What Are The Health Benefits of Eating Organic?
According
to Dr. Mercola,
many people want to lead a healthier lifestyle but aren’t sure where to start.
In the realm of diet, in fact, most Americans (52 percent) believe it’s easier
to calculate their income taxes than figure out what to eat to stay healthy.1 It shouldn’t feel this hard, which
is why I want to give you one tangible step you can take to overhaul your diet,
and lifestyle, for the better: "Go organic", Dr. Mercola says.
A
survey by the Organic Trade Association revealed that, in 2017, Americans
bought more organic foods and household products than ever, with sales reaching
$47 billion in 2016 — an 8 percent increase from 2015.2 Katherine Paul, associate director
of the Organic Consumers Association (OCA), said in a news release, “ … I think
you are looking at a better-educated population that is connecting the dots
between what they eat and their health.”3
This is
true, indeed, and organic products are now available in close to 20,000 natural
food stores and 3 out of 4 conventional grocery stores in the U.S. Even the
U.S. Department of Agriculture acknowledges their staying power in the
marketplace, noting “Organic products have shifted from being a lifestyle
choice for a small share of consumers to being consumed at least occasionally
by a majority of Americans.”4 But despite the gains in popularity,
organic sales account for only about 4 percent of total U.S. food sales.
Avoiding Pesticides Is
the No. 1 Reason People Buy Organic
“Polling
shows the No. 1 reason people go organic is to avoid pesticides, chemicals and
all of those things that are not allowed in organics,” Paul said,6 and this is a primary reason why
going organic is so important — for your health and the environment. Not only
do these chemicals threaten the Earth as we know it, but they pose a direct
risk to human health, including to developing babies.
In
research presented at a 2017 Children’s Environmental Health Network (CEHN)
conference in Washington, D.C., it was demonstrated that women exposed to
higher glyphosate levels during pregnancy had babies born earlier and with
lower adjusted birth weights.7 What’s more, the chemical was
detected in more than 90 percent of the mothers in the study.
Glyphosate, the
active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide, has made headlines because
it’s the most used agricultural chemical in history and also because the
International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) determined it a probable
carcinogen. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has revealed that nearly 30
percent of the more than 3,000 foods they tested contain glyphosate.8
This
included nearly 37 percent of grain products, 47 percent of bean/pea/lentil
products and more than 30 percent of infant food and cereal. Even 7 percent of
fresh fruits and vegetables contained the residues. Eating nonorganic
genetically engineered (GE) foods (the prime candidates for Roundup spraying)
is associated with higher glyphosate levels in your body.9
Pesticides Are Harmful to
Children’s Brains, Farmworkers
The
European Parliament commissioned a report on the human health implications of
organic food and organic agriculture, which was co-written by Harvard Chan
School’s Philippe Grandjean, adjunct professor of environmental health.10 A primary message of the report
again centered on pesticides and the potential benefits of reducing their usage
via organic agriculture.
In a
Harvard School of Public Health news release, Grandjean said, “In conventional
food, there are pesticide residues that remain in the food even after it’s
washed. Organic foods are produced virtually without pesticides.”11 While U.S. regulators insist that
set limits on pesticide residues in conventional produce are enough to protect
the public’s health, the report found negative health effects may occur in children
even at current levels of exposure. According to Grandjean:12
“[T]hose limits are based on animal studies, looking at the effect of one pesticide at a time. The human brain is so much more complex than the rat brain, and our brain development is much more vulnerable because there are so many processes that have to happen at the right time and in the right sequence — you can’t go back and do them over … Three long-term birth cohort studies in the U.S. suggest that pesticides are harming children’s brains.
In these studies, researchers found that women’s exposure to pesticides during pregnancy, measured through urine samples, was associated with negative impacts on their children’s IQ and neurobehavioral development, as well as with ADHD [attention deficit hyperactivity disorder] diagnoses.
Also, one of the studies looked at structural brain growth using magnetic resonance imaging and found that the gray matter was thinner in children the higher their mothers’ exposure to organophosphates, which are used widely in pesticides. I think that’s quite scary.”
One of
the studies Grandjean refers to is the CHAMACOS Study, which followed hundreds
of pregnant women living in Salinas Valley, California, an agricultural mecca
that has had up to a half-million pounds of organophosphates sprayed in the
region per year. The children were followed through age 12 to assess what
impact the pesticides had on their development.13 It turns out the impact was quite
dramatic, and mothers' exposure to organophosphates during pregnancy was associated
with:14
- Shorter duration of pregnancy
- Poorer neonatal reflexes
- Lower IQ and poorer cognitive functioning in children
- Increased risk of attention problems in children
Farmworkers
who are exposed to agricultural pesticides on
a near-daily basis also suffer, as do their families. Up to 20,000 farmworkers
are poisoned by pesticides each year, although the actual number is likely far
higher, as many of the workers may not seek medical care or may be misdiagnosed
if they do seek treatment.
There
is also no coordinated national incident reporting system to track such
exposures. Despite this, pesticide exposures cause farmworkers more
chemical-related injuries and illnesses than any other workforce nationwide.15 So when you choose organic, you’re
helping to protect farmworkers as well as your own family.
Sources
and References:
10 European Parliamentary Research
Service, Human health implications of organic food and organic agriculture
December 2016
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