Alice Waters (Evan Sung for The New York Times)

The first “kitchen cabinet” was President Andrew Jackson’s team of close but unofficial advisers. Now the chef Alice Waters is leading a campaign to persuade President-elect Barack Obama to create a literal kitchen cabinet.

In a letter to the president-elect, Ms. Waters — joined by Ruth Reichl, the editor of Gourmet, and the New York restaurateur Danny Meyer — urged Barack and Michelle Obama to set an example for the nation on culinary issues like the naming of a White House chef and growing organic vegetables in the White House garden. Read more…

Dr. Alan Greene and his son Austin retrieving organic potatoes from their home garden.

Last year pediatrician Dr. Alan Greene visited my office, but after a quick check of the company cafeteria, he raced out to forage for lunch elsewhere. The reason? He was determined to eat only organic foods, and nothing in The Times’s cafeteria was labeled as such.

I was taken aback, but Dr. Greene explained he was in the midst of his own personal experiment — to determine if a person can eat organic foods exclusively — just as breeding livestock must do to be certified organic by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He has finally achieved his goal — three years of eating all organic all the time.

Dr. Greene’s organic diet, including the challenges he faced sticking to it, is chronicled in the Well column in Tuesday’s Science Times. Whether eating organic makes a difference for health is a matter of debate. A University of Copenhagen study of peas, kale and other organic foods says it doesn’t. But last year, a 10-year study from the University of California at Davis showed organic tomatoes have nearly double the level of certain nutrients than tomatoes grown the conventional way.

For his part, Dr. Greene says he feels healthier. To learn more, read For 3 Never-Easy Years, Every Bite Organic

Cooking organic? It may cost you. (Barbara P. Fernandez for The New York Times)

Most people know that eating organic costs more. But according to SmartMoney.com, Thanksgiving diners may pay as much as $100 extra for an organic holiday meal.

The financial advice Web site went shopping to find out how much extra consumers have to pay to get organic versions of traditional holiday foods. Creating a shopping list for a traditional menu to serve eight people, they selected organic and nonorganic foods from a Whole Foods, Associated Supermarket and a Food Emporium, all located in New York City.

“Overall, the organic version of our turkey-day menu for eight people — including dinner rolls, a salad and three bottles of organic wine — totaled $295.36. That puts the organic premium for the meal at $126.35, or 75 percent, compared with the same shopping list filled with nonorganic options,” wrote SmartMoney.

Here’s a sample comparing the prices of organic and nonorganic Thanksgiving foods. Read more…

Trick-or-treat! (Dith Pran/The New York Times)

If you’re handing out candy this Halloween, don’t be surprised if a few trick-or-treaters hand you back a chocolate of their own.

For the second year in a row, thousands of costumed children will take part in “reverse” trick-or-treating, handing out samples of Fair Trade Certified chocolates to raise awareness about poverty, unsustainable farming practices and child labor in cocoa-growing areas.

The campaign is from the human rights group Global Exchange, which says 225,000 Fair Trade chocolates and informational cards will be handed out tonight in the United States and Canada. Americans consume nearly half the world’s chocolate. Read more…

Choosing tomatoes at a farmers’ market in Larchmont, N.Y. (Alan Zale for The New York Times.)

The local food movement typically has been about improving the health of the planet. Buying locally means less fuel burned to transport food, which means less pollution.

But now researchers are trying to find out if eating locally farmed food is also better for your health.

A team of researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has received a grant to study the public health impact of moving toward a local, sustainable food system. An increasingly vocal local food movement calls for consumers to try to buy and eat foods produced within 100 miles of their homes. Read more…

Sweet bell peppers are among the vegetables high in pesticides. (Richard Drew/Associated Press)

I was reading today in The Times that organic food prices are rising. It reminded me of a really helpful list from the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization, about how to be a strategic shopper when buying organic fruits and vegetables.

While there is an ongoing debate about whether buying organic food really makes a difference in terms of health, the reality is that some consumers choose organic foods because they want to lower their exposure to pesticides. For those shoppers, it makes sense to know when to buy organic and which conventionally-grown foods are good enough because they already are low in pesticide residue.

The Environmental Working Group tested dozens of fruits and vegetables to determine which foods are the worst offenders in terms of pesticide exposure. Some fruits and vegetables grown with conventional farming methods simply don’t absorb the pesticides. Some examples of vegetables and fruits with very low pesticide residues are onions, mangoes, asparagus, broccoli and eggplant. So whether you pick them up from the regular produce section or the organic aisle, your pesticide exposure is going to be low. Read more…

Does your purchase of organic milk conjure up images of happy cows? Do you buy brands like Nature’s Farm and Nantucket Nectars because you want to support small farms?

Well, this animated graphic will make you think twice about your organic purchases. It shows how small organic businesses (the green dots) get gobbled up by Big Food (the yellow dots) and private investment groups (the blue dots). Along the way, major food companies create their own versions of organic products (the red dots).

The shifting organic foods industry.

“These relationships aren’t very apparent,” said Philip H. Howard, assistant professor in the department of community agriculture, recreation and resource studies at Michigan State University and the creator of the graphic. “If you look at a product, a lot of times this ownership is not at all noted, even on the Web sites at times.”

Obviously, there’s nothing inherently wrong with a big company buying an organic brand. But Dr. Howard notes that many consumers seek out organic foods, in part, because they don’t want to buy foods from multinational food companies.

“Often organic consumers are interested in supporting smaller scale farms and food processors,” Dr. Howard said. “In the marketing of a lot of these organic brands the firms try to evoke that image of a small pastoral farm.”

