Cupcakes for An All-Organic Bake Sale
Hi! My name is Heather O’Handley and I am a research team member for Protect Our Breasts focused on dairy and meats.
As the holiday season approaches, the Protect Our Breasts team thought it would be a festive idea to hold an all-organic bake sale with tasty treats such as cake pops and chocolate covered pretzels. Strictly organic baked goods were a first for me, but in the spirit of the holiday season, I gave it a try.
Organic foods have often had a negative stigma attached to them in terms of price and taste. While they are a bit more expensive than regular groceries, the majority of organic foods taste as good as, if not better than, conventional foods. I’ve switched to organic eggs, vegetables, milk, and even meats. My experiences so far have been all positive. In fact, I don’t think I’ll buy non-organic milk ever again! It has a really clean, fresh taste, and you can’t help but feel good about making healthy choices. As I was skimming the aisles of the grocery store looking for my ingredients, I easily found the organic chocolate and vanilla cake mix, eggs, and milk to make cupcakes. Things were going smoothly until I realized that there was no organic frosting or icing anywhere in that conventional store. I called a few small local natural stores, but it was a Sunday so they were all closed. Since I wasn’t able to buy pre-packaged organic frosting, I was going to have to make it from scratch.
Using conventional frosting was never an option, because the Protect Our Breast team is working hard to prove how important it is to avoid everyday toxins linked to breast cancer. The Pesticide Action Network’s http://www.whatsonmyfood.org/ is a great resource to check for pesticides and carcinogens on ordinary foods. Butter, cream cheese, sugar, and flavoring are the main ingredients used in cake frostings.
- Butter: 3 known or probable carcinogens, 8
suspected hormone disruptors - Milk: 5 known or probable carcinogens, 8
suspected hormone disruptors - Heavy cream: 3 known or probable carcinogens, 8
suspected hormone disruptors
Since sugar was not listed, I did a little extra research. www.anticancerbook.com described conventional sugar as not necessarily “carcinogenic”, but it may feed the progress of existing micro-cancers, and may fight the body’s natural defense mechanisms. By choosing to make my own organic frosting, I may have spent a few extra dollars and added an extra hour onto my baking process, but I avoided 11 known or possible carcinogens, 24 suspected hormone disruptors, and all of the ingredients in conventional sugar that feed the progress of existing micro-cancers. You can’t put a price tag on that. Plus, I tried the cupcakes a short while ago and they’re delicious! Sometimes it really does pay off to go that extra mile…
-Heather