Re: Organic food and nutrition - yes, more nutritious

[Guest guest]

Besides the benefits of non-GMO, more sustainable, healthier for farm

workers and the environment, etc., etc.

Health Benefits:

FROM:

_http://www.theorganicpages.com/topo/organic/benefits/nutrition.html?fromOta

=1 & OtaImage=1_

(http://www.theorganicpages.com/topo/organic/benefits/nutrition.html?fromOta=1 & O\

taImage=1)

Nutritional Considerations

Growing crops in healthy soils results in food products that offer healthy

nutrients. There is mounting evidence that organically grown fruits,

vegetables and grains may offer more of some nutrients, including vitamin C,

iron, magnesium and phosphorus, and less exposure to nitrates and pesticide

residues than their counterparts grown using synthetic pesticides and

fertilizers.

New study challenges organic health benefits on nutritional grounds

* While many studies show organic foods are rich in nutrients,

researchers generally agree there is a need for more research. A study review

authored by London School of Hygiene and Tropical Health researchers looks at

the paucity of data now available concerning the nutrition-related health

effects of _organic foods_

(http://www.ota.com/pics/documents/OrganicHealthBenefits.pdf)

, and points out the need for better designed studies to answer this

question. The review, which appeared in the May 12, 2010, online posting of

articles for The American Journal of Clincial Nutrition, only found 12 studies

with any relevance to nutrition-related aspects of organic food, and most

of these were poorly designed and flawed.

Source: The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, online, May 12, 2010, “

Nutrition-related health effects of organic foods: a systematic review.â€

Organic foods, in fact, are rich in nutrients.

* A two-year study led by Reganold of Washington State

University that provided side-by-side comparisons of organic and conventional

strawberry farms has shown organic farms produced more flavorful and nutritious

berries while promoting healthier and more genetically diverse soils.

Published Sept. 1, 2010, in the peer-reviewed online journal PLoS One, the

research study analyzed 31 chemical and biological soil properties, soil DNA,

and the taste, nutrition and quality of three strawberry verities on 13

convention and 13 organic commercial fields in California. The

multi-disciplinary research team included expertise in agroecology, soil

science, microbial

ecology, genetics, pomology, food science, sensory science, and

statistics. Findings in the paper showed organic strawberries had significantly

higher antioxidant activity and concentrations of ascorbic acid and phenolic

compounds, longer shelf life, and dry matter. In addition, the organic soils

excelled in the areas of carbon sequestration, nitrogen, microbial biomass,

enzyme activities, and micronutrients. Source: P. Reganold, Preston

K. s, R. Reeve, Lynne Carpenter-Boggs, W. Schadt,

J. Alldredge, Carolyn F. Ross, Neal M. Davies, and Jizhong Zhou, “

Fruit and Soil Quality of Organic and Conventional Strawberry

Agroecosystems,†Plos ONE, September 2010, Vol. 5, Issue 9, e123456

Source:

_http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0012346_

(http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0012346) .

* A French researcher’s review of scientific findings concerning

organic products has confirmed the high nutritional quality and safety of food

produced using organic practices. The literature review, prepared by Denis

Lairon of the University of Aix-Marseille in France, was commissioned by

the French Agency for Food Safety (AFSSA). Lairon notes there are

nutritional benefits to organic produce, such as more dry matter, minerals and

antioxidant micronutrients than their non-organic counterparts. Meanwhile, stud

ies show organic foods have significantly lower amounts of nitrates and

residues of toxic chemical pesticides, fungicides and herbicides than do

non-organic foods. This article appeared soon after much press coverage of a

British article in-press in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that

concluded there wasn’t much difference in nutrient density between organic

and non-organic foods. That article, however, prompted criticism that it

didn’

t look at all the attributes of organic products and included studies

dating back 50 years that did not have clear parameters on whether products

examined were truly organic. One of the confounding factors in comparing the

nutritional aspects of organic and conventional agriculture has been that

few studies have been conducted with the scientific rigor required to show

definite differences. Even the authors of the British study acknowledged

that although they did not see documented significant nutrient differences

between organic and conventional food, they did not rule out that possibility.

