There are many lists on the internet about why you should choose organic food. They say things like
- No synthetic pesticides
- No GMOs
- No herbicides like glyphosate
- No sewage sludge fertilizer
- No obesogens that can make you fat
And more.
But now there is a new study from France in which a team of researchers evaluated the diets of almost 70,000 adult volunteers over a period of several years.
The volunteers were categorized into four groups based on how often they consumed organic foods, including fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, cooking oils. Even processed food was included.
The researchers collected data for several years. Then they made note of those who did and did not develop cancer. The results were dramatic.
Volunteers who reported eating the most organic food were 25% less likely to be diagnosed with cancer. The greatest reductions of risk were seen in post-menopausal breast cancer and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
I agree this is a likely outcome. A basic law of toxicology is “no poison, no poisoning.” That sounds obvious but people don’t seem to understand that eating or drinking or breathing poisons that cause cancer are likely to result in cancer. Thus people smoke even though there is a warning label on the package.
I go out of my way and spend more money to eat the best local, seasonal, fresh organic food. I just ate yummy organic roasted carrots from my farm market and just made the rounds this morning to find out who’s selling organic turkeys for Thanksgiving.
Organic is worth it. 70,000 French citizens just proved it.
Thanks Debra! I was wondering how you feel about vegetables, greens, herbs, grown in my back yard in fabric and nursery pots. People in our neighborhood only grow grass and spray all sorts of chemicals everywhere: pesticides, herbicides, snake repellents, even moth balls freely scattered by next door neighbors everywhere. But the worst of all is a full time smoker (day and nignight). Do the toxins added to tobacco and all the other chemicals settle and ruin our food?. We make our own vegan compost and have felt that the organic matter we add “dilutes” some toxins, but we have not found much information about it. If you were in our case, would you keep growing or would you rather buy at a farmers market/health food store?
That’s a tough question. I’m remembering a study I read once where they found that plants grown by roadsides were full of toxic pollutants, so that may apply here.
But we also don’t know about the environment other foods are grown in.
I think in your case, I would probably buy from the farmer’s market or natural food store, where the growing conditions are either inspected and certified to a standard or you can talk with the farmer.