After you watch the animated graphic (just click on the picture above), check out Dr. Howard’s Web site, where he has created several interesting graphics depicting the structure of the organic food industry. One chart shows what brands have been acquired by big chains, while another shows organic brands that have been created by large companies. Additional charts show locations for organic retailers and the major organic brands that remain independent.

As a health writer, I’ve read hundreds of nutrition studies and countless books on diet and eating. And none of these has contained such useful advice as the cover of Michael Pollan’s latest book, “In Defense of Food.”

Wrapped around a head of lettuce are seven words that tell you pretty much everything you need to know about healthful eating. “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

Author Michael Pollan (Alia Malley)

This seemingly-simple message is surprisingly complex, because there is food, and then there are what Mr. Pollan describes as “edible food-like substances.” Mr. Pollan, who writes for The New York Times Magazine, developed something of a cult following for his best-selling book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” which traced the food chain back to its original source. But while “Omnivore” left many scared to eat, “In Defense of Food” helps the reader bravely navigate the food landscape, explaining what food is, what it isn’t and how to tell the difference.

Mr. Pollan agreed to take some time this week to answer a few questions from the Well blog. Read more…

The Well blog has generated nearly 10,000 comments from readers in the 99 days since its launch this year.

Since my first post called DNA Isn’t Destiny on Sept. 24, a surprising 9,980 readers (at last count) have shared their stories, started heated debates and added much wisdom to every topic. There have been practical tips on insomnia and garlic breath, numerous tales about medical mistakes and patient travails, and inspirational and moving stories about the loss of loved ones. Readers from around the world, including Britain, France, Korea, China, India and Dubai, among other places, have dropped by to share their thoughts. And we’ve even had visits from Dracula and Santa Claus.

My favorite post of the year was A Military Doctor in Iraq, and Baby Blue, a story about a baby boy delivered by Dr. Frank Coppola, a Texas pediatric surgeon who regularly blogs about his experiences treating patients in Iraq for the United States military.

Here’s what you’ve been talking about:

10. The End of Childbirth 101? 228 readers weighed in to talk about why fewer women are taking birthing classes.

9. The Unwanted Bounce of Exercise 289 women, and a few men, shared their stories of bouncing breasts and body parts and the best jog bras to contain moving flesh.

8. A Wake-Up Call for Coffee Drinkers 313 coffee lovers brewed a heated debate about the merits of caffeine vs. decaf.

7. A High Price for Healthy Food 314 readers, many of them apparently lentil-eaters, generated a spirited discussion about whether it really costs more to eat healthfully.

6. A Doctor’s Disdain for Medical ‘Googlers’ 336 doctors and patients discussed New York surgeon Dr. Scott Haig’s contempt for a patient who “Googled” him.

5. Drug-Resistant Staph: What You Need to Know 355 germ carriers fretted about antibiotic use in humans and animals and other contributors to the superbug scare.

4. Five Easy Ways to Go Organic 461 people debated the merits of my list of strategic organic choices.

3. The Rights of Baby Boys 548 readers got personal, with stories about circumcision, the penis and their sex lives.

2. Curing Insomnia Without the Pills 599 insomniacs shared stories of sleep deprivation and tips to battle insomnia.

And the No. 1 most talked about Well blog post for 2007 was…

1. Unlocking the Benefits of Garlic 601 lovers and haters of garlic, plus a few vampires, addressed the pros and cons of the odoriferous bulb.

Will your holiday toasts be organic? (Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times)

For years, the main color decision a wine drinker had to make was red or white. Now the question is whether the wine should also be green.

Organic wines are one of the hottest trends in restaurants today, according to a report last week from the National Restaurant Association. But while a restaurant sommelier can help you navigate the world of green wines while dining out, the wine aisle is a confusing place for organic shoppers.

Wine labels carry various permutations of the organic label. Some wines are 100 percent organic, while others say “made with organic grapes.” Some labels use words like “sustainable” and “biodynamic.” And then, there is the all-important question of whether any of it tastes good. Read more…

Is eating local food better for you? (AP Photo/Don Ryan)

The 100-mile diet is a noble idea — eat only foods produced within 100 miles of your home. But is it really practical for urban dwellers?

That was the question asked by writer Susan Cosier, a New Yorker who tried the 100-mile diet and wrote about it in last month’s E/The Environmental Magazine. She found that buying local often is easier said than done. Diet staples like coffee and tea aren’t grown locally. She learned her grocery store buys produce from a distributor that carries goods from all over the world — pineapples from the Philippines, avocados from California and garlic, surprisingly, from China. Read more…

Got organic milk? (Tony Cenicola/The New York Times)

Switching to organic is tough for many families who don’t want to pay higher prices or give up their favorite foods. But by choosing organic versions of just a few foods that you eat often, you can increase the percentage of organic food in your diet without big changes to your shopping cart or your spending.

The key is to be strategic in your organic purchases. Opting for organic produce, for instance, doesn’t necessarily have a big impact, depending on what you eat. According to the Environmental Working Group, commercially-farmed fruits and vegetables vary in their levels of pesticide residue. Some vegetables, like broccoli, asparagus and onions, as well as foods with peels, such as avocados, bananas and oranges, have relatively low levels compared to other fruits and vegetables.

So how do you make your organic choices count? Read more…

Are organic cereals really better for children? (Credit: Tim Boyle/Getty)

Kids who go organic for breakfast may be missing out on their vitamins.

Since the 1940’s, commercial cereal companies have been adding vitamins to their flakes, puffs and O’s in order to replace nutrients stripped away during the manufacturing process. But the main appeal of organic cereals is that they’re made with only natural, organically grown ingredients free of additives, including artificial preservatives and colors — and often, vitamins. Read more…