Natural pesticiedes vs. synthetic

[mojsterr]

Guys. How can a person without scientific background know anything today? Like, really. I feel lost.

Each time I think I understand something new so I can better my health, I then get some completely opposite answer from some other knowledgable person who is clearly more educated than me. So if I can't read scientific papers and decide for myself, it always comes down to trusting one party or another. So I'm never sure if I decided for the right thing. I have to just trust the person and hope I made the right choice.

 

I'm saying this because, in this case, I always thought natural pesticides are better, and I was buying organic as much as I could. But then I stumbled on to this page and this guy clearly must know what he's talking about, because he's a chemist. He tries to debunk myths that aren't true and in this case he's advocating for syntetic pesticides. Kind of.

When I read the blog it all sounds completely logical. But then there's one side of me that "believes" organic is better. I can't decide for myself, I have to select who I will trust more. Stupid.

 

Can anyone here share his own views on pesticides in our food?

This is the blog. It's a very interesting read, but I'm having internal battles. Does anyone perhaps find any flaws in his logic?

https://www.gardenmyths.com/natural-pesticides/#more-116

Edited March 18, 2022 by mojsterr

[jake473]

He seems partial. I only read three of his articles but he goes through it without really explaining. 

Plants can be malnourished or healthy, like us. I don't think we should act like they're all the same. All he acknowledges is pesticides.

But cide=kill. If cides aren't good for the body anyway then there's a whole world to health beyond that, about what the body actually wants. I'm just talking about the fact that he said organic food isn't even healthier. That seems like counting numbers and not seeing the forest for the trees. 

I feel lost too. But it's not like you should know immediately. A 6-year old kid doesn't know how to discern who really understands health or not. So neither does an adult unless they've been meta-learning it for some time.

[zurew]

2 hours ago, mojsterr said:

So if I can't read scientific papers and decide for myself, it always comes down to trusting one party or another. So I'm never sure if I decided for the right thing. I have to just trust the person and hope I made the right choice.

You can read scientific papers, but you won't necessarily understand them well enough without proper prior knowledge.

You don't have to take information for granted though. You don't need to just believe in a 100% way. If you think that you have found something strong ,then you can search for counter arguments. Try to find the most eanest people on both sides of the argument you find interesting. Then find out why they think differently.

If you do it this way you will understand the problem better, and then you can decide with which one you want to go with.

[Yarco]

Some natural pesticides are fine and even desired (ie. caffine.) Others not so much.

Some healthy veggies like spinach also contain chemicals like oxalic acid that can cause kidney stones. But normally these fears are way overblown and you'd have to be eating a crazy amount to experience negative effects.

You can read all that you want and it'll only help you so much though. 

As you're probably coming to realize, "organic" is just a label and something that farmers can easily fudge. There are all kinds of "organic" forms of pest control and fertilizer that you might not necessarily want to eat.

If you're just buying your organic food from a grocery store, there's no way to know the details about what's going on/in your food beyond the organic label.

If you truly want to know, the only way really is to form a direct relationship with the farmer growing your food. Go to farmer's markets, buy from stalls at the side of the road, etc. Even then you don't know if they might be lying to you or not.

So if you want to get super paranoid about it, then the only way to really, REALLY know is to grow most of your own food. Root veggies like carrot, potato and stuff with skins that you peel off like melons are less of an issue to buy.  But for stuff like leafy greens, you need to either find someone you trust or grow it yourself.

Truly healthy plants can fight off pests and diseases themselves. So a grower who is really providing optimal soil to their crops will not have an issue with pests and need to use pesticides in the first place. Those plants will also naturally be more nutritious (can be tested with an inexpensive BRIX meter).

There's also supposedly healthy sprays that can remove pesticides from your food better than just water, although I haven't looked into them.

[mojsterr]

On 18/03/2022 at 7:02 PM, Yarco said:

Those plants will also naturally be more nutritious (can be tested with an inexpensive BRIX meter).

Very interesting, I'm looking this up now.

 

Edit: "Because the Brix reading is mostly affected by sugar and water, it is not very useful for measuring nutrition in food. A high Brix reading tells you nothing about nutrition, unless you are looking to consume more sugar."

 

On 18/03/2022 at 7:02 PM, Yarco said:

There's also supposedly healthy sprays that can remove pesticides from your food better than just water, although I haven't looked into them.

From what I know, you can put veggies and fruit in a water mixed with vinegar and sodium bicarbonate to do the trick.

Edited March 20, 2022 by mojsterr

[slicketygiggedy]

@mojsterr In my opininion you can TASTE the difference. If it's organic, it's prbably tastier! Your microbes will let you know