Keeping healthy with organic foods

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 01/21/2009 1:48 PM  

If the old saying that “prevention is the best medicine” is true then organic life style is just what the doctor ordered.

“The benefits of consuming organic food can only be felt after someone consumes it regularly for a long period,” Dr. Angela, a general medical practitioner, said.

She said that the primary benefit of regularly consuming organic foods was a body safe from toxins, adding that the effects were not noticeable right away.

“As our body grows old, the metabolic process becomes slower and interrupts the natural detoxification of our body, this can be offset by consuming organic instead of conventional vegetables,” she said.

“Conventional vegetables may contain pesticides, which can cause intense pressure on our bodies to eliminate them, causing toxic overload and problems in the digestive process, especially in the liver,” she said. Toxic overload can cause  fatigue and dizziness, she added.

Angela suggested that people who cannot consume organic foods regularly, can still counter the chemicals in the body by diversifying their diet. 

“In a period of three months, one can diversify the diet by having organic spices this month, organic vegetables next month and organic meat for the third month, then organic fruits,” she said.

Despite the importance of consuming organic foods, most people in the city still find it hard to consume it regularly due to its high price and limited availability.

“My family is aware of the benefits [of organic food] but it is hard to consume it regularly because of the high price,” Riska, a consumer of organic products, said.

She added that her family grows organic vegetables in a garden at home.

“It’s one way to have organics, but most of the time, when I’m away from home, I eat nonorganic foods,” she said.

Dean Affandi, a consumer of organic foods, who lives in Fatmawati, South Jakarta, said he provided organics mostly for his daughter, Kisha.

“We try to give what’s best for Kisha by giving her organic vegetables and fruits, but for other products such as milk and cereals, we’re still rely on conventional products because organic ones are still hard to find and are expensive,” he said.

Lathifa, a consumer of organics who lives in Bogor, said she wanted to consume organic foods regularly but finds it hard to do so because of the price.

“It all depends on my budget; when I have extra money I buy organics,” she said.

Stevan Lie, operational manager of Healthy Choice, which specializes in organic produce and has a restaurant, store and bakery, said providing organic products was harder than supplying their industrial counterparts, but he was positive about the future.

“When we started the business in 2004, organics were still not popular among the city’s residents due to their high cost, but the awareness of healthy and green living has increased,”

He said that demand for organic products has increased by 15 to 20 percent each year since late 2005.

Stevan said that three main groups of people buy his products: Those who want to keep their body healthy, those who have extra money and young, well educated couples who want what is best for their children.

“The latter type of consumer appears to be getting more and more prominent nowadays,” he added.

Given the growing trend towards organic food, Stevan said that organic products can be found at almost every modern supermarket, but supplies are not yet abundant. Only a few local farmers have taken up growing organic crops, he said.

“Actually, organic production output could compete with conventional products, but most farmers still think organics is a very risky investment because they still think that organics would not sell in the market,” he said.

He acknowledged that organics need extra care, cost more to produce and are generally harder work for farmers, as organic farms are not allowed to use any chemicals.

“To deal with this problem, the Ministry of Agriculture should promote organic farming and should help farmers with marketing and distribution,” he said.

“It seems to me that the ministry has overlooked organics as a potential future, but they have said that they will go organic in 2010. We’ll just have to wait and see about that,” he added.