Organic Foods
Health Impacts
Are organic foods making us healthier?
Organic foods are those that are grown without the use of synthetic fertilisers and pesticides. Over 8 million Australian households now purchase organic grocery products in a year, driving the annualised market value to $1.1 billion [1]. But what are you really getting when you buy them? Better taste? Fewer toxic chemicals?
More Nutritious?
Smith-Spangler and colleagues through a systematic literature review attempted to review evidence comparing the health effects of organic and conventional foods [2]. Following the investigation of 17 studies in humans and 223 studies of nutrients and contaminants in food, it was concluded that the published literature lacks strong evidence that organic foods are more nutritious than conventional foods, while the consumption of organic foods may reduce exposure to pesticide residues and antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Safer to Consume?
Bradbury and colleagues from Oxford University set out to find the answer to the question on whether eating organic food may reduce the risk of soft tissue sarcoma, breast cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma and other common cancers [3]. In their large prospective study, over 600,000 middle aged UK women were required to report their consumption of organic food and were followed for cancer incidence over the next 9.3 years. There was no conclusive evidence of a decrease in the incidence of cancer associated with consumption of organic food.
Expert Opinion
Nutritional epidemiologist Dr Kathryn Bradbury states 'If you review all of the studies, there really is not a lot of difference between organic and conventionally grown fruit and vegetables.'