Lairon noted that current organic agriculture practices have the

potential to produce high-quality products with improved antioxidant content,

and

lower nitrate accumulation and toxic chemical residue levels. What is needed

now is additional research support to give organic farmers tools such as

improved cultivars that are disease-resistant, to help grow organic

production from a “niche†to sustainable agriculture worldwide.

Source: Denis Lairon, Agronomy for Sustainable Development, 2009

_http://swroc.cfans.umn.edu/organic/ASD_Lairon_2009.pdf_

(http://swroc.cfans.umn.edu/organic/ASD_Lairon_2009.pdf) .

* Researchers studying cultivation practices for high-bush

blueberries in New Jersey found that blueberry fruit grown organically yielded

significantly higher fructose and glucose levels, malic acid, total phenolics,

total anthocyanins and antioxidant activity than fruit grown using

conventional methods. Scientists carrying out the study are based at the U.S.

Department of Agriculture’s Genetic Improvement of Fruits and Vegetables

Laboratory in Beltsville, MD, and at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

Source: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Vol. 56, pages

5,788-5794 (2008), published online on July 1, 2008.

* A report jointly produced by The Organic Center and professors

from the University of Florida Department of Horticulture and Washington State

University provides evidence that organic foods contain, on average, 25

percent higher concentration of 11 nutrients than their conventional

counterparts. The report was based on estimated differences in nutrient levels

across 236 comparisons of organically and conventionally grown foods.

Source: “New Evidence Confirms the Nutritional Superiority of Plant-Based

Organic Foods,â€

_www.organic-center.org/reportfiles/5367_Nutrient_Content_SSR_FINAL_V2.pdf_

(http://www.organic-center.org/reportfiles/5367_Nutrient_Content_SSR_FINAL_V2.pd\

f) .

* A study published in Environmental Health Perspectives showed that

consuming organic products may lower children's exposure to potentially

damaging pesticides. In the study, researchers at the School of Public Health

and Community Medicine, University of Washington, recruited families at

both a retail chain grocery store selling primarily conventional foods and

at a local cooperative selling a large variety of organic foods in the

Seattle, WA, metropolitan area. Parents were asked to keep a food diary for

their children for three days, then the children's urine collected on day three

was analyzed for pesticide metabolites. Children eating primarily organic

diets had significantly lower levels organophosphorus (OP) pesticide

metabolite concentrations than did children eating conventional diets. In fact,

concentrations of dimethyl metabolites, one OP metabolite group, were

approximately six times higher for the children eating conventional diets.

Other

studies indicate that chronic low-level exposure to OP pesticide may

affect neurological functioning, neurodevelopment, and growth in children.

" Dose

estimates suggest that consumption of organic fruits, vegetables, and

juice can reduce children's exposure levels from above to below the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency’s current guidelines, thereby shifting

exposures

from a range of uncertain risk to a range of negligible risk, " authors

L. Curl, A. Fenske, and Kai Elgethun wrote, adding,

" Consumption of organic produce appears to provide a relatively simple way for

parents to reduce their children's exposure to OP pesticides. " A previous study

by members of the study team had shown that children eating primarily

organic diets had significantly lower OP pesticide exposure than did children

consuming primarily conventional diets. In fact, an earlier study found no

measurable pesticide metabolites in the urine of a child whose family bought

exclusively organic produce. [Original study: Environmental Health

Perspectives, Vol. 109, No. 3, March 2001 (pp. 299-303, C. Lu, D.E. Knutson, J.

Fisker-Andersen, and R.A. Fenske, “Biological Monitoring Survey of

Organophosphorus Pesticide Exposure among Preschool Children in the Seattle

Metropolitan areaâ€). Subsequent study: Environmental Health Perspectives

ehponline.org, posted online Oct. 31, 2002, C.L. Curl, R.A. Fenske, and K.

