I get my groceries at Trader Joe’s. If being a hipster were not enough to drive me there, the fact that it’s the closest grocery store to my apartment would be. I’m generally satisfied with what I buy there, and I enjoy the foods that I do, in fact, buy there. I’m not going to stop shopping there until I find some place more convenient.
But there’s something that annoys me: Trader Joe’s exposes the difference between “organic” and “healthy”. I’ve heard lots of people say that organic foods are fundamentally better for you. Maybe so, but I’ll take non-organic low-sodium beans over “organic” high-sodium beans any day. And you know what? You can’t buy low-sodium beans at my local TJ’s. You can’t buy low-sodium kidney beans, black beans, or pinto beans.
One of my main complaints about grocery stores, generally, is that everything but their produce has tons of salt added. For example, almost any pasta sauce you try to buy - Classico offers a few exceptions, but not many - is going to have tons of salt. At Trader Joe’s it is basically the same way. Everything you buy there - beans, pasta sauce, whatever - is going to be really high in salt. And it would be okay if they had those in addition to low-salt alternatives, but the low-salt alternatives are simply not there.
If TJ’s were just your typical grocery store, I wouldn’t expect too much different, although I’d still be annoyed. But TJ’s is a store that tries to put on a conscientious, this-is-good-for-the-environment-and-good-for-you-too motif. Do people read the nutritional information? Am I the only person who reads the nutritional information on most foods he buys? I suspect that some people may spot the word “organic” and assume that the food in question must be more healthy than its non-“organic” counterpart.
{Stands up, starts applauding} Since I hit my 40’s and my blood pressure is starting to creep up, I’ve been trying to reduce my dietary sodium. Like you say, I can find lots of organic alternatives, but reading the labels, they don’t do anything for sodium reduction. (And frankly, I’m not drinking the “organic” kool-aid, either.) You’re absolutely right, I believe - people think organic is always healthier, and they don’t have to think past that.
Yep. Trader Joes is the perfect place to prove that organic does not equal healthy. Much of their stock is overprocessed junk - high in sodium or sugar or both. But they do have some pretty tasty things, and they do have decent produce for what they are.
A lot of people are blinded by organic. In fact, I think organic as a HEALTH option is frankly a lot of people deluding themselves. Aside from our issues with obesity, we’re a pretty darn healthy nation these days - and while you probably won’t become obese eating only organic food, it’s more likely to be because you can’t get organic McDonald’s and organic Doritos than because there’s any direct correlation between organic food and health.
That’s not to say, however, that organic doesn’t have advantages - it’s more likely to support sustainable farming. Small label, local organic foods also have the advantage of being local, and also more likely to be supporting non-factory-farm agriculture. That said, all of the above can be achieved more effectively by doing some real research into what you’re eating, rather than just trusting the ‘organic’ label to assuage your food guilt.
Why is there no organic-reduced sodium <product>? Probably because Organic is still a relatively niche market (albiet a growing one) and therefore it hasn’t had time to develop all the low sodium/low fat/reduced carb/gluten free/whatever random health concern you tend to favor variants that ‘ordinary’ food have - which are there more as means to differentiate themselves from the competition than because the people making them want their products to be healthy.
One more comment about Organic.
Organic Wine - to get certification for you vineyrads you need to eschew the use of modern pesticided and fungicides. You are allowed to use “Traditional” methods to control fungal growth (the bane of almost all vineyards). The most popular of these is know as “Bordeaux Mixture” used since the mid 15ht century or so in france. it is simple copper sulfide in soloution. the big problem comes from over use, since it is a metal salt. after a few years it ends up poisoning the soil and the vines, requiring massive amount of time, manhey and effort to correct, and not so great in the long run. Useing a more modern and less enviromentally toxic fungicide would be better for the ground, the vines and the farmer, but then no organo-nazi would buy it…
Considering low sodium options in organic processed food, one has to look at what is done to preserve the item.
Salt has long been used to preserve food, which is why it had high value back in the days before artificial preservatives. Trying to strike a balance between organic and shelf life leaves fewer options than non-organic items. Salt is generally the least expensive of those few options, thus the dearth of low sodium, processed, organic food available.
The obvious option here for organic and healthy is fresh, local ingredients used in scratch cooking. Unfortunately, this doesn’t fit into most of our lifestyles.
Just a heads up: cooking beans in a crock-pot is dead easy and tastier than canned beans. Just pick through the beans for rocks, put 'em in a pot with water, leave. You can completely control the salt content that way. I have a smaller crockpot so I get just a few servings, which is handy for me.
Really? I spent some time in a town with a TJ’s a few years ago, and one thing that impressed me was their frozen meals - many of them had very few preservatives, and you could read and understand the ingredients in most of them. I ate a lot of them, since the place I was staying had a crappy kitchen. I was pretty happy to find tasty low-processed prepared meals, and I sure do miss them.
And of course, one of the best options for organic preservation of food is irradiation, but unfortunately the demographic most concerned with eating organic also tends to be the folks most irrationally afraid of irradiated food.
I suppose the definition is “low processed” - its a prepared meal, by definition its processed. And “over” or “low” is a matter of opinion. We don’t do a lot of prepared meals, so to me its a lot of “over” processed.
And if what you have, slow-cooker wise (Crock Pot is a brand name, slow cooker is generic) is big, like 6qts., smaller ones are really inexpensive. And uncooked beans are cheaper than dust bunnies!
Well, of course, it’s somewhat processed. When I’m at home, in my own kitchen, I don’t do a lot of processed food, either - I make my own stock, my own sausages, heck I don’t even buy bags of pre-cut lettuce, etc. etc. But when the ingredients to a frozen meal are “Green beans, chicken breast, peanut butter, spices, yogurt” I’m impressed. They were a lifesaver when I couldn’t cook like I’m used to being able to.
One of the important measures used to keep processed foods from spoiling is to control the water activity. It is sort of complicated but can be described as tying up water so that it is unavailable for microbial growth. A high moisture can be maintained yet the moisture is not available for spoilage organisms.
Salt controls water activity very well and has the benefit of being very cheap, about .05/lb on an industrial scale. Sugar also works well but is more expensive.
There are various other chemicals that work well too but you can’t use them in organic food. Salt and sugar are the basic tools to control water activity in organic food.
If you do find low-sodium processed organic food it is likely that some of the salt has been replaced with sugar. Watch those organic food labels, if it is low sodium it is probably high sugar.
The thing you have to be careful about with using sugar as a preservative is that it only works if the concentration is very high: Dilute it, and instead of the sugar killing microorganisms, it’ll feed them and encourage their growth. For instance, honey will stay good almost indefinitely, since the sugar concentration is too high to support anything, and mustard will also stay good almost indefinitely, since there’s not enough for microorganisms to eat, but honey mustard will go bad, since it’s got enough sugar to live on but not enough to desiccate.
