Start the eye rolling and cue the scoffing. Once again the debate over the nutritional content in Organic vs. Non-organic food has spewed itself forth onto national media sounding board. Why, here it is from the LA Times:
A comprehensive review of research comparing the nutritional content of food that was organically raised with food produced with the use of synthetic pesticides has found no significant differences between the two. Conducted by researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the study is the first to bring a heated debate over the value of organic food to a rigorous conclusion. It is published today in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
News flash: Organic is not magic. It will not make you healthier, more robust, or prettier. When processed, your organic foods will likely be just as fattening and sugar laden as the popular non-organic brands—it’s mostly corn anyway. Your organic apple does not contain a statistically significant increased amount of vitamins, minerals, or anti-oxidants.
It also doesn’t contain pesticides or heavy chemicals (for the most part). Which means the land it was grown on and the water under or next to that land does not contain pesticides or heavy chemicals (for the most part). Which means you probably contain less pesticides and heavy chemicals (less being the operative word). Since these things concentrate in the flesh as they go up the food chain, it also means pesticides and heavy chemicals will not affect the raptor eating fish in the stream next to that organic apple orchard (for the most part).
Still, your organic spinach may be contaminated with salmonella. And your organic, free-range, Rosie chicken may have never been outside its entire life.
Big Agriculture is big agriculture, and organic factory farms are still factory farms. They may be a bit easier on the system, but they are still causing damage, and an organic factory farm worker will still be treated like shit.
This eating healthy thing is complicated, right? No, not really. No matter how you eat, there is always going to be some asshole in a lab coat telling you you’re doing it wrong. You want to be healthy? Eat vegetables, a lot of them, regardless of where they came from—if they’re from a local organic farm, so much better, but you still need to wash them. Eat less meat. Eat less processed food. Eat less food in general. Also, get off your lazy ass a couple of times a week and do something active. There, you’re already healthier.
Eating well is about how you’re eating, not necessarily what you’re eating. And until we figure that out, these stories debunking trends in food health will continue to confuse people around the world. The best way we can get healthy is to turn off the goddamn noise and be reasonable about what we stuff in our faces.
Amen. Besides, I always suspected that they were buying it from Safeway and then jacking the price. Oh, and Fred Meyer’s has the worst produce, ever!
But won’t you be healthier, if you don’t have as many pesticides built up in your system? I don’t follow. In general it is good to hear, though. I don’t buy organic because I can’t afford it. But, if I could, I probably would- mainly for the environmental reasons.
Sorry. Thought the headline read: Orgasmics. False alarm.
@ Will
Sure, so eat from local farms that call thmselves organic. But don’t assume that eating organic immediately means eating healthy. If someone is eating non-organically, yet they’re active and eating reasonably, they’ll probably be just as healthy as someone eating organic because its supposed to be better for them.
@ Durty
Interestingly, orgasmics WILL save you. Different study in the same journal. Wierd.
to quote Mr. Pollan:
“Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much.”
I like the idea of eating only foods I either grow myself, are from people I know or within the state (I am an addict for oranges and limes though, and coffee, and chocolate) but so much grows within Oregon you really aren’t limited. My husband and I try to minimize our footprint, which is all I think anyone can do really.
Sirs:
This may come as a surprise to you, but if we go organic, food production will drop dramatically causing half the world’s over-popuation to starve. To death. And suffer cruelly in the process.
Going to a limited meat protein diet with a predominance of vegetable matter will make nutrition equity more possible. Going vegetarian would make it probable.
But, who amoungst you would give up Burger King and McDonalds? Any takers? Anyone?
Just asking.
Jacomus
Good post.
I’d like to add/clarify that organics tend to use less fertilizer, making them better for water quality, but they do use pesticides, just organic pesticides, I’m not joking.
While organics probably use relatively less of these pesticides, what epidemiological and environmental impact they will have is unknown. Every molecule is different, so each pesticide’s health impact needs to be independently assessed.
Yay.
Jacomus,
A. Many of us haven’t eaten at a McDonalds in years
and
B. I agree with your points but do not enjoy your patronizing tone. Perhaps you would convert more to your entirely sensible point of view if you didn’t assume that your listener was a soda-guzzling, walmart shopping asshole?
Just a suggestion.
Half the world’s over-population has to die somehow, why not starvation?
I love eating chemicals. They’ve made me stronger.
it true..ya know? Since moving to a rural area from the big city of Portland, my eating habits have improved and my alturistic, self-important attitude about eating has evolved to-well-eating whatever I want…..frozen shrimp, brisket, boca burgers. mostly though, right now, I’m eating only out of necessity. We are eating blueberries and plums and peas and chard from our garden. I’m also making an effort ot ‘eat down’ the pantry. The result can be some pretty bizarre food combos…..it is also nice to let much of the ritual of food preperation fall away. (It’s fun when I have guests though : ) I like the way the article is written, but the real gem comes at the end. Eat fruits and vegetables, eat less of everything, and get off your ass. I’m trying to do that. (the food I do grow is grown by the organic method)
I’m only eating furbles from now on.
who would give up mcdonald’s and burger king?
i haven’t been into a mcdonald’s in years and the only time i’ve gotten french fries at burger king was when i was stuck at an airport. so perhaps, my parents (and those with their way of thinking of food) won’t give it up, but me and everyone else i know would and have been.
@kiala Furbles are a little dry, but a nice, simple white sauce, made from a roux, will make them much easier to get down.
I haven’t eaten McDonald’s in like 8 years. And I’m no health nut, that’s just shitty food. If I want a burger I’ll eat at McMenamin’s or Burgerville.
Ultra-LULZ happening with all the self righteous people proclaiming how aweesome they are for not eating at McDs. Big fucking deal. No one care.
More important that whether the food is organic or not is where the food was made. Transportation accounts for a ridiculous amount of the “carbon footprint” of the food you eat. But of course, some dumbass is gonna get all up in here talking about how all the food they eat is grown in their backyard. Self-righteous is so attractive this season.
Jacomus, you are incorrect. If you simply stopped spraying pesticides on crops all in one year, some people, (lower class people working in the cities in developing nations,) would starve, but it is far less than half the population of the world, because more than half the population of the world are subsistance farmers already, and they don’t use pesticides because they can’t afford it. There would be riots in China because the middle class could no longer afford meat, but they wouldn’t starve. All told, the deaths would be less than a trillion. Considering that 852M people are already malnurished, that isn’t very many…
However, going organic is more than just not spraying pesticides. Any organic farmer that doesn’t have an intergrated pest managment plan is bankrupt, they have to deal with pests like everyone else, and they do, just not with chemicals. Over time that actually gets easier, because many of the preditors that prey on the pests grow back to keep the pest population in check. For instance, if you spray for aphids, you’ll kill all the ladybugs too. If you stop spraying, over time, (several years,) the ladybug population will recover and your losses to aphids will be very simalar what you lost while you were using pesticides. For that couple years while you transition, your losses will be higher, and you’ll have to buy a lot of ladybugs before they re-establish themselves on your land.
As such, the transition should be done slowly and carefully, but being organic will not cause people to starve to death, (any more than people are doing so already.)
“All told, the deaths would be less than a trillion”
Jesus… do you know how many people live on the planet?
6.7 Brazilian.
lulz.
🙂 Thank you. Billion, not Trillion. (And I don’t want to see the 0.7th of a Brazilian, that sounds messy.)