Elgethun, “

Organophosphorus pesticide exposure of urban and suburban pre-school

children with organic and conventional dietsâ€].

Source: Environmental Health Perspectives, March 2003.

* A study has shown that organic soups sold commercially in the

United Kingdom contain almost six times as much salicylic acid as non-organic

soups. Paterson, a biochemist at Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary,

and scientists at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland analyzed 11

brands of organic soup and compared their levels of salicylic acid with those

in non-organic varieties. Salicylic acid, which is responsible for the

anti-inflammatory action of aspirin, has been shown to help prevent hardening

of the arteries and bowel cancer. The average level of salicylic acid in

11 brands of organic vegetable soup was 117 nanograms per gram, compared

with 20 nanograms per gram in 24 types of non-organic soup. The highest level

(1,040 nanograms per gram) was found in an organic carrot and coriander

soup. Four of the conventional soups had no detectable levels of salicylic

acid.

Source: New Scientist magazine, March 16, 2002, page 10; European Journal

of Nutrition, Vol. 40, page 289.

* Research by visiting chemistry professor Theo and

undergraduate students at Truman State University in Missouri found organically

grown

oranges contained up to 30 percent more vitamin C than those grown

conventionally. Reporting the findings at the June 2 Great Lakes Regional

meeting

of the American Chemical Society, said he had expected the

conventional oranges, which were much larger than the organic oranges, to have

twice

as much vitamin C as the organic versions. Instead, chemical isolation

combined with nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy revealed the higher

level in the organic oranges.

Source: Science Daily Magazine, June 2, 2002.

* Reviewing 41 published studies comparing the nutritional value of

organically grown and conventionally grown fruits, vegetables, and grains,

certified nutrition specialist Virginia Worthington concluded there were

significantly more of several nutrients in organic crops. These included: 27%

more vitamin C, 21.1% more iron, 29.3% more magnesium, and 13.6% more

phosphorus. In addition, organic products had 15.1% less nitrates than their

conventional counterparts. She also noted that five servings of organic

vegetables (lettuce, spinach, carrots, potatoes and cabbage) provided the

recommended daily intake of vitamin C for men and women, while their

conventional counterparts did not. Worthington said the results are consistent

with

known soil dynamics and plant physiology.

Source: “Nutritional Quality of Organic Versus Conventional Fruits,

Vegetables, and Grains,†by Virginia Worthington, published in The Journal of

Alternative and Complementary Medicine, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2001 (pp. 161-173).

* A study commissioned by the Organic Retailers and Growers

Association of Australia (ORGAA) found that conventionally grown fruit and

vegetables purchased in supermarkets and other commercial retail outlets had

ten

times less mineral content than fruit and vegetables grown organically. For

the study, tomatoes, beans, capsicums and silver beets grown on a certified

organic farm using soil regenerative techniques were analyzed for mineral

elements. The Australian Government Analytical Laboratory also analyzed a

similar range of vegetables grown conventionally and purchased from a

supermarket. A major flaw of the study, however, is that it compared fresh

produce at the farm to produce in a supermarket. Thus, there could have been a

difference in freshness, which could have affected the nutrients measured.

Source: Organic Retailers and Growers Association of Australia, 2000, as

cited in Pesticides and You, Vol. 20, No. 1, Spring 2000, News from Beyond

Pesticides/National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides.

* A comparative study conducted by researchers at the Research

Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) in Switzerland found that organically

grown apples were of higher quality than conventionally grown apples with

respect to parameters that relate to health and taste (taste score,

sugar-acidity-firmness index, nutritional fiber content, phenolic compounds

content,

and “vitality index†according to picture-grading methods for holistic

quality assessment).

Source: “Are organically grown apples tastier and healthier? A comparative

field study using conventional and alternative methods to measure fruit

quality,†F.P. Weibel, R.Bickel, S. Leuthold, and T. Alföldi), Acta Hort.

517: 417-427 (2000).

Organic produce has been found to be higher in antioxidants than its

conventional counterparts.

