If you can buy everything organic that is ideal, but if you can only choose a few things organic in your weekly shop here are my common sense rules.
1. Choose products you eat every day/most often and buy these items as organic. This will usually include bread, milk, butter, eggs, sugar, tea, and coffee for people on a standard diet who are looking to make changes. Of course everyone is different, so choose your most consumed products to buy organic from your regular diet. Here at UK Raw Health HQ our most consumed daily items are teas, water, carrots, beets, celery, spinach, apples, watermelon, lemons, haricot beans, flax seed oil, cos/romaine lettuce and salad leaves.
2. Try to find organic sources of the following produce most impacted by chemicals (known as the dirty dozen). Apples, celery, cherries, tomatoes, cucumbers, grapes, hot and sweet peppers, nectarines peaches, potatoes, spinach, strawberries, collard greens, kale, summer squash and zucchini/courgettes.*
3. Grow your own vegetables and herbs. You really don't need very much space, if you have never grown anything before you will be surprised at how many tomatoes just one plant will yield. Remember to buy organic compost (if required) and organic seeds - or collect seeds from your own shop bought produce. There are many seeds in just one cherry tomato. Grow plants you really like to eat often, ones that are expensive to buy and spoil easily in the fridge.
4. Grow berry fruits such as raspberries, blueberries and black berries. These are a good investment as the plants will spread and multiply once planted, each year will bring more fruits. Berries are the most delicate fruit that often spoil quickly and are expensive in organic form when purchased. So what could be better than picking and eating at their freshest and ripest. The plants are very hardy too, they have a wild temperament, coming back every year in full force with little gardening care required.
5. Check prices online using a comparison website (eg. mysupermarket.com)to see how the prices of the organic items you like compare between supermarkets.
6. Keep note of where certain organic products are cheapest for your own reference to make shopping easy. And sign up for emails with the companies you buy from to make sure you are getting the special offers and discount codes.
7. Shop in bulk from a wholesaler, many organic supermarkets, farms and fruit and vegetable suppliers offer wholesale prices. This is great if you use a lot of a particular item, such as daily juicing of carrots, regular almond milk production and frozen fruit desserts.
8. Choose the cheaper cuts of organic meat and poultry. Chicken thighs and beef mince are an awful lot cheaper than buying rump steak or a whole chicken. I would avoid high fat cheaper cuts.
9. Start sprouting seeds. This is one of the cheapest and best ways to consume fresh, living, organic plants. The seeds are cheap (you must buy organic sprouting seeds) and you can either sprout in any clean jar(s) or buy a sprouter which is less time consuming to care for. We like alfalafa and red lentils here at UK Raw Health.
I hope you have found this helpful. I am glad to see more and more organic foods and seeds available from even the budget supermarkets in the UK. Please add your tips for buying organic on a budget below in the comments section or email any questions to me Mrs. Bee UKRawHealth@gmail.com.
*Source: Goop http://www.goop.com/journal/make/266/goop-mag-13. Information
on UK Raw Health is the opinion of the writer and/or other individuals
mentioned. Information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or
prevent any disease or provide education. Statements have not been
evaluated or approved by any regulatory bodies. Before making any changes to diet, regime and/or lifestyle consult your doctor.
