Integrative Health Blog

New Produce Rating System at Whole Foods Market

Posted by on Wed, Jun 24, 2015

Whole Foods Market has unveiled its new rating system called Responsibly Grown for fruits, vegetables and flowers. This system rates produce as “Good” “Better” or “Best”. You would think that fruits and vegetables with the “best” rating would mean just that…..the highest quality.

That was not the case, this spring, at a Whole Foods Market store in California. Organic asparagus, grown in California, carried the green “good” label while conventionally grown asparagus from Mexico received the gold “best” label in these photos below from The Cornucopia Institute article:

Mark Kastel, co-founder and Senior Farm Policy Analyst at Cornucopia asks, “Why would a customer pay three dollars more per pound for the Certified Organic asparagus when they could buy what a trusted retailer has labeled ‘Best’?”

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Tags: organic food, holistic nutrition

Small Numbers with a Big Meaning

Posted by on Mon, Jul 01, 2013

You may find the little stickers on your produce a bit annoying and hard to peel off, but they do have a huge purpose- and it’s not to just to speed you through the check-out line. In fact, that number is telling you a whole lot more.

How to Tell What You are Buying

If  the first number of the five digit PLU (price look-up) code is 9, it means that the produce was grown organically.  For example, if the barcode reads 94663, then it is organic because it has 5 digits and starts with a 9.

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Tags: produce barcodes, organic food, holistic nutrition

The Dark Side of the Organic Food Industry: Is 'Organic' the Best Available?

Posted by on Mon, Oct 22, 2012

Jody Jung RN, CHC

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Tags: organic food, natural products

Eating Sick Animals = Sick You

Posted by on Sat, Feb 19, 2011

by Lisa Wilson CHC

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Tags: organic food, holistic nutrition