The takeaway
- Don’t buy organic food if you’re hoping it makes you healthier. There’s no definitive proof that eating organic will make you healthier or live longer. It’s not worth buying organic if you’re after a sure-fire way to feel well and avoid disease. Though you might wish to anyway, taking a bet that the positive science may outweigh the inconclusive studies in the long run.
Is it more nutrient-rich?
Plenty of studies have found that the nutrient value of specific organic foods can be greater than their conventionally farmed counterparts. For example, there have been findings that there can be higher levels of omegas and lower saturated fat in organic meat. And higher vitamin and mineral levels in vegetables and grains.
But at the same time, more studies have also found that people who eat organic foods are, overall, no healthier than people who eat mostly non-organic foods. So if those findings of more nutrient-dense organic foods are true, they’re not translating through to giving people a healthier life.
Just because a product is labeled “organic,” it doesn’t mean that it is nutrient dense. Some of these products are still highly processed foods high in calories, added sugar, salt, and added fats.1
Is organic food less toxic?
There are likely to be lower levels of pesticides in and on organic foods. And some pesticides have been linked to cancers. But overall, there’s no difference in the rates of cancer among people who eat organic foods and those who don’t. So this isn’t having an impact.
There are also lower levels of toxic heavy metals like cadmium in organic foods. But these are already well below safe levels in all foods we eat, whether organic or not. And washing, peeling and scrubbing our fruit and veg will normally remove most of these chemicals.
One of the most convincing arguments for eating organic food for health reasons is that we don’t know what we don’t know. There are suspicions that artificial chemicals in foods are a potential cause of syndromes developed in childhood. There’s no proof that this is the case, but avoiding a potential risk like this is enough to convince many parents that they’d rather be safe than sorry. Those who can afford to often choose to buy organic baby food and kids’ foods and it’s a big marketing point on plenty of packaging aimed at cautious parents.
The upshot
Thousands of scientific studies have been done. Some showing positive results for organic food, some showing no difference between organic and conventional foods.
There’s also no scientifically proven difference between the long-term health, or susceptibility to cancer, of people who eat high-organic diets vs. those who eat no organic.
Reviews of the whole body of all of these different studies have looked at how they’re carried out, how trustworthy they are and how strong a case they present. These reviews have concluded that in the grand scheme of things, there’s no convincing evidence that organic food is better for us.1
What can you do now?
Do you want to support the organic movement but worry about being able to afford organic groceries? Read this post on sustainable ways you might be able to make room for organic produce in your weekly budget.
You want to do the best thing to be sustainable or net zero with your household food, but it’s hard to know what that is. Discover how environmentally friendly organic food is.
Hero image credit: Photo by Nadine Primeau on Unsplash
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