Learn the 9-8-4
If you are the type of person who watches what you eat and where that product comes from, this is vital information for you to have. When you go to the cashier at the grocery store to pay for your groceries, you’ve noticed that they punch in the numbers on the stickers found on the fruit and vegetables. For the longest time, I thought those numbers were only used to identify the type of item such as an apple vs. a banana. It turns out, those stickers tell more about the item than meets the eye.
Here is a breakdown which is extremely easy to remember and you will be doing yourself a favor by paying attention to this and making an educated decision when buying fruits and vegetables. The following corresponds to the first number on the sticker and the order you want to purchase/eat them:
Conventionally grown apple.
9 – The produce is ORGANIC and the 9 will be followed by four digits.
4 – The produce is Non-GMO (or Conventionally Grown): and the 4 will be followed by 3 digits.
8 – The produce is GMO (Genetically modified produce) or contains genes that were not put there by nature and the 8 will be followed by four digits. ***IF AT ALL POSSIBLE, AVOID THIS TYPES OF PRODUCE!***
As you can see, based on the above information, the worst fruit and vegetable you can buy is that which has a label starting with an 8. STAY AWAY from those at all cost. Typically, it’s the cheapest of the 3 types. The best one you can buy is of course the ones having the label starting with a 9 and it will cost you more but you will be eating a lot healthier. If you are okay with staying somewhere in the middle, number 4 is for you! The labels which start with the number 4 applies to fruit and vegetables grown in a conventional mass production type of way which means they still have lots of herbicide and pesticide residue on them but they beat the 8’s.
With this information in hand, you can now go shopping for your fruits and veggies and make the decision that is best for you!