Thread: Organic food as healthy as regular food

My question is who was eating organic food thinking it had more health benefits? The only reason i perfer organic because i don't want to eat chemicals and hormone treated beef. Not that i don't (because its cheaper and easier to find here) but much perfer not to, when possible.

Plus IMO, most of the organic stuff i've eaten tastes much better

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8174482.stm

Organic food is no healthier than ordinary food, a large independent review has concluded.

There is little difference in nutritional value and no evidence of any extra health benefits from eating organic produce, UK researchers found.

The Food Standards Agency who commissioned the report said the findings would help people make an "informed choice".

But the Soil Association criticised the study and called for better research.

Researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine looked at all the evidence on nutrition and health benefits from the past 50 years.

Among the 55 of 162 studies that were included in the final analysis, there were a small number of differences in nutrition between organic and conventionally produced food but not large enough to be of any public health relevance, said study leader Dr Alan Dangour.

Overall the report, which is published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found no differences in most nutrients in organically or conventionally grown crops, including in vitamin C, calcium, and iron.

The same was true for studies looking at meat, dairy and eggs.

Differences that were detected, for example in levels of nitrogen and phosphorus, were most likely to be due to differences in fertilizer use and ripeness at harvest and are unlikely to provide any health benefit, the report concluded.

Gill Fine, FSA director of consumer choice and dietary health, said: "Ensuring people have accurate information is absolutely essential in allowing us all to make informed choices about the food we eat.

"This study does not mean that people should not eat organic food.

"What it shows is that there is little, if any, nutritional difference between organic and conventionally produced food and that there is no evidence of additional health benefits from eating organic food."

She added that the FSA was neither pro nor anti organic food and recognised there were many reasons why people choose to eat organic, including animal welfare or environmental concerns.

Dr Dangour, said: "Our review indicates that there is currently no evidence to support the selection of organically over conventionally produced foods on the basis of nutritional superiority."

He added that better quality studies were needed.

Peter Melchett, policy director at the Soil Association said they were disappointed with the conclusions.

"The review rejected almost all of the existing studies of comparisons between organic and non-organic nutritional differences.

"Although the researchers say that the differences between organic and non-organic food are not 'important', due to the relatively few studies, they report in their analysis that there are higher levels of beneficial nutrients in organic compared to non-organic foods.

"Without large-scale, longitudinal research it is difficult to come to far-reaching clear conclusions on this, which was acknowledged by the authors of the FSA review.

"Also, there is not sufficient research on the long-term effects of pesticides on human health," he added.

Ditto. Organic food tastes a hell of a lot better than mass-produced food.

I buy as many of my veggies direct from the farmers themselves as possible... we've got farmers markets in three places every Sunday morning here

no one ever said it was "better" for your... it has better taste, supports local growers, no chemicals, hormones, etc.

It's not that organic tastes any better either. FRESH tastes better. ANYTHING you get that is FRESH is going to tastes better than stuff shipped halfway across the country in a frozen locker and stored for a week before it hits your grocer's shelves.

I could care less if what I buy is organic. What I care about is how fresh it is. If I want fish, beef, veggies I buy them at the grocer. If I want GOOD fish I buy it at a fish monger that gets it shipped in fresh every day (sorry, I live in the midwest. I'm not getting fresh lobster out of the illinois river any time soon.) If I want GOOD beef I go to the local abattoir/butcher. And if I want GOOD veggies I either grow them myself or hit a farmer's market.

And I never... EVER buy more meat than I am going to eat before it spoils because I NEVER freeze my meat. Frozen meat tastes like crap.

There... Organic has jack all to do with food taste. FRESHNESS does.

Ok, I may be showing my age here, but I think there is something to all the hormones they give animals. Think about it, 50 years ago it took a cow like 2-3 years or some such to mature, Soy will give actual days soon, and now it's like a year. The stuff they give the cows has to have some carry-over affect on the humans who consume them, no?

Conspiracy theorists will tell you absolutely... the FDA will tell you no... who knows? I just want my food to taste good and don't care how it gets to me as long as it does.

Crawdads are pretty good actually. I don't eat them often but they do have a slight lobstery taste. More "gamey" though.