After a stressful day, all I wanted to do was go home, but I rallied and met Ashley at a blogger event at Counter, a vegetarian restaurant in the East Village. There are rumors it’s closing, but if not, I’d like to go back–I liked the vibe.

Stonyfield had teamed up with Robyn O’Brien, who wrote The Unhealthy Truth, a book about the dangers in the American food industry.

Ashley and I missed the first few minutes, but O’Brien talked about how she realized the U.S. has allowed certain chemicals into our food supply that are banned around the world–chemicals that have been shown to lead to asthma, allergies, ADHD and cancer. Things like aspartame, high fructose corn syrup. She talked about how Europeans don’t have the same health problems Americans do–because they don’t eat the same chemical-filled food many Americans do. Thirty-one percent of American girls, she said, are starting puberty at the age of 8 because of what they’re eating.

She says she switched to organic food because she was concerned for her four children and their future, admitting it wasn’t easy. One of her kids, she said, hated carrots so much that just getting him to allow carrots on his plate was a big step. From there, she slowly got him to nibble on the carrot and then eat and enjoy the carrot.

As we all know, organic food is not cheap. Some of her tips were: don’t try to be perfect–don’t avoid cake at a birthday party just because it’s not organic. Do you have something you eat every day that you can start eating the organic version of? If you’re eating strawberries every day, a small switch is switching to the organic strawberries. Do you drink milk everyday? Start with rBGH-free (rBGH=bovine growth hormone) milk and then maybe switch to organic milk. For produce, start with the “dirty dozen,” those foods most likely to be contaminated. She also mentioned OrganicDeals.com and OrganicCoupons.org as places to look for organic deals.

It didn’t say it on the menus, but I’m assuming all or most of the food we ate was organic. (Although, I did once go to a press conference on avian flu and was served…chicken…so you never know.) These are tamari almonds and a roasted mushroom and caramelized onion sandwich.

I don’t know what this was, but it was yummy.

Since this seemed to be a mom-targeted event, we got YoBaby tote bags with her book, a bib, a spatula and some coupons.

Add it to my pile…(also add my book club book(s) that I need to pick up.)

The nuts were actually my favorite thing I tried at the event–they reminded me of these nuts above I had this morning that I got at last night’s event.

So, obviously my question here is, do you try to eat organic? Why or why not? I certainly try to eat organic as much as I can, and when not eating organic, eating quality ingredients. With that said, I desperately need to go grocery shopping…