* Organic lemonade contains ten times more eriocitrin (an

antioxidant) than a glass of its conventional counterpart, according to a

recent

study by Washington State University supported by The Organic Center. The study

was the first-ever assessment of the bioavailability of three chiral

flavonoids—hesperetin, naringenin, and eriocitrin—found in citrus fruits

and

juices. Organic lime juice had three times the level of eriocitrin compared

to conventional lime juice.

Source: Biopharmaceutics & Drug Disposition, Vol. 29, pp. 63-82,

September 2007.

* Research led by Alyson at the University of

California- has shown that levels of flavonoids increase over time in

crops grown

in organically farmed fields. Study results found that organic tomatoes

contain on average 79 and 97 percent more quercetin and kaempferol aglycones

(beneficial flavonoids) that their conventionally grown counterparts. In the

study, and colleagues compared levels of key flavonoids in

tomatoes harvested over a ten-year period from two matched fields—one farmed

organically and the other with conventional methods including commercial

fertilizers. Researchers analyzed organic and conventional tomatoes that had

been

dried and archived under identical conditions from 1994 to 2004. “The

levels of flavonoids increased over time in samples from organic treatments,

whereas the levels of flavonoids did not vary significantly in conventional

treatments,†the report stated.

Source: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, posted online June

23, 2007.

* A research team at the University of California at has found

organic kiwi fruit had much higher levels of total polyphenol content than

conventional kiwi fruit, resulting in higher antioxidant activity than

their conventional counterparts. Study results also showed that organic kiwi

fruit had higher levels of vitamin C. The kiwis studied were from nearby

vineyards on the same farm in sville, CA.

Source: March 27, 2007, online edition of the Journal of the Science of

Food and Agriculture.

* At the 2005 international congress Organic Farming, Food Quality

and Human Health, Professor Carlo Leifert of Newcastle University reported

findings that organically produced food had higher level of specific

antioxidants and lower mycotoxin levels than conventional samples, and that

grass-based organic cattle diets reduce the risk of E. coli contamination while

grain-based conventional diets increase the risk.

Source: _http://www.qlif.org/_ (http://www.qlif.org/) .

* Findings from a Danish showed organic vegetables have a higher

concentration of natural antioxidants called flavonoids. The double-blind

randomized, crossover study had two intervention periods, with test

participants given organic food or conventional food for three weeks. Results

were

based on blood and urine samples tested. The study was conducted by The

Institute of Food Safety and Nutrition under The Danish Veterinary and Food

Administration, The Department of Human Nutrition and Centre for Advanced Food

Studies under The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, and Risø

National Laboratory.

Source: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Vol. 51, No. 19,

2003, pp. 5671-5676.

* Organic fruits and vegetables show significantly higher levels of

antioxidants than their conventionally grown counterparts, according to

findings published by researchers at the University of California at . In

the study, researchers led by food scientist Alyson compared the

antioxidant levels in corn, strawberries and marionberries grown

organically, sustainably (using fertilizer but no herbicides or pesticides) and

conventionally. Antioxidant levels in sustainably grown corn were 58.5 percent

higher than conventionally grown corn, while organically and sustainably

grown marionberries had approximately 50 percent more antioxidants than

conventionally grown berries. Sustainably and organically grown strawberries

had

about 19 percent more antioxidants than their conventional counterparts.

The findings were published in the Feb. 26, 2003, print edition of the

American Chemical Society peer-reviewed Journal of Agricultural and Food

Chemistry. The study also showed sustainably grown and organic produce had more

ascorbic acid, which the body converts to vitamin C.

Source: “Comparison of the Total Phenolic and Ascorbic Content of

Freeze-Dried and Air-Dried nberry, Strawberry, and Corn Grown Using

Conventional, Organic, and Sustainable Agricultural Practices,†D.K. Asami,

Y.-J.

