For Three Years, Every Bite Organic

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NY Times

December 2, 2008

For Three Years, Every Bite Organic

By TARA PARKER-POPE

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/02/health/02well.html?em

Fruits, vegetables and animals can be 100 percent organic. What about

people?

In a fascinating experiment — on himself — Dr. Alan Greene, a

pediatrician and author in Danville, Calif., decided to find out. For

the last three years, Dr. Greene has eaten nothing but organic foods,

whether he's cooking at home, dining out or snacking on the road.

He chose three years as a goal because that was the amount of time it

took to have a breeding animal certified organic by the Department of

Agriculture. While food growers comply with organic regulations every

day, Dr. Greene wondered whether a person could meet the same

standards.

It hasn't been easy.

" This isn't a way of eating I could recommend to anybody else because

it's so far off the beaten food grid, " said Dr. Greene, 49, the

founder of a popular Web site about children's health,

drgreene.com. " It was much more challenging than I thought it would

be, and I thought it would be tough. There were definitely days where

there was nothing I could find that was organic. "

Other writers have ventured off the traditional food grid, notably

Barbara Kingsolver in " Animal, Vegetable, Mineral " and Pollan

in " The Omnivore's Dilemma. " But what makes Dr. Greene's experiment

remarkable is the length of time he devoted to it, and his effort to

incorporate organic eating into the routines of everyday living. His

findings offer new insight into the challenges facing the organic

food industry and those of us who want to patronize it.

Organic farmers don't use conventional methods to fertilize the soil,

control weeds and pests, or prevent disease in livestock.

Organic methods often lead to higher costs, and consumers can pay

twice as much for organic foods as for conventional products. Last

week, the financial advice Web site SmartMoney.com reported that to

feed eight people an organic meal of traditional Thanksgiving foods,

a shopper would pay $295.36 — a premium of $126.35, or 75 percent,

over a nonorganic holiday spread.

To cut back on the cost of an organic diet, Dr. Greene said he had to

cut back on meat. " Whenever you go up the food chain, the costs pile

up, " he said. " If you don't eat meat at every meal, if meat becomes

more of a side dish than a centerpiece, you can fill the plate with

healthy organic food for about the same price. "

Questions remain about whether organic foods are really better for

you. The data are mixed. This fall, researchers from the University

of Copenhagen reported on a two-year experiment in which they grew

carrots, kale, peas, potatoes and apples using both organic and

conventional growing methods. The researchers found that the growing

methods made no difference in the nutrients in the crops or the

levels of nutrients retained by rats that ate them, according to the

study, published in The Journal of the Science of Food and

Agriculture.

But other research suggests that organic foods do contain more of

certain nutrients — almost twice as many, in the case of organic

tomatoes studied for a 2007 report in The Journal of Agricultural and

Food Chemistry.

Dr. Greene said he was inspired to go all-organic after talking to a

dairy farmer who noted that livestock got sick less after a switch to

organic practices. He wondered if becoming 100 percent organic might

improve his own health.

Three years later, he says he has more energy and wakes up earlier.

As a pediatrician regularly exposed to sick children, he was

accustomed to several illnesses a year. Now, he says, he is rarely

ill. His urine is a brighter yellow, a sign that he is ingesting more

vitamins and nutrients.

At home, he said, the organic routine was relatively easy. Organic

food is widely available, not just at stores like Whole Foods but at

traditional supermarkets. He also shopped at farmer's markets and

joined a local community-supported agriculture group, or C.S.A.

Because he bought less meat, the costs tended to balance out. And his

family (two of his four children still live at home) largely went

along with the experiment.

On the road, though, life was more challenging. In corporate

cafeterias and convenience stores, he looked for stickers that began

with the number 9 to signify organic; stickers on conventionally

grown produce begin with 4.

When dining out, he called ahead; high-end restaurants were willing

to accommodate his all-organic request. He also found a few lines of

organic backpacking food that he could carry with him.

Dr. Greene reached the three-year milestone in October, but his diet

is still organic. He hasn't decided whether to keep going full tilt

or to ease up in the interest of cost and convenience. In his latest

book, " Raising Baby Green: The Earth-Friendly Guide to Pregnancy,

Childbirth and Baby Care " (Jossey-Bass), he advocates a " strategic "

approach, urging parents to insist on organic versions of a few main

foods, like milk, potatoes, apples and baby food.

The biggest surprise of the whole experience, he says, was that many

people still don't know what " organic " means.

" It's surprising to me how few people know that organic means without

pesticides, antibiotics or hormones, " he said. " In stores or

restaurants around the country, I would ask, `Do you have anything

organic?' Half the time they would say, `Do you mean vegetarian?' "

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