Avoiding GMOs -- Friday's IOTUT

It's Friday! That means I'm going to give you some tips on replacing the bad with the good on this week's segment of Instead Of This Use This. Like I promised yesterday, today we're talking GMOs, or rather, how to avoid them.

These days in America, it seems you almost need a magic wand in order to avoid genetically engineered foods, right? Continuing on with a recent report from the Environmental Working Group, here are three ways to avoid GMOs:

Buy organic

Sounds simple enough. But it's not always easy. Many people don't have access to grocery stores that offer a nice selection of organic foods. Others find it way too expensive to fit into their budgets. It's a real dilemma, but if you truly want to keep your family away from food that's been engineered in Frankensteinian ways, you have to find a way to work organics into your budget. But how? 

• Eliminate as many disposable products as possible from your home. Cloth napkins and rags can replace paper products. Cloth diapers are, in the long run, much cheaper than disposable diapers. 
• Homemade laundry detergent and dishwasher detergent are less expensive than store bought ones (unless you're used to buying the Dollar Store, toxin-laden brands). 
• Limit meals out (where you're sure to be dining on genetically modified food anyway).
• Sacrifice some other things -- do you really need that new purse? Do your kids need that new game.
• Get creative and enlist your whole family to help discover ways to cut back on certain things so you can all eat healthier, organic foods. 

It can be done, folks. Sometimes, it just takes a bit more effort.

Buy "Non-GMO Project Verified" foods

That's right. Just look for this label.

What does the label mean? It means, to the best of their knowledge, the food bearing this label does not contain any genetically engineered ingredients. Of course, with the problem of cross contamination that I mentioned yesterday, there is never a 100% guarantee here.

The Non-GMO Project is a non-profit organization offering a detailed and voluntary certification process to food producers who allow them to test and verify their food. It is the only organization offering independent verification for GMO products in both the United States and Canada.

Finally, grab a copy of EWG's Shopper's Guide to Avoiding GE Food 

By the way, the letters GE and GMO are interchangeable (in case you were wondering). Genetically engineered and genetically modified are the same thing. 

Since eating only organic and Non-GMO Project Verified foods are not always options for today's busy moms, this shopper's guide helps you find products made without ingredients likely to be genetically modified. It also helps you decide which products are the most important to buy that are non-GMO. You can get your copy here.

Oh, and it's important for you to know I did not receive any compensation for this post or the others I wrote regarding the EWG. I simply appreciate the work they do and thought the info I've shared would be of value to all of you. I hope it's helped.

So, what have we learned today? Instead of this (genetically modified foods), use/buy/consume this (Organic or Non-GMO Project Verified foods).

Now, to see if I can get that magic wand working....

Presenting you with alternatives,

You can access the other posts in this series by clicking the links below:

The GMO trade-off
Dr. Frankenstein, you've created a monster
The EWG's Factory Four -- can you spot the GMOs?