Hong, D.M. Barrett, and A.E. , Journal of Agricultural and Food

Chemistry, 51(5):1,237-1,241 (2003)

An Italian study has found organic pears, peaches and oranges had higher

antioxidant levels than their conventional counterparts. The study was

conducted by the Istituto nazionale di ricerca per gli alimenti e la nutrizione

(National Institute of Food and Nutrition Research). In particular,

researchers found that organic 's pears contain less fiber but more

natural

sugar, vitamin C and antioxidants compared to their conventional

counterparts, and were more resistant to mildew and fungi. Organic Regina

Bianca

peaches, meanwhile, contain more antioxidants.

Source: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. August 2002.

Organic meat and dairy products offer consumers a host of health benefits

as well.

* Organic cows grazing on fresh pasture produce milk with higher

levels of antioxidants and beneficial fatty acids such as conjugated linoleic

acid (CLA) and omega-three fatty acids, according to research findings from

Newcastle University in the United Kingdom. Part of the ongoing

cross-European Quality Low Input Food project, the study involved 25 farms

across the

United Kingdom and looked at three different farming systems:

conventional high input, organically certified, and non-organic sustainable

(low-input).

Source: Journal of Science of Food and Agriculture, online (2008).

* A three-year study in the United Kingdom, sponsored by the Organic

Milk Suppliers’ Co-operative, found organic milk contained 68 percent more

omega-3 fatty acids, on average, than conventional milk. The study was

conducted independently by the Universities of Liverpool and Glasgow during

2002 and 2005 centering on a cross-section of UK farms over a 12-month

production cycle.

Source: “Comparing the fatty acid composition of organic and conventional

milk,†Ellis, K., Innocent, G., Grover-White, D., Cripps, P., McLean, W.G.,

, C.V. & Mihm, M., Journal of Dairy Science, 89: 1938-1950 (2006).

While many studies show organic foods are rich in nutrients, researchers

generally agree there is a need for more research. A study review authored

by London School of Hygiene and Tropical Health researchers looks at the

paucity of data now available concerning the nutrition-related health effects

of _organic foods_

(http://www.ota.com/pics/documents/OrganicHealthBenefits.pdf) , and points out

the need for better designed studies to answer this

question. The review, which appeared in the May 12, 2010, online posting of

articles for The American Journal of Clincial Nutrition, only found 12

studies with any relevance to nutrition-related aspects of organic food, and

most of these were poorly designed and flawed.

Source: The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, online, May 12, 2010, “

Nutrition-related health effects of organic foods: a systematic review.â€

* A European research team led by Swiss scientist Lukas Rist has

found that mothers consuming mostly organic milk and meat products have about

50 percent higher levels of rumenic acid, a conjugated linoleic acid, in

their breast milk.

Source: June 2007 British Journal of Nutrition.

© 2011, Organic Trade Association.

Jan Patenaude, RD, CLT

Director of Medical Nutrition

Signet Diagnostic Corp.

Telecommuting Nationwide

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DineRight4@...

Certified LEAP Therapist and specialist in food sensitivity for IBS,

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Certified LEAP Therapist (CLT) Training Course.

In a message dated 8/23/2011 3:44:41 A.M. Mountain Daylight Time,

rd-usa writes:

_Organic food and nutrition _

(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rd-usa/message/26867;_ylc=X3oDMTJzMXJ2cHZiBF9TAzk\

3MzU5NzE1BGdycElkAzEwMDM1NTQ3BGdycHNwSWQDM

TcwNTA2MTIwOQRtc2dJZAMyNjg2NwRzZWMDZG1zZwRzbGsDdm1zZwRzdGltZQMxMzE0MDkyNjc5)

Posted by: " Shelby " _shelby.martin@... _

(mailto:shelby.martin@...?Subject= Re:%20Organic%20food%20and%20nutrition)

_shelby.martin098 _ (http://profiles.yahoo.com/shelby.martin098)

Mon Aug 22, 2011 9:50 am (PDT)

Can anyone tell me where I can find evidence that organic food is more

nutritious than conventional? (particularly fruits/vegetables)

Thank you in advance.