For those who eat organic, stay away from GMO's, pesticides, and buy Eco- friendly products...

Where do you do your research on what to buy and what products are the best? I'm finding it very overwhelming. I use a few websites to help me out and find out imformation on here and Facebook but I wish there was a one stop shop to find out what I should and shouldn't buy lol! Do you belong to any Facebook groups on these things or are their particular websites that you like?

I'll give some examples... I recently learned that Kashi was owned by Kellogs and they give money to keep GMO labeling off of products. Their non organic stuff is riddled with GMO's and pesticides. Cascadian Farms is also owned by a big company...Campbell's and they also give money to stop GMO labeling as well as Horizon organics. Cascadian Farms has been changing their ingredients to add more sugar and take out other healthy stuff and do the bare minimum to make it organic. Horizon feeds their cows organic grains but still keeps them in horrendous conditions like everyone else where they have no room to roam and walk in their own feces. I've also heard some unsavory stuff about Muir Glen and Wolfgang Puck organic soups. When it comes to the cleaning and health and beauty products Babyganics does a lot of green washing and safemama.com doesn't recommend any of their stuff saying their is nothing green about their ingredients at all. Toms and Seventh Generation use sodium lauryl sulfates as well as Ecoever and Mrs. Meyers. Toms and Burt's Bees are owned by Colgate Palmolive and Clorox and even though Burt's Bees has promised not to change it's ingredients and formula the money I spend is still going to line the pockets of a company that uses harmful chemicals that are bad for the people who use them and the environment as well as test on animals.
I follow a lot of pages on Facebook for recipe ideas and product ideas. The one page I follow is the organic momma. She has awesome ideas and stuff and used all these products that she says are safe, etc. So I did some reading on her and it turns out she's not just some mom like me trying to be organic and toxin free...she also sells the products in a direct sales type business called Young Living. I googled the products and the head of the company is a quack who has all fake degrees and has been in trouble with the FDA for false claims. Fast forward a few months and I'm in Sherry's in Babylon looking for some vitamins for my boys and the manager recommends the Garden of Life brand for them. It's a whole food vitamin,etc. So expensive but whatever, it's good for them right? Well a few days ago I find out that Garden of Life is a brand owned by the same quack that owns Young Living. So now I don't know if I can trust these vitamins.

My point is, I'm dedicated to this lifestyle...to eating organics and being as Eco-friendly as possible but I feel like it is next to impossible to figure out what to buy. Either the product still has crap in it that is bad for you or the company supports things that I don't stand for and I don't want them to have my money lol.

So please tell me how you research the products that you purchase.

Re: For those who eat organic, stay away from GMO's, pesticides, and buy Eco- friendly products...

I don't follow this lifestyle but IMO you are always going to run into problems like you mentioned. You will have to do your best. The only way to prevent the issues is to grow/make your own food and products.

Re: For those who eat organic, stay away from GMO's, pesticides, and buy Eco- friendly products...

I commend you for being so dedicated. We eat organic when possible but I gave up trying when we eat out. I have to say that honestly I feel there is no perfect product out there. I try to use everyhing in moderation and vary brands and things we eat bc since I don't trust even organic stuff. I think you can drive yourself crazy with it all. Which is partly why I do some but vary our stuff. This way if X brand has a problem we rotate it with others. I think the only way to be sure is to grow your own fruits/veggies, raise/feed/kill your own meats. But then you have to worry about the ground and how many pesticides are in the dirt from previous owners. I heard there was an app from another mother that you can enter brands or products and it can give you info but I forget the name. I guess my issue is today x product or food is good but tomorrow it isn't they cannot decide what we should or should not eat or use.

For those who eat organic, stay away from GMO's, pesticides, and buy Eco- friendly products...

Idk I have the same issues honestly. We do all our food shopping at Trader Joe's so I don't have to worry about reading labels. I buy whatever organic stuff they have. We even use their dishwasher detergent, laundry detergent, shampoo & conditioner, etc.

I'm having the biggest problem eating out lately. I feel like every place is loaded with GMO's and chemicals. Panera was once my go to place but now after reading that article a couple months ago about how they have all those chemicals and msg in their food, I don't even go there anymore. I've been going to Hale and & Hearty a lot lately but I don't think they use organic products either. I will say that it seems like Chipotle will be GMO free in the future, they're working on it right now. So that's good at least. It's so hard though, I feel your pain!

Re: For those who eat organic, stay away from GMO's, pesticides, and buy Eco- friendly products...

Re: For those who eat organic, stay away from GMO's, pesticides, and buy Eco- friendly products...

