Bhavna
BhavnaToday 07:38:13Report#1
18381 postsMauritius
Hello everyone,
As a consumer in Brazil, you may seek to maintain a healthy lifestyle by choosing mostly organic products. If you do favour such products, we would like to know more about your consumption habits.
It depends. I think that organic vegetables and meat doesn´t deserve the price they command which can be up to 260% more than the regular food items produced by employment of pesticides or growth hormones and antibiotics. It´s easy to get rid of the pesticides. Just add a spoon of baking soda to a bowl of water and soak your veggies or fruits for 2 minutes. A 10% salt water can also do the trick but not as efficient. Vinegar water can also be used. The meat products I´ll elaborate later.
Is it easy to find organic products in Brazil (cosmetics, food, etc.)? Where can we find them?
They can be found in supermarkets like Carrefour, Pão de Açucar, farmer´s markets or fairs, and even on-line like OrganoMix.
Are organic products more or less expensive than in your country of origin? What average monthly budget do you spend on them?
About on par with my country. Minimal monthly budget.
Can we rely on labels on organic products in Brazil? Are the origins of the products verified by an organization?
Reliable. Verified by MAPA (Ministério da Agricultura , Pecuária e Abastecimento).
Are organic products part of Brazilian culture? Have you ever tried to make your own organic products (candles, toothpaste, gardening, food)?
About 25% of the population eat organic and the market is around 35billion USD a year. I did make a natural pesticide to get rid of the fungus that attacked my plants. It composed mainly of garlic juice and a little of mineral oil. I did add a little of vinegar since it´s also anti-fungal.
In your opinion, is the consumption of organic products only a fad or does it have real benefits on one’s health?
Eating organic is increasing every year in Brazil. It could have benefits if you know what you´re getting into:
1. Even organic vegetables could have residues of pesticides. So the above procedure I
mentioned could be utilized to remove them before consumption. Diseases associated with pesticides: COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) ;Asthma; birth defects;
neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson´s, Alzheimer´s, ALS;cancer and diabetes.
2. Organic chicken could be very beneficial to avoid ingestion of antibiotics used in raising them and even hormones! The prevalence of antibiotic - resistant microorganisms is on the rise and is causing a strain on research and funding to discover new generation of antibiotics. There are hormone-dependent malignancies
which I´ll touch briefly below.
3. Organic beef could be beneficial to avoid certain hormone - dependent neoplasms.
The implantation of Estradiol - 17 beta a hormonal steroid to speed up growth causes elevated concentration of estrogen which could cause breast and ovarian cancer, endometrial malignancy and also prostate cancer. Grass-fed beef has more Omega 3s,
more antioxidants and lower levels of fat and therefore considered more nutritious.
Thanks for sharing your experience,
Bhavna