Is organic food more nutritious/"better"?

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Permalink Reply by Janeen on July 30, 2009 at 8:04pm

I read this today too. And I guess I really can't answer your question other than to say that my gut feeling is that organic is better than conventional for a couple of reasons.

1. Less pesticides.
2. Hopefully less genetically engineered foods - and there is NO ONE that is going to convince me that GE foods are better than heirloom/organic foods.
3. Environment issues that go along with organic vs. conventional

I am sure that the nutrients are the same. A banana is a banana. But the differences are:
WebMd - Is Organic Food Better For You?: The statement "To meet these standards, organic crops must be produced without conventional pesticides (including herbicides), synthetic fertilizers, sewage sludge, bioengineering, or ionizing radiation" seals the deal for me. Pesticides? Herbicides? Bioengineering? Sewage Sludge??? No thanks, I'll pass.

Or how about this article published today to counteract the article you sighted: Ignore the FSA, It's Still Better To Buy Organic - They put it better than I can: "It is a pity that the focus has been on nutrition. All food is nutritious; having no food is what kills. The wider benefits of organic foods are still worth pursuing. It is what food does not contain and the effects that it does not have that really matter".

If money is an issue and let's face it, who isn't it an issue for, then follow these guidelines when buying organic:

Organic food, when it isn't worth it.

Thanks for bringing this issue up! It's a hot button one today.

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Permalink Reply by juliacantor on August 2, 2009 at 10:18pm

Thanks for your response and web article references. All very good information!

I completely agree re: sewage sludge, etc.! How gross. Now that's a reason to buy organic over conventional foods. However, I'm saddened to think the "free-range" eggs I've been buying over the years could be from chickens only let out for five minutes a day.

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Permalink Reply by Janeen on August 3, 2009 at 7:51am

Yes, I was shocked at that too. And saddened. I caught that once on Oprah of all places. They said to buy Organic eggs instead of Free Range. Free Range was just a buzz word where as Organic was what it says it was. No hormones or antibiotics and the chickens were treated humanely and fed the proper food. Some days I feel like I need to go to school just to figure out what I'm eating.

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Permalink Reply by Ellen S on July 31, 2009 at 9:13am

If I had my choice, I'd grow all my own food so I could control what went on it and in it. Even living on a farm, that's just not possible for me though. I do tend to buy organic when I can, especially fresh fruits, veggies etc. I just am not interested in adding more chemicals to my damaged body.

One note, because the method of fertilizing etc are different on an organic farm, there can be some noticeable differences in the foods they produce. For instance:

The frequent use of seaweed in fertilizer produces a product with a higher iodine content. This can be great if you live in an area whose soil tends to be low in iodine, but for those of us who must control our iodine consumption to keep it consistent, this can be a problem.

I have Graves' Disease - an autoimmune condition that causes the thyroid to become hyperactive. Iodine is like gasoline to the thyroid's fire. Flares of thyroid hormone in the system can cause a wide variety of health problems. For some sufferers, this can be serious or even deadly. Even those with Hashimoto's or low thyroid can have problems when inconsistently consuming greater amounts of iodine, causing fluctuations of the hormone in their systems and potential problems in stabilizing or maintaining consistent levels of thyroid hormone medicines in their bodies.

For more information on autoimmune thyroid conditions, please visit the WEGO Health Thyroid group.

For more information on autoimmunity, please see our new Autoimmune Diseases community

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Permalink Reply by Ellen S on July 31, 2009 at 9:18am

One more thing I wish I'd added:

Buying packaged organic products like spaghetti sauce etc is great for me because I'm able to eat many of them without worry of added MSG products. As a Migraineur, MSG is a huge issue for me. It may be labeled many different ways on a single package, making it difficult for the consumer to decipher without a deep well of knowledge from which to draw. Organic products tend to have simpler ingredients and less danger of creating a MSG induced Migraine for me.

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Permalink Reply by cam350 on August 12, 2009 at 5:24pm

Hyper Thyroid does this mean that you're metabolism is faster?

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Permalink Reply by Barbara Giordano on August 6, 2009 at 7:59pm

Regardless of the article dismissing organic, I will continue to purchase foods free of pestisides and hormones. I often wonder if the high rate of infertility is due in part to the levels of pesticides and hormones consumed in food. Ingesting chemicals and hormones cannot be beneficial, IMO.

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Permalink Reply by J.D. Bell on August 26, 2009 at 3:17pm

I recently posted an entry on my blog It Takes Work on this very issue. Also of interest (and linked to in the referenced post) is another post about how today's fruits and vegetables aren't nearly as nutritious as they were 25 years ago.

http://www.it-takes-work.com/2009/07/organic-food-costs-more-better...

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Permalink Reply by Princess-Spock on August 26, 2009 at 10:45pm

Endless studies have shown that there's no nutritional difference between organic and regular food.

It used to be understood that organic foods were smaller and poorer quality, and thus less tasty, but recently there's a movement claiming that organic foods taste better. Penn and Teller covered this in an episode of their show Bullsh!t, where they had people do blind compariosn tests.... and the huge majority found the NON-organic stuff to taste better for every food tested. To demonstrate how people just fool themselves into thinking organic tatses better, they cut pieces of fruit in half and told people that one half was organic and one half wasn't... and all those dumbells raved on and on about how much better the "organic" half tasted than the "regular" half... and their embarrassment when they learned that it was all in their heads was fabulous.

AND; if all food was grown organically, we could only feed about a billion people, of the SEVEN billion people currently on theis planet... so unless you'd like 6 billion people to starve to death, quit pushing for everything to be organic and go back to regular food. When you buy organic, you support producing less food and making poor people hungrier.

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