Evidence Supporting the Health Benefits of Organic Food is Overwhelming

The last in our series about Brian Dunning’s ‘InFact’ videos that claims “Organic (food) is about marketing, not about science, not about health and there’s no real difference (between organic and non-organic food).”

Previous articles: Organic Food Myths – Who is Telling the Truth?, Why I Prefer Organic Food, the Debunkers Debunked

Brian makes much of the fact that the US government provides information on organic agriculture through its marketing department. This is nothing new. Most organisations use marketing departments to provide information about their services and products. Where else would a consumer go?

What really makes Brian’s videos questionable is the claim that there’s no real difference between foods grown organically and those farmed conventionally. He says you have to look hard for evidence that says organic foods are healthier. Well, just type in ‘pesticides in foods’ or the ‘dangers of pesticides in food’ to your search engine. Thousands of articles will appear. Here are just a few selected quotes from the biomedical authority site PubMed. The site publishes respected research papers on a huge variety of subjects. Reading this dispels the outlandish idea organic food, which does not contain any synthetic chemical residues, is the same as food that does. How can it be?

“Pesticides used in agriculture are designed to protect crops against unwanted species, such as weeds, insects, and fungus. Many compounds target the nervous system of insect pests. Because of the similarity in brain biochemistry, such pesticides may also be neurotoxic to humans. Concerns have been raised that the developing brain may be particularly vulnerable to adverse effects of neurotoxic pesticides. Current requirements for safety testing do not include developmental neurotoxicity.” — http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17981626

“The effects of pesticides on the nervous system may be involved in their acute toxicity, as in case of most insecticides, or may contribute to chronic neurodegenerative disorders, most notably Parkinson’s disease. This brief review highlights some of the main neurotoxic pesticides, their effects, and mechanisms of action.” — http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3114813/?tool=pmcentrez

“Evidence suggests that prenatal and early-life exposure to pesticides may be causative factors in a variety of human disorders. For example, a meta-analysis by Wigle et al. (2009) showed that maternally exposed offspring have increased risk of childhood leukaemia. There are also indications that reproductive abnormalities, expressed as cryptorchidism, hypospadias, and decreased penile length, may be linked to pesticide exposure, most strikingly in maternally exposed boys.” — http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2898856/?tool=pmcentrez

Pesticide exposure has been associated with arthritis, breast cancer, and diabetes¹. Organochlorine exposure has been associated with neurobehavioral changes and DNA hypomethylation². The main non-occupational route of exposure to organochlorines is through dietary intake³.

One of the most hard hitting research findings focused on organophosphorus (OP) pesticide exposure in children. 23 children aged between 3-11 who consumed only conventional diets tested positive for OP exposure. Once organic food was substituted, the OP levels in the children reduced significantly. The study definitively concluded:

“Dietary intake of OP pesticides represents the major source of exposure in young children.” — http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2290988/?tool=pmcentrez

There is a wealth of difference between ‘clean’ food that has been grown using traditional organic practices and conventionally produced food that contains dangerous chemical residues. No-one knows what the long term effects of consuming these actually are. What’s clear is the benefits of organic food are real, not just eco-marketing rhetoric.

1. Cox et al. 2007; Dorgan et al. 1999; Lee et al. 2007 [↩]
2. Jurewicz and Hanke 2008; Rusiecki et al. 2008 [↩]
3. Brock et al. 1998 [↩]

Filed under: Organic Farming

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