{"id":697,"date":"2012-10-28T09:00:29","date_gmt":"2012-10-28T16:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/safaraf.com\/?p=697"},"modified":"2012-10-28T09:19:55","modified_gmt":"2012-10-28T16:19:55","slug":"the-clean-15-shoppers-guide-to-organic-produce-on-a-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/safaraf.com\/?p=697","title":{"rendered":"The Clean 15: Shoppers Guide to Organic Produce on a Budget"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I think I can assume to say that we\u00a0all like to supply our family with the best of what is offered when it comes to food.\u00a0 We seek out the foods that will give us the nutrition we need while being tasty and appetizing to our palates.<\/p>\n

This\u00a0careful selective process is\u00a0particularly applied to fruits and vegetables. As we find ourselves having to choose from an array of options\u00a0we comb the aisles of the produce area hoping to\u00a0get the best for what is\u00a0offered.\u00a0 We\u00a0touch, pinch, hold, smell\u00a0and observe the color and texture to select the best of the bunch.\u00a0 Somewhere along the line, we find ourselves having to make a decision and this can often come down to affordability.<\/p>\n

What we can afford is often what we choose as our economic sensibility takes over whatever criteria we had to make our selection of fruits and vegetables.\u00a0 This can often be a matter of choosing between what is organic and non-organic as prices for these categories alone can sometimes have us feeling trapped to make choices we would not otherwise.<\/p>\n

I find it helpful to prepare myself before I go food shopping for the week and look at the list of fruits and vegetables and decide what I will buy organic and non-organic.\u00a0 A resource that I continue to use as it is usually updated each year is The Environmental Working Group (EWG) Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce which you can find here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is a simple, easy to use guide is divided into two categories; “The Clean 15” and “The Dirty Dozen”.\u00a0 This year “The Dirty Dozen” was expanded and renamed “Dirty Dozen Plus”\u00a0 to include leafy greens such as green beans and kale.\u00a0\u00a0These greens along with other vegetables and fruits such as apples, peaches, celery, cucumber and spinach are recommend be bought organic.<\/p>\n

The “Clean 15” are the\u00a0produce\u00a0with the lowest amount of pesticides.\u00a0 These include vegetables such as onions, cabbage and\u00a0sweet peas and fruits\u00a0like\u00a0pineapple, avocado and mango.<\/p>\n

When trying to save money while selecting produce that will be best for your family, consider your options.\u00a0 Consulting resources for pesticide usage is one way to divide your list\u00a0into what can give you peace of mind not just for your\u00a0family’s\u00a0food safety but also for your\u00a0wallet.<\/p>\n

(Note that the the list was compiled through research done on 10 years of\u00a0 data from the USDA and the US Dept of Agriculture).<\/p>\n

Share your resources for good shopping sense and\u00a0“cents”\u00a0with us.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I think I can assume to say that we\u00a0all like to supply our family with the best of what is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/safaraf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/safaraf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/safaraf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/safaraf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/safaraf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=697"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/safaraf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":703,"href":"http:\/\/safaraf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697\/revisions\/703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/safaraf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/safaraf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/safaraf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}