Reality Upgrade

If you eat like me, a lot of your food says “Organic” on the packaging.

Back in the day, when the world was young and eating natural and organic food had not yet become a popular trend, my parents had to go to specialty health food stores to get organic food. Now that the “green” wave is sweeping the world, I can buy organic lettuce at my local grocery. But what exactly does “Organic” mean?

When the number of people eating organic food was small, there was a large incentive for manufacturers to be very honest about what they called organic, because they knew that their consumers would pay attention to the ingredients. Now, in makes marketing sense to put “organic” on just about anything, and regulation of who can make that claim is a little shaky.

For a great common sense review of how to know what is really organic and what just says it is, take a look at this post by Lifehacker.

By the way, the best way to know what you are eating is to turn the package over and read the ingredients list. If it goes in the food, it’s on the list, no matter what kind of label might be on the front of the package.