You've no doubt noticed the increase in organic labels on various products in stores. Many wonder if these products are really better and worth the increased cost. Is organic living the healthier choice? 
Organic Living - The Better Choice
In order for a product to be labeled 100% organic, it could not have been grown with synthetic chemicals or pesticides. Without these added preservatives, the product is indeed safer and healthier, as well as friendlier to the ecosystem.
Our bodies weren't designed to digest or deal with all these non-organic substances we're exposed to. Think about our ancestors. All of their foods, medicines, and beauty treatments originated from the earth. Some would argue that that was because they didn't know any better. But, I would say that they were on to something.
With modern medicine, sometimes the cure is worst than the disease. If you’ve ever read the insert that comes with a bottle of medication, there is a section called “Adverse effects”. This is the list of potential side effects of the drug. The list of possible reactions to the drug can be quite long. Taking the medicine may solve one problem, but create others.
Using natural remedies helps prevent a toxic overload that can result from using medications. Most common health conditions we suffer from today, our parents and grandparents encountered as well. They experienced headaches, constipation, fever, and the like. They didn’t have over the counter medicines readily available, so they had to use what they did have: herbs and plants. Tribes of peoples living in the jungles of South America and the bush of Africa still use herbal medicines to treat themselves.
Modern medicine has its place. None of us would want to deal with an emergency or life threatening situation without emergency rooms and trained physicians. Modern and ancient medicine working together can heal the body in a more natural and less harmful way. More and more people visit holistic healers to seek medical treatment. Herbal remedies tend to work along with the body systems instead of merely masking symptoms. They're also less likely to cause side effects.
Pesticides used to keep vegetables free of insects and pests are toxic to the body as well as harmful to animal life (and humans as well). Rain can wash these pesticides off of the leaves of the plants and into the ground and the water table. The particles in factory smoke release toxic fumes in the air. Acid rain resulted from rain water mixing with these chemical particles. Now that scrubbers exist on smokestacks, the toxic release is less, but can still be unhealthy.
Remember the first time you heard about “mad cow disease”? The medical term is bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Cows were being fed ground up remains of diseased cows as a protein supplement. Cow owners were also selling cows potentially infected with BSE to meat plants where dangerous neurological tissue was mixed into the hamburger beef. The resulting hamburger meat made people sick and many died. The long term effects are unknown, some say it may take a decade for humans to have symptoms that come from eating tainted meat.
The world is not perfect. There is no one solution to healthier living, but choosing organic living gives us the best option for keeping our bodies and the globe healthy.