Re: For those who eat organic, stay away from GMO's, pesticides, and buy Eco- friendly products...

I'm excited that Whole foods is switching to only non GMO everything within the next 2 years. I will spend more and make the hike there.

I wish I had advice. It is so hard!

p.s I use Nature's Plus Vitamins for the kid s( from Sherry's) and we love them. We get the ones with the added greens.

Message edited 7/14/2013 9:10:56 PM.

Re: For those who eat organic, stay away from GMO's, pesticides, and buy Eco- friendly products...

Re: For those who eat organic, stay away from GMO's, pesticides, and buy Eco- friendly products...

And that's the problem with the food system here in America. For me the best chance I have to eat as healthy as possible and at the same time not buy from companies that are not in line with my believes is to eliminate all process foods. Shop the perimeter of the stores. Start making things from scratch, grow food in your backyard, find natural products for hair and skin. My son has skin issues from time to time and for the most part organic coconut oil clears his skin right up. There are many skin care options that you can make yourself. Yes all this is more work, takes up time, and may cost more money. You can get caught up in everything. Do the best you can and things will fall into place.

Re: For those who eat organic, stay away from GMO's, pesticides, and buy Eco- friendly products...

I do all my shopping at Whole Foods so it is actually pretty easy. They have GMO labeling on enough products at this point combined with my own knowledge of what types of foods etc. have GMO's in them and I can get everything I need. For all produce, meats, dairy etc. it's 100% organic for us. I also have no problem finding everything from juice boxes to snacks for the kids without GMO's that are just as appealing to them as the junk... If you haven't been to Whole Foods recently you should go - you'd be surprised at all the GMO labeling in the past month or so...It is $$$ but it's worth every penny for me.

As for whether you can "trust" the companies...well...there is nothing I can do about that - so I do the best I can. The non-gmo project is an independent group so I do feel like their labeling gives me one step more confidence. However, I still check ingredients and inquire where necessary - I have emailed recently the gmo project when I was curious about something containing a non-organic canola oil being labeled non-gmo - haven't heard back yet but, will update when I do.

As for eating out this is something I am now trying to avoid - I also try to avoid ordering where possible things that are more likely to contain GMO's or be cooked in GMO oils - I will say though it's a lot easier for me than for the kids to order this way. There are finally restaurants popping up here and there that are going organic and NON-GMO for the most part (bareburger is here on LI now!)... but, I find you still need to be vigilant about asking what the organic foods are cooked in because who cares if it's organic chicken if it's cooked in non-organic canola oil...

Message edited 7/15/2013 8:23:28 AM.

Re: For those who eat organic, stay away from GMO's, pesticides, and buy Eco- friendly products...

ughh I find this so frustrating- I do my best to cut out HFC and GMOs and was using a lot of the products that you mentioned- cascadian farms was like my go-to.

Re: For those who eat organic, stay away from GMO's, pesticides, and buy Eco- friendly products...

Re: For those who eat organic, stay away from GMO's, pesticides, and buy Eco- friendly products...

Message edited 7/15/2013 9:20:38 AM.

Re: For those who eat organic, stay away from GMO's, pesticides, and buy Eco- friendly products...

Re: For those who eat organic, stay away from GMO's, pesticides, and buy Eco- friendly products...

I try to avoid really toxic stuff, but I am not all organic, non-GMO all the time.

My friend is more into though ( especially for her kids) and for non-food products, she recommended using The Environmental Working Group's website to research products.

I think they may lean a little towards the side of scare tactics & making things out to be worse than they are, but they do have pretty detailed info, so you can make your own decision.

If you are looking for personal care products, Ava Anderson http://www.avaandersonnontoxic.com/ is what my friend uses (and I' m starting too for some things--it's directs sales.)

The Honest Company is another option--the products seem similar to Ava Anderson, but I haven't purchased anything yet.

Re: For those who eat organic, stay away from GMO's, pesticides, and buy Eco- friendly products...

Re: For those who eat organic, stay away from GMO's, pesticides, and buy Eco- friendly products...

Re: For those who eat organic, stay away from GMO's, pesticides, and buy Eco- friendly products...

When we eat out, I don't get too crazy because it's once a week. I, at least hope I am doing an ok job with buying non gmo food but I do dread having to go shopping now because of what I know is in our food and I find it so time consuming reading every label & confusing with having to remember which brand pays to not label gmo's, which ingredient is bad, etc.

