Finding Organic Motivation

Over the past few years it seems as though there has been an intense nudge for all of us to start eating organic foods. I know that there were a few things that led me to believe an organic diet was going to be extremely beneficial to my health. Although my diet is not 100% organic, I make an active effort to eat specific organic foods and evaluate what comes into my kitchen.

Are you still on the fence about eating organic? Are you looking for a way to go beyond eating organically? Here are three levels of “eaters” and tips on how to enhance your organic eating habits.

You’ve never thought about eating organic:
Research the “dirty dozen” and start there. If you are not going to be buying 100% organic, it’s important to know which items are best to buy organic and which items are ok to pass up. You can find a list of the “dirty dozen” items by visiting Organic.org. My organic staples are milk, meats and eggs.

You want to learn more:
Watch Food Inc.. This movie changed my eating habits forever. If you only watch one movie about food, this is the one I recommend. There are plenty of other resources to educate yourself, too. Here are my favorites:
Movie: Food Inc. and Fresh The Movie
Books: Omnivore’s Dilemma
Blogs: No Meat Athlete and Peas and Thank You - both of these are vegetarian/vegan blogs which are more focused on sustainable eating, but are still extremely informational

You’re hooked:
Go beyond eating at an organic restaurant and try something completely different. Recently I was introduced to Outstanding in The Field, a “roving culinary adventure.” I believe that this must be a truly organic experience. While all of the food might not be 100% organic, it is fresh and local, picked just feet from where you are eating. The experience is deemed as a “restaurant without walls” and dinners are served in the middle of fields, tops of mountains, along a stream or another incredible outdoor location. It’s a pure culinary celebration. I highly recommend checking out their website and seeing for yourself how beautiful this dinner experience is. If you’re curious, I suggest that you try it out! They are coming to our area this fall. To buy tickets for the September 28 or 29 dinner, click here. It might seem a little pricey, but I think it would be 100% worth it...and you have plenty of time to save up for it! (I have to note that I have not attended one of these events, was not paid anything to post about them and am just purely fascinated with this concept.)

Do you already eat organic foods? Do you want to try? Or do you think it’s all a bunch of craziness? I’d love to hear your opinions!