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It’s a Fact: Organic Food Really IS Healthier
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A hot topic of debate that has been around for a long time is whether or not organic foods are healthier and are they worth the extra money or not? This argument goes around and around and has for many years but the answer might finally be here.
Stanford University conducted a meta-analysis two years ago which took a look at 240 studies that compared organically grown foods and conventionally grown foods. Also, in order to try to clarify the findings of the Stanford study completed in 2012, a group of scientists in Europe evaluated an even larger number of studies, 343, that had been published during the past few decades.
Exactly like the Stanford study, this new analysis showed that although organic and conventional vegetables very often have the same levels of nutrients, organic foods have much fewer pesticide residues. On average, organic vegetables also have a 48 percent lower level of cadmium. Cadmium is a toxic metal and very well-known carcinogen.
There was one important nutritional difference between organic and conventionally grown produce, however, the antioxidant level. This study showed that organic produce can have between 18 to 69 percent more antioxidants than conventionally grown produce.
Antioxidants in produce have been linked to having a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative diseases, chronic disease, and certain cancers. It was also found that certain pesticide residue was found to be as much as four times higher in conventional produce than in organic produce.
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You can control how fast you age by fighting free radicals and that is the job of antioxidants. Since organic foods contain far higher levels of antioxidants, this fact alone means that organic foods are healthier in terms of nutrition, as well as being lower in residual pesticides. This is perhaps why your mother was always after you to eat your fruits and veggies! And if organic produce has more antioxidants, then that fact alone is a valid reason to pay more for them.
The nutritional content of food has been in decline since the introduction of mechanized farming as far back as 1925. For example, apples used to be a good source of iron. Now, to get the same amount of iron you used to obtain from eating one apple back in 1950, you will need to eat as many as 26 apples today!
This is also one of the main reasons that produce simply does not taste as good as it used to. It certainly looks good, yes, but there is a definite lack of flavor, and that is due to the deterioration of the mineral content of the soil. It’s the formation of minerals that gives produce its flavor. A lack of flavor is caused by poor soil.
Strong, healthy soil has a wide variety of microorganisms, and it’s these organisms that carry the stability of the entire ecosystem, not to mention what a plants nutrient uptake will be. The adoption of industrial agriculture practices has destroyed soil microbes that are the mechanism by which minerals in the soils are transferred to plants.
Chemicals used in agriculture destroy the soil by killing off the microbial inhabitants that live there. This is the main problem with modern farm methods and the reason why our produce has a lack of flavor as well as a lack of nutritional quality. Modern farming methods concentrate entirely too much on size, pest resistance, growth rate, and appearance and not so much on the impact their methods and pesticides have on the soil.
Our “bigger, faster, cheaper, prettier” approach to our crops is draining our planet dry as well as compromising your overall health. In just the past 10 years, there have been more than 100 million tons of herbicides sprayed on our crops and adding toxic chemicals to our dirt and our water supplies. GMO crops are actually speeding up this process by altering the composition of the soil bacteria in the earth where these crops are grown.
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Worse still, pesticide exposure might be even greater than we know, thanks in part to GMO crops. Some types of pesticides aren’t even counted when assessments of contamination are being counted. There is a type of bacteria in the dirt called Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis). It makes a natural toxin, a type of pesticide that splits open the stomach of certain bugs and kills them. Now this pesticide is actually allowed in organic farming and farmers apply this natural “pesticide” topically to crops. This natural substance photo-degrades over time, making it harmless by the time the crop reaches your dinner plate.
However, crops that have been genetically engineered with Bt, such as corn, have this gene from the soil bacteria built into its DNA. These plants create this toxin internally; it’s in every cell of these plants. This version of this poison is thousands of times more powerful, more concentrated, than the spray that organic farmers use and it cannot be washed off, it won’t photo-degrade, it’s built into the crop itself, but it isn’t counted when doing pesticide inventories, yet it’s inside very single kernel and you and your family are eating it.
As you might have heard, some pesticides have antibiotic properties that kill off microorganisms in the soil. RoundUp or glyphosate is a perfect example of this. Crops that are known as “RoundUp Ready” are designed to hold up to what would otherwise be lethal doses of this toxic chemical. Being told that these crops are immune to this chemical and that only the weeds will be killed off, allow farmers to spray their fields without restraint. Read more about RoundUp and pregnancy – vital information you should know.
Did you know that after crops are sprayed with these pesticides that they are not allowed to return to the field within 5 days? There is a good reason for this! In fact, if you get to know any farmers, you will find that they don’t eat the crops they are spraying. They usually have their own little organic garden going along on the side of their house, away from the crops and the pesticides, for their own consumption. Farmers who will not eat the food they are producing; it really makes you stand up and take notice, doesn’t it?
However, when glyphosate is sprayed on fields, not only is it destroying the fertility of the soil, it is encouraging the chemical resistance and antibiotic resistance in the human food chain.
SEE ALSO: 5 Super Easy to Grow Veggies for Your Own Organic Produce
From these studies it’s obvious that organic food far trumps conventional foods but isn’t it time that this insanity was stopped? It’s time for the American people to unite and fight back. Boycott every single product, every single GMO product, which is owned by members of the GMA, including organic brands.
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Sources:
Annals of Internal Medicine September 4, 2012; 157(5)
British Journal of Nutrition 2014 Jun 26:1-18. [Epub ahead of print]
Fruit and Soil Quality of Organic and Conventional Strawberry Agroecosystems. PLoS ONE 5(9): e12346.
Beyond Pesticides, November 8, 2013
Newhope360.com February 26, 2009
Scientific American April 27, 2011
Stephen Jones
Nov 13, 2014 at 2:06 pm
Nice article guys. It is vitally important that all GMO foods are labeled.
James R.
Nov 15, 2014 at 2:21 am
I do not believe they should be labeled….I believe they should never be made in the first place…
with as much food as is produced here in America, there is no need for GMO foods…
It just all boils down to a greedy, self centered corporate america that could care less about its people & cares more for the all mighty U.S. Dollar.
James R.
Nov 15, 2014 at 2:17 am
and they spent how many MILLIONS of dollars on this study?
Millions of dollars that could have been spent on the homeless & those that have no food to eat….
Think about it. You take every day foods that anyone can grow in their garden….
when you leave out the pesticides, that 1 thing in and of itself, is enough to make the foods healthier.
This isn’t rocket science, it’s just plain common sense…
I know, there are those that are majorly lacking in that dept.
but seriously, everyone with half a brain knows that pesticides are bad for you….
Kathleen Boyle
Nov 23, 2014 at 12:43 am
Bad? It’s deadly and so are the toxins in the food, I for one am glad they do these studies, although I don’t believe it cost millions, you’re not sick yet so it’s not a reality, I was the same way, now it’s to late for me…No one wants to believe how cruel and greedy people can be, but if you know how to love, make sure you do your homework to keep loved ones alive and well :]