Organic Food 101

Lesson 4: Why should you eat it?

Organic Foods: More Nutritious

Food produced using organic agriculture is more nourishing. More healthful.

Your health is not just a factor of your personal biology. Personal health is inextricably linked to the environment outside your personal boundaries. If the air carries noxious particles you may get allergies or suffer from asthma or other respiratory diseases. If your life is over-structured you may suffer an immune system deficiency and become susceptible to countless maladies. If you don't eat a balanced diet of nourishing foods your health will further be jeopardized.

"In early August, 2001, the British organization, The Soil Association, reported that a comprehensive review of existing research revealed significant differences between organically and non-organically grown food. These differences relate to food safety, primary nutrients, secondary nutrients and the health outcomes of the people who eat organically," I wrote in an article entitled Organic Food: More Nutritious posted at the Suite101.com website.

I summarized the nutritional findings of the Soil Association report, which is entitled THE ORGANIC FARMING, FOOD QUALITY AND HUMAN HEALTH REPORT, in the article:

"Vitamin C and dry matter contents are higher, on average, in organically grown crops then they are in non-organic crops.

Mineral contents are also higher, on average, in organically grown crops, although more research is required to solidify these findings," the report authors wrote.

"Feeding trials have shown significant improvements in the growth, reproductive health, and recovery from illness of animals fed organically produced feed," I wrote.

Another study, conducted by Alyson Mitchell, an assistant professor at the University of California at Davis, and her colleagues, reported that food grown organically contains "substantially higher concentrations of antioxidants and other health promoting compounds than crops produced with pesticides," according to Brian Halwell in the July/August 2003 issue of World-Watch.

Mitchell's study was also featured in two University of California magazines; the UC Davis Magazine Online in the Summer, 2003 issue and the April/June, 2003 issue of California Agriculture.

The UC Davis team compared corn, strawberries, and marionberries (a type of blackberry) grown with and without pesticides.

The antioxidants in question are called polyphenolics. Polyphenolics are the substances that plants manufacture to protect themselves from insects. The research team found that the three crops studied contained up to 58 percent more polyphenolics when they were grown organically as compared to crops sprayed with pesticides.

"While researchers know that a diet high in polyphenolics can reduce the risk of some cancers and heart disease, they aren't sure how," reported California Agriculture.

Mitchell's study, like the Soil Association study, showed the organic crops had more vitamin C.

Another study, this one done by researchers at Washington State University from 1994 to 1999, has found that organically produced apples taste better than those produced using synthetically produced chemicals.

I reported on This Study at Suite101.com as well. The researchers had consumer taste testers compare organic apples with those produced in an industrial style orchard. The taste testers liked the organic apples better. The study arrived at a few other intriguing conclusions.

"One of the interesting findings of the study was that apple yields were the same for all three of the systems. That flies in the face of claims by organic agriculture's detractors who say that if farmers were to all turn to organic production the world would face starvation because of lowered crop yields. There would be no shortage of apples if all apple farmers went organic, according to this research," I wrote in the Suite101.com article.

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