In 2023, when I moved into temporary housing during renovation work on my apartment building, I discovered a shop nearby that sold pesticide-free vegetables.
I started buying and eating their delicious vegetables every day.
Then one day, I realized something:
My chronic headaches had disappeared.
Later, I tried eating vegetables that weren’t pesticide-free, and my headaches came back.
Based on this experience, I came to believe that pesticides had been the cause of my headaches.
Until then, to be honest, I had underestimated the effects pesticides could have.
It was only after experiencing the difference in my own body that I realized just how significant their impact might be.
I had already been experimenting with my diet for quite some time before this happened.
At the same time, I also felt that becoming too obsessive about food wasn’t necessarily a good thing.
So although I tried to choose foods that were as natural as possible, I wasn’t strict about making sure everything was completely pesticide-free.
Instead, I had always placed more importance on things like eating seasonal foods, choosing fresh ingredients, and simply enjoying my meals.
I don’t think that approach was wrong, either.
However, after this experience, I started choosing pesticide-free foods whenever possible.
Of course, pesticide-free vegetables tend to be more expensive.
When you consider the extra time and effort required to grow crops without pesticides, I don’t think they are overpriced.
Still, they can be a little difficult to justify when you’re looking at the price tag.
But considering that my headaches disappeared after I started eating pesticide-free vegetables, and that I felt as though my overall health had shifted up a gear, I’ve come to think that they may be worth the extra cost.
When you consider the cost of doctor’s visits and medications for physical and mental health problems, choosing higher-quality food may even be more economical in the long run.
If you’re experiencing some kind of physical or mental discomfort, it might be worth trying to avoid pesticides for a while and seeing how you feel.
And if you’re going to try it, I recommend making a complete switch rather than doing it halfway.
I had been doing it half-heartedly for a long time, so I couldn’t really tell whether it was making a difference. Looking back, I feel like I was missing an opportunity.
If I had switched completely to pesticide-free vegetables from the beginning, I might have recovered my health sooner.
How to Choose Vegetables at Supermarkets and Natural Food Stores
Finally, I’d like to talk about some of the terminology you may see when choosing vegetables.
First, I think it’s fair to understand “organic” as referring to produce grown according to organic standards.
However, “organic” does not necessarily mean “pesticide-free.”
Organic vegetables can be grown using certain pesticides permitted under the Japanese Organic JAS standards.
However, synthetic chemical fertilizers and synthetic chemical pesticides are prohibited, so compared with conventionally grown vegetables, the exposure to certain agricultural chemicals should generally be lower.
On the other hand, even if vegetables are labeled “pesticide-free,” it’s still possible that pesticides used in the past remain in the soil, or that pesticides drift over from neighboring fields.
In other words, vegetables that are 100% completely free from any pesticide exposure can actually be very difficult to find.
Even so, I think choosing vegetables using words such as “organic,” “pesticide-free,” and similar labels as a guide can help reduce your exposure to agricultural chemicals as much as possible.
Fertilizers, pesticides, seeds, growing methods…
There are so many things to think about that you could go on forever!
But rather than trying to make the perfect choice, I want to keep doing the best I can with the information I have.
Thank you, as always, for reading. 😊