What's Inside: Part 2

I began eating organic food a few years ago because my body does not respond well to the pesticides and hormones in conventional food. At that time, I learned about one of the major differences between conventional and organic vegetables: conventional vegetables are grown for looks (size, color, perfection) and organic vegetables are grown for nutritional content, even if that means they don't look as good. However, I didn't know the magnitude of the difference until I read an article on MSNBC that quantified the significant drop in the nutritional content of conventional veggies in recent decades. "Broccoli, for example, had 130 mg of calcium in 1950. Today, that number is only 48 mg.... The very things that speed growth — selective breeding and synthetic fertilizers — decrease produce's ability to synthesize nutrients or absorb them from the soil." The article said that the opposite is happening with organic vegetables: nutritional content is going up in organic food.

We often favor the big, beautiful conventional tomato with half of the nutritional value of the smaller, flawed organic tomato. We often value the cheaper, conventional food but pay the price in higher medical bills, extra beauty products, or feeling less than our best.

What's inside eventually manifests into what's outside.