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Should You Buy Organic?

The pros and cons

Shefali O'Hara
4 min readJan 12, 2023
Photo by Zoe Schaeffer on Unsplash

I’m fighting cancer so I’m super careful these days about my diet. Unfortunately, I am also on a tight budget, and eating organic, which I would prefer, is also more expensive.

Once upon a time, I lived close to an organic food co-op, and I was able to get a 10% discount by working a few hours a week, which was worth it to me at the time (I was in graduate school and on a limited budget).

I’d love something like that these days, but unfortunately don’t live close to a co-op. However, I have started to grow my own herbs and also tried my hand at growing tomatoes and peppers in containers on my porch.

If I grow it myself, I know it’s organic!

However, wanting to be healthy but also wanting to save money has put me in a quandary — is it worth it to buy organic?

In terms of nutrition — the jury’s out. There are studies that show that organic produce is more nutritious, but other studies show it’s a wash.

But that’s not the reason to buy organic.

The real reason — to avoid the stuff that’s bad for you. Like pesticides.

When you buy an organic apple, you know it was grown without using artificial pesticides. It also hasn’t been irradiated or genetically modified.

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Shefali O'Hara
Shefali O'Hara

Written by Shefali O'Hara

Cancer survivor, Christian, writer, engineer. BSEE from MIT, MSEE, and MA in history. Love nature, animals, books, art, and interesting discussions.

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