Newsletters: September - October 2007
Common Sense Food
Natural Times-September/October 2007
By Paul Rutkovsky
Eating organic food, especially produce, seems like a natural, common sense way to maintain a healthy diet. Expense is always a consideration, but when it comes to buying healthy food, should we really let a few pennies get in the way? And although agribusiness constantly lobbies congress to weaken organic standards, by-and-large the organic label is reliable. It is a "no-brainer" and sound common sense to buy organic. Fewer pesticides in our bodies is a good thing, isn't it?
Some studies are showing that organic foods are more nutritious than conventional foods. The Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry reported on a study that compared organic and conventional tomatoes over a ten-year period. Findings indicate that organically-grown tomatoes are twice as high in flavonoids, which protect against heart disease and other chronic ailments, than conventionally-grown tomatoes. The study also indicates that the quantity of flavonoids present in the organically-grown tomatoes increased over time.
One particular study, published in the British Journal of Nutrition, reported that organic dairy and meat products in a pregnant mother's diet positively affect the nutritional quality of her breast milk by increasing beneficial fatty acids. Dr. Lukas Rist, lead author of the study and the head of research at the Paracelsus Hospital in Switzerland, states, "These findings provide scientific support for common sense, by showing that organic foods are healthier." The research, conducted in the Netherlands, involved 312 breastfeeding women and their one-month-old infants. Charlotte Vallaeys, farm and food policy analyst at the Cornucopia Institute, supports these findings and says, "Many consumers know, based on increasing media coverage of scientific and medical research, that organic foods reduce their exposure to pesticides, hormones, and antibiotics, but this study shows that organic foods also offer superior nutritional quality. The benefits of consuming organic food are important when thinking about their impact on the development of very young children and fetuses."
Similar studies show organic foods have higher levels of vitamins and minerals. Some scientists claim that the increased nutritional value of organic foods is due to the healthier soil on which it is grown. This is an area where farmers and researchers are coming together. Dave Minar of Cedar Summit Dairy, an organic farmstead in New Prague, Minnesota, points out that, "Concentrating on the health and fertility of soil results in pastures and feed of superior nutritional quality-and that results in incredibly vibrant, long-living, and healthy livestock. _It should be of no surprise that there is an increasing body of scientific evidence now substantiating the benefits of an organic diet, especially for infants and children."
Scientific studies increasingly support a common sense approach to what we put in our bodies For more information, a copy of the full report is available on The Cornucopia Institute website at:
Many facts for this article came from the Organic Consumers Association's website. To read about the studies in full, go to the sites below.
