a list every year. This year, in descending order of amount of pesticides found, the produce with the most pesticides were: strawberries, spinach, nectarines, apples, grapes, peaches, cherries, pears, tomatoes, celery, potatoes and sweet bell peppers. So getting these organic would have more impact than getting, say, an organic avocado. Or just avoiding these if you can't afford organic - an organic sweet bell pepper around my area (which is a cheap area, too), was around $4.99 for 1 pepper. 0.0

5. If you are looking for less meat and more vegetarian options (ignoring the organic aspect of it), I HIGHLY recommend checking out any ethnic markets near you. Many beans and lentils (and grains) are substantially cheaper (dried, of course) at Mexican, Indian, or Asian grocers. And you can get more variety as well. The variety of veggies at Asian markets is much greater, and often cheaper. And spices - at Asian or Indian markets you can typically get spices for so much cheaper it's unreal (same with Mexican grocers, but different spices and less variety). I've found 1/2 lb bags of a spice at the local Indian market for cheaper than I could get a tiny 1 oz bottle at the generic grocers. TOTALLY worth checking it out, even if you have to drive a bit further, or take a bus, once a month or so.

6. COOKING - for getting things that don't take too long to cook, you honestly can't get processed organic food for this, not cheaply. You can look for things in a clearance shelf (some stores have this, some don't) near the back, typically. But otherwise, best way to cope with limited time is to change the way you cook. Crock pots or instant pots are your friend, here - you can cook lots of stews and soups and casseroles that way, with little time spend on your end.

7. Or take one day a week and making a lot of foods INTO frozen meals will help you during the week. Like, make some marinades and freeze them, make rice and freeze it, chop veggies for the week, then just thaw and use marinade with veggies you chopped, serve over the rice. Look up 'once a month meals' or 'once a week meals' on google and you'll get a lot of ideas. :-)

8. Bento boxes - these are great to start changing things up with, mostly because many recipes are basically rice, with a lot of veg, and there are lots of fun omelet or hard boiled egg recipes people use for them. And they are aimed at using up the last tiny bit of left overs you have, so it's a good way to be frugal with that.

9. Grow some herbs. organic spices are insanely expensive. organic fresh herbs are, too. Having a few pots of herbs at home is really darn cheap, and you can then just use as much as you can grow, and herbs are pretty forgiving of new gardeners, if you've never grown them before. If you end up having space for a few pots, you could even grow a little food of your own, too, that are on the big pesticide list, like strawberries, spinach, or tomatoes, you know? These do well in pots.

Don't know how much these helped, but I wish you luck. It's sadly harder than one would hope, trying to eat organic these days.

SassyPants13 wrote: »

psuLemon wrote: »

Buy in bulk if you can, especially considering that you roughly pay 2-3x the price for no additional benefit.

Really? How do you not receive benefits from eating organic fruits and vegetables? What's your source?

There is just little evidence that organic foods provide any additional benefits than non organic foods. People believe organic is better because it sounds "better". And some automatically think natural is better, even though there are a lot of thinks that are natural that can kill us.

https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2012/09/little-evidence-of-health-benefits-from-organic-foods-study-finds.html

If anything, i would and try to buy local just to support local business.

SassyPants13 wrote: »

psuLemon wrote: »

Buy in bulk if you can, especially considering that you roughly pay 2-3x the price for no additional benefit.

Really? How do you not receive benefits from eating organic fruits and vegetables? What's your source?

Organic is unfortunately pretty much a marketing term. Produce labeled Organic can still use pesticides, just different ones than standard produce. And you have to pay to be labeled Organic, so many smaller local farms don't get the label because they can't afford it. And there have been all kinds of controversies of stores misleadingly labeling foods so they can charge more for them. There was also a large study not all that long ago that showed no nutrient differences between standard and Organic labeled produce.

OP, if your budget is tight, IMHO looking for "Organic" foods is paying for a luxury you can't afford. If you are concerned about where your food comes from, try to buy locally in season, and check out farmers markets. Most research that I've seen suggests that a diet of richly varied standard veggies and fruits would be better than eating a limited selection of Organic stuff.

I find the prices at TJ's are pretty good, but their selection can be limited, and you have to be careful not to get lured into buying some of the specialty stuff that isn't nearly as budget friendly. I don't routinely shop WF, I find their marketing disingenuous and it just makes me not want to shop there.

Frozen veggies, dry beans and lentils, in-season produce, and bulk grains can really help the bottom line!