Locally Grown vs. Organic

Walk down any grocery aisle and you can find organic foods. Juice... Cereal... Canned goods and ethnic. Dietitian Susan Kundrat says its in response to consumer demand. "Were learning more about how foods can help prevent disease and how they can help manage problems you may have and people are really concerned about feeding their kids appropriately," Kundrat says. Organic food is grown without added pesticides. Locally grown food can be grown organically... But some people prefer to buy from a farmers market or co-op... With or without the additives. "If you buy local, its going to be more fresh, its probably going to taste better and now you dont have all the cost with transporting the food," says Kundrat. Dietitians say first just focus on getting your five services of fruits and vegetables a day, then try making the switch to organic. "We know that organically grown apples and spinach really do have considerably less pesticides than if theyre not grown organically. Other foods, like broccoli, might not be that big of a problem," Kundrat says. So Kundrat says you can pick and chose what you buy organic... Especially if its something you eat a lot of... "If they drink a lot of milk, maybe thats something youd want to buy without the added hormones." Dietitians stress... To wash *any fresh food before eating it. Also... Focus on choosing a wide variety of colors to benefit from eating different antioxidants.