OutToLunch

A few months ago, I switched to eating mostly organic. I figured that if I'm going to eat fruits, vegetables, whole grains, etc. on a regular basis, I should focus on eating the highest quality foods, especially when you read about all the chemicals, pesticides, antiobiotics, etc. that get put into our food. But is it worth the added cost? Eating healthy is expensive enough to begin with, but eating organic is REALLY expensive. It started to sink in when I totalled up my monthly grocery bill. There's something wrong when someone who's single, doesn't drink, and doesn't have kids or pets is spending more per month on groceries than on his car. Yes, good health is more important than one's car, but food, even healthy food, should not be this expensive. If it's this expensive for someone like me, I'd hate to imagine what it's like for the average family.

There is so much being said and written about nutrition that it's hard to know what to believe. How much of this should be taken seriously and how much should I just dismiss as paranoia? I want to maintain a healthy lifestyle for the rest of my life and not wonder what's going to happen to me 30 years from now if I eat contaminated fruits and vegetables. So basically I have 3 questions:

1) Is organic food safer?
2) Is organic food more nutritrious?
3) Is organic food worth the extra cost?

One of my resolutions for 2006 is to get my spending under control. Going back to eating regular food and not organic food would certainly help.