The closest whole foods to me is the manhasset one & the one time I tried to do a major shop there, I came out with almost nothing- there were overhead signs for organic produce, yet most of the produce itself wasn't labeled with a sticker at all or some of the produce was mixed with the "9" organic sticker and the "4" conventually grown sticker- How was I suppossed to know what was really organic?

Trader Joes claims that everything under their brand name is gmo free, but I don't know if I 100% believe that because then why not label your packaging with the gmo project stamp? And what about all TJ's meat that isn't organic? - it should be gmo free right? Do you trust that these animals were not fed gmo feed or given hormones, etc?
I recently bought TJ's brand yogurt and one of the ingredients is carrageenan-huge turn off.

Also, do you trust packaging like this where the store for some reason REpackages the meat and puts their store sticker on it claiming Organic??

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Message edited 7/16/2013 10:29:01 AM.

Re: For those who eat organic, stay away from GMO's, pesticides, and buy Eco- friendly products...

Re: For those who eat organic, stay away from GMO's, pesticides, and buy Eco- friendly products...

We just don't approach it as an all or nothing. We do the best we can to make good choices. If sometimes we hit 85% then I am OK with that. As long as my effort is 100%, Im OK if they results arent always 100%.

Re: For those who eat organic, stay away from GMO's, pesticides, and buy Eco- friendly products...

We don't eat out that often, but if we do I just try to make good choices at the restauarnt. The easiest way to approach food is to not buy processed and make your own - but it is time consuming. I find it much more difficult in the summer because I hate using the oven! For shopping I stick to whole foods because it's the easiest experience for me. Their 365 brand is sourced from non GMO ingredients (you still have to read labels though) and they rate their meat based on the environment the animal came from. They have a great selection of organic produce though I can't always find what i want. We started our own veggie garden this year which hopefully will help. We like to travel out east on the weekends and there's organic farmers markets for produce.

Cleaning / personal products is more difficult. It takes a lot of research and trial and error - i wish there was one website that could give you the answers for everything!!!

Re: For those who eat organic, stay away from GMO's, pesticides, and buy Eco- friendly products...

I often see thing on FB (in groups that I'm in or on pages that I follow) and then follow up with my own research. I agree that the best way to keep it clean is to make your own, but it's not always possible, especially if you work. I feel like there is a really fine line...I want to do what's best for my family, but sometimes I spend so much time making stuff (like cooking almost everything from scratch) that I am missing out on time with my kids. So I get where you're coming from about wanting to do everything "right" but I've some to accept that I can't to everything perfectly, I've got to just do the best I can.

Re: For those who eat organic, stay away from GMO's, pesticides, and buy Eco- friendly products...

For those who eat organic, stay away from GMO's, pesticides, and buy Eco- friendly products...

I try to buy everything organic or non gmo. When I cook at home, I make healthy meals. Unfortunately we eat out a lot and its not always organic. Sometimes I doubt if some organic products I buy are really organic. For example, cascadian farms frozen vegetables are made in china. Who knows what kind of quality control they have in china? I read that the organic olive oil I buy from costco may not be 100% organic. It gets overwhelming sometimes and its frustating when you are paying at a minimum double for organic products but not sure if they are 100% organic. I follow some food blogs where people have done research and recommend products. Recently I have been following foodbabe.com.

eta: I don't have any advice on a brand for vitamins but one thing to look for in a vitamin is to make sure it doesn't have artificial colors in it.

Message edited 7/17/2013 1:04:10 AM.

For those who eat organic, stay away from GMO's, pesticides, and buy Eco- friendly products...

I too, find it difficult to keep up with the non gmo things. One good site is the www.nongmoproject.org but be careful a lot of the companies that are owned by the bigger companies like general mills or kelloggs are on there. For cleaning products, like all purpose sprays, I make my own using essential oils, and vinegar. I use method dishwash detergent, and for a dish soap I usually just pick one from whole foods with no chemicals. When it comes to food...I do a lot of local shopping.. I buy my chicken and beef at a local farm. They have their own organic chickens, and outsource the beef, but it is all organic, grass fed. I also buy my vegetables and fruit from them, since it is all organic. We eat out occasionally now, but have cut down on it tremendously because I have been getting sick each time. Just out of curiosity, what do you find wrong with Jordan Rubin, the owner of Garden of Life and Young Living? I have read his books, and find him to be pretty resourceful and insightful. I would trust his products 100%, even though he doesn't have a fancy degree. Most of the people with degrees are the ones who cannot be trusted! Also, most health food stores will recommend his products because they are organic, and made from whole foods, which is the best way to get your vitamins. A lot of other ones are synthetic, so make sure you keep your eye out for that!