Does Organic Food Have Health Benefits?

The benefits of conventionally grown produce over organic foods was the focus of a recent debate between food technologists with scientists warning it is too early to reach conclusions, despite new research that suggests some organic produce could have added health benefits.

Meeting at the Institute of Food Technologists annual meeting in Las Vegas, Alyson Mitchell, a food chemist at University of California at Davis reported that she had found organic tomatoes had higher levels of secondary plant metabolites and higher levels of vitamin C.

“In looking at the (California) supermarket varieties of broccoli, we also found significantly higher levels of the falconoid in organic broccoli,” said Mitchell, reported the IFT.

Falconoid, metabolites known to act in the body as antioxidants and found in a variety of plants, have been shown to promote several beneficial effects in the cardiovascular system, including decreasing oxidation of LDL cholesterol, inhibiting aggregation of blood platelets (which contributes to the risk of blood clots that produce stroke and heart attack); and decreasing the body’s inflammatory immune responses, which contribute to atherosclerosis.

According to the report, Mitchell added: “It is recognized that high-intensity agricultural practices can disrupt the natural production of secondary metabolites involved in plant defense mechanisms.”

The study author said her findings add to a small body of literature that suggests higher levels of antioxidants exist in some organic produce.

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New Studies Back Benefits of Organic Diet
By Stephen Leahy

TORONTO, Canada (IPS/GIN) - Organic foods protect children from the toxins in pesticides, while foods grown using modern, intensive agricultural techniques contain fewer nutrients and minerals than they did 60 years ago, according to two new scientific studies.

A U.S. research team from Emory University in Atlanta analyzed urine samples from children ages three to 11 who ate only organic foods, and found that they contained virtually no metabolites of two common pesticides, malathion and chlorpyrifos.

However, once the children returned to eating conventionally grown foods, concentrations of these pesticide metabolites quickly climbed as high as 263 parts per billion, says the study, which was published Feb. 21.

Organic crops are grown without the chemical pesticides and fertilizers that are common in intensive agriculture.

There was a “dramatic and immediate protective effect” against the pesticides while consuming organically grown foods, said Chensheng Lu, an assistant professor at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University.

These findings, along with the results of another study published in Britain earlier in March, have fueled the debate about the benefits of organically grown food versus conventional, mass-produced foods. According to the new British analysis of government nutrition data on meat and dairy products from the 1930s and 2002, the mineral content of milk, cheese and beef declined as much as 70 percent in that period.

“These declines are alarming,” Ian Tokelove, spokesman for The Food Commission that published the results of the study, told Tierramerica. The commission is a British non-governmental organization advocating healthier, safer food.

The research found that parmesan cheese had 70 percent less magnesium and calcium; beef steaks contained 55 percent less iron; chicken had 31 percent less calcium; and 69 percent less iron, while milk also showed a large drop in iron, along with a 21 percent decline in magnesium. Copper, an important trace mineral (an essential nutrient that is consumed in tiny quantities), also declined 60 percent in meats and 90 percent in dairy products.

Although controversial, a number of other studies have also found differences between conventionally produced foods and foods grown organically or under more natural conditions. Organic fruits and vegetables had significantly higher levels of cancer-fighting antioxidants, according to a 2003 study in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. The organic plants produced these chemical compounds to help fight insects and competing plants, researchers said.

A 2001 report by Britain’s Soil Association looked at 400 nutritional research studies and came to similar conclusions: Foods grown organically had more minerals and vitamins.

“Modern plant breeding for quick growth and high yields could also be affecting the nutritional quality,” says Katherine Tucker, director of the nutritional epidemiology program at Tufts University in Boston.

Farmers in other parts of the world should not adopt the intensive farming practices of North America or Europe, says Ken Warren, a spokesman with The Land Institute, which is based in Kansas.

“It’s an unsustainable system that relies heavily on chemical fertilizers … to keep yields high and produces ‘hollow food,’” he told Tierramerica. “Hollow food” contains insufficient nutrition and is suspected in playing a role in the rapid rise in obesity, as people may be eating more to get the nutrition they need, he explained.

Crops take minerals, trace elements and other things from the soil every year. Modern agriculture only puts back into the land some chemical fertilizers, which do not replace all that has been lost, Mr. Warren noted.

Moreover, herbicides and insecticides kill microorganisms in the soil that play an important role in maintaining soil fertility and helping plants grow.

Pesticide residues in modern agriculture are another cause for concern. A 2003 University of Washington study found that children eating organic fruits and vegetables had concentrations of pesticide six times less than children eating conventional produce.

The Land Institute advocates what it calls “natural systems agriculture.” This involves the use of perennial crops in polycultures: planting several different crops together as has been practiced in traditional gardens and farm plots in many parts of the world.

“Farmers in other parts of the world should learn from American agriculture’s mistakes,” Mr. Warren maintained. “Looking to nature is a better model for farming.”

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Health Benefits of Organic Food: Lower Pesticide Residues
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Children’s immature and developing organs, brains, and detoxification and immune systems, plus their larger intake of food per kilo of body weight, combine to make them even more susceptible to toxins than adults. American toddlers eating mostly organic food have been found to have less than one sixth the pesticide residues in their urine compared to children eating conventional foods, lowering their exposure from above to below recognized safety levels. Children’s immature and developing organs, brains, and detoxification and immune systems, plus their larger intake of food per kilo of body weight, combine to make them even more susceptible to toxins than adults. American toddlers eating mostly organic food have been found to have less than one sixth the pesticide residues in their urine compared to children eating conventional foods, lowering their exposure from above to below recognized safety levels.

Elizabeth Gillette’s landmark 1998 paper in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives showed how a combination of low-level environmental, household and dietary exposures caused subtle yet measurable developmental deficits in children. Gillette compared children in two nearby isolated villages in Mexico, one in which pesticides were routinely used in their farming, and one in which they were not. Everything else was the same between these two villages—genes, diet, lifestyle, climate, culture, etc. The study found significant differences between the two groups in both mental and motor abilities (with the children who were exposed to pesticides scoring at a much lower level), as well as an increase in aggressive behavior.

In many Western countries, children and adults are similarly exposed to multiple sources of pesticides, and in 1995 an Australian study of breast milk found that infants are regularly exposed to several pesticides at levels greater than maximum recommended exposures. In Canada, a direct correlation has been observed between pesticide contamination of breast milk and increased risk of otitis media in Inuit infants.