Ever find yourself eyeing up the organic label, wondering if it's actually worth it. According to a huge new review study published in the British Journal of Nutrition, it is. With the latest study offering even more proof that organic is the best choice, we wanted to share some of the more intriguing reasons buying organic protects your body (and the planet)!
#1: More antioxidants. Organic fruits and vegetables contain 20 to 40 percent more disease-fighting antioxidants compared to chemically grown counterparts. In fact, eating only organic food is equivalent to eating an extra serving of fruit or veggies a day, without actually having to eat more food.
#2: Lower poisonous metal levels. Organic food is up to 48 percent lower the metal cadmium, a toxic compound found in certain fertilizers. It's also linked to breast cancer and kidney stones.
#3: More healthy plant compounds. Plants exposed to pesticides produce fewer natural pest defenses, including phenols and polyphenols, naturally occurring compounds that can protect your organs and lower anxiety levels. Organic plants boast much higher flavonoid levels, in some cases up to around 70 percent higher levels.
#4: Fewer chemicals inside of food. It's not enough to wash your nonorganic veggies. Many chemicals are systemic, meaning they're taken up inside of the plants that we eat. In fact, a recent Norwegian study found we're actually eating extreme levels of Roundup.
#5: Better fat. A 2013 study found that organic milk is higher in brain- and heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids, thanks in part to spending more time out on pasture, a requirement in organics. Not only did nonorganic milk contain lower levels of the good fats, but it also harbored higher levels of dangerous inflammatory fats.
#6: Fewer superbugs. About 90,000 lives are lost each year to antibiotic-resistant superbug infections. Where are these dangerous germs coming from? Many nonorganic farms feed low-dose antibiotics to their animals daily to speed growth and get the animal to slaughter sooner. The trouble is, germs exposed to drugs regularly are able to outsmart the drugs. (And often, they're even hiding out on the meat you bring home from the supermarket!) You're more than 30 percent less likely to come in contact with superbugs in the meat supply when you choose organic.
#7: Food NOT grown in human sewage sludge. It's perfectly legal for nonorganic farmers to douse nonorganic fields with human sewage sludge taken from municipal water treatment plants as fertilizer for their crops. The sludge could contain whatever morgues, residences, and industrial parks decide to put down the drain. Scientists have detected shampoo chemicals in nonorganic tomatoes and hypothesize that sewage sludge is partly to blame.
#8: Protection from weird food additives. Organic has a clear health advantage when it comes to packaged foods, too. Instead of harmful artificial food dyes linked to brain cell damage and ADHD, organic food processors turn to natural colorings like beet juice to give products a desired color.
#9: Cleaner rain. Nonorganic farmers use so much glyphosate, the main ingredient in Roundup, that government scientists have now detected it in the rain! Even tiny amounts of America's most popular weedkiller can damage DNA and kill cells, and they've been linked to infertility and certain cancers.
#10: Better for the bees. If you want access to healthy food, you need pollinators. But mounting research is pointing to neonicotinoid insecticides as a leading cause of colony collapse disorder. These toxic, brain-