Some mornings are better than others, so when I woke up to a tip regarding this new study I knew it was going to be a good day.
Frequently questioned by patients on whether or not they should switch to organic food, doctors at Stanford decided to conduct a study to determine if organic food really does offer any health benefits. The resounding answers was “no.”
This myth has been circulating for so long now that it seems part of our culture. Even reality TV shows, such as The Biggest Loser, continuously tout the health benefits of buying organic food. Obviously you just don’t care about your body if you don’t eat organic. Good people eat organic.
Uh huh.
But the Stanford study is just another piece to the growing puzzle which shows that there is no health benefit to eating organic. Now people can stop dishing out ridiculous amounts of money just to purchase trumped up veggies and still take care of themselves.
The problem is, this should all be common sense. What happens to a person that doesn’t get the proper vitamins and nutrition? What happens to a person that doesn’t take steps to ward off viruses and pests? They’re sick, not healthy. Yet we expect plants to act differently. When a plant isn’t given proper nutrition through fertilizers and then we allow the bugs and every other pest to devour it, how do we expect the plant to produce healthy fruit? We can’t. Still, people have completely ignored logic and bought into this myth.
But, wait a second! The study says that the conventionally grown food may have a higher exposure to pesticides than the organically produced food. This just proves that we should be eating organic; right?
Another myth that has been debunked.
The levels of exposure found in the Stanford study were well within the safety limits. But maybe you’re one of those people that doesn’t trust the FDA. Maybe you don’t trust the government’s scientists to protect you and your family. Remember, we’ve already dealt with this issue on this blog (click here for the article). An independent study done on the supposed “Dirty Dozen” (the fruits and vegetables that contain the most pesticide residue) found that the risks of such exposure were minimal. Additionally, and more importantly, the extent of the exposure made no difference whether the food was organic or conventional. In other words, you were getting the same risk, which was very minimal, regardless of how the food was grown.
I highly doubt this will convince some people that conventionally grown food is completely safe and just as healthy. They will cling to the old myths that it is worth spending inordinate amounts of money each week to ensure they’re getting more nutrition out of every bite.
But at least this study, and some people willing to correct the fallacy, will be a step in the right direction.
