Do you purchase only organic food for yourself? Just

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To my family, the price is a concern. However, when we can, we like food out of our little garden best.

We serve nutritious foods with what we can provide. This week we ate strawberries and canteloupe because they were on sale. We've been using bell peppers in about everything for the same reason. However, next week might be broccoli everything. We are big bean eaters around here; they're cheap, nutritious, and good. Only Cargill a couple blocks away from here smells worse than us.

I don't really buy into the organic hype, but I've bought organic things, usually if they were cheap. I could read studies until I'm blue in the face about how the pesticides will give me hemorrhoids and foot fungus and whatever the study is about; I revel in the thought that my chance of death is eventually 100%.

Don't mind my ramble. Thank you for the article, though. I found it informative.

appreciate any advice, experience, do or dont's on buying one. One of the reasons I hate cycling is because of those small seats and my backside is fairly large (all the more reason to exercise). I need to start getting more exercise for health reasons or I'm headed in for serious problems.

Do you try to buy them wherever possible, or only if you happen to pick them up in error? If you intentionally buy them, why? Do they taste better, are they better for you, do you believe you're helping the environment?

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/diet.fitness/04/13/cl.organics/index.html

Organic vs. conventional: What do experts say?

By Amy Spindler
CookingLight.com

The organic market is growing at a steady pace of nearly 20 percent annually, and that translates into organic alternatives in nearly every grocery aisle -- from snack foods to frozen meals to baked goods. "Everyone wants to be healthy and these foods convey an aura of health," says Marion Nestle, Ph.D., professor of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University and author of "What to Eat." Here, experts compare some of the benefits and drawbacks of going organic.

Are organic products more nutritious?
A few small studies have shown that some organic foods contain higher nutrient levels than conventional ones. For example, a recent study showed that organic ketchup had 57 percent more of the antioxidant lycopene than regular ketchup. But the wholesale claim that organics are more nutritious than conventional is ahead of the science. "More research is needed before it can be stated that organic foods provide more nutritional value," says Connie Diekman, M.Ed., R.D., director of university nutrition at Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri.

Organic foods may have other benefits, though. Charles Benbrook, Ph.D., chief scientist at The Organic Center, asserts that some organic products are less processed, which means they may contain fewer chemically adulterated ingredients (think hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, and preservatives).

Bottom line: "Read labels and look at each product in its own right," Benbrook says. An organic potato chip may contain as many calories and saturated fat grams as a conventional chip. "The price premiums associated with processed organic food are not as great as the premiums charged for organic whole foods," Benbrook says.

Are organic products healthier for the environment?
What's best for the environment is hotly debated among experts. "There is no scientifically accepted evidence that organic foods are better for the environment. Organic production allows natural pesticides, which can be toxic to humans and wildlife," says Alan McHughen, Ph.D., professor of botany and plant sciences at the University of California, Riverside. Organic fertilizers may also contain harmful bacteria, such as E. coli. Plus, organic farming yields only 75 to 90 percent of the crop of conventional systems, meaning that more land must be planted in order to have an equal return.

Organic advocates counter that chemicals used in conventional farming spread far beyond the fields where they are applied and have unintended consequences. "Synthetic pesticides have been linked to developmental and neurological problems," Benbrook says. "Organics eliminate synthetic pesticides and the damage they do to farmers, land, and drinking water."

Organic regulations also prohibit the use of genetic modification -- another thorny issue with as-yet unclear implications for the environment.

Bottom line: Focus on foods' benefit to your immediate environmen -- i.e. your body -- first. "A good diet means variety, balance, and moderation, regardless of the farming method that produced the food," McHughen says.

Has anyone fed their cat Science Diet's CD dry food for FUS? My 8-year-old male, Sam, has been on this for about 5 years with no recurrence of FUS. To keep him away from any other type of food, I have fed the other two the same; however, we now are up to 6 cats, 4 males/2females, and it is getting too expensive. Thinking I could feed all of them a very good dry food and add some CD to Sam's, but cannot decide what would be a good choice.

Carbonated beverages
Mayo (Mayonnaise)
Tomatoes
Onion
Spicy Food
Jalape�os
Plain Milk (In cereal it is ok)
Bananas
Beer
champagne
soy milk
coffee
olives
hot peppers
green & red peppers
parmesan cheese
blue cheese salad dressing
raspberry vinaigrette salad dressing
spinach
coconut
mango
tofu
eggplant
yams
cottage cheese
artificial cheese (Mac & Cheese in a box)
cheese flavor gold fish crackers (Bad memory when I got sick as a kid from eating too many)

WASHINGTON(AP) Recalled pet foods contained a chemical used to make plastics, but government tests failed to confirm the presence of rat poison, federal officials said Friday.

The Food and Drug Administration said it found melamine in samples of the Menu Foods pet food, as well as in wheat gluten used as an ingredient. Cornell University scientists also have found the chemical, also used as a fertilizer, in the urine of sick cats, as well as in the kidney of one cat that died after eating the company's wet food.

Menu Foods recalled 60 million containers of cat and dog food earlier this month after animals died of kidney failure after eating the Canadian company's products. It is not clear how many pets may have been poisoned by the apparently contaminated food, although anecdotal reports suggest hundreds if not thousands have died. The FDA alone has received more than 8,000 complaints.

The new finding comes a week after scientists at the New York State Food Laboratory identified a rat poison and cancer drug called aminopterin as the likely culprit. The FDA said it could not confirm that finding.

New York officials have detected melamine as well, though it's not clear how that chemical would have poisoned pets. It's typically used to produce plastic kitchen wares, though it's apparently used as a fertilizer in Asia, said Stephen F. Sundlof, director of the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine.

The recall involved nearly 100 brands of "cuts and gravy" style dog and cat food made by Menu Foods. The recall covered products carrying names of major brand-name and private-label products sold throughout North America.

The apparently melamine-contaminated wheat gluten also was shipped to an unnamed company that manufactures dry pet food. The FDA is attempting to determine if that product, imported from China, was used to make any pet food, Sundlof said.

counter-clockwise, For additional information on dining etiquette, please consult Manners 2000 Volume I Social Graces and Table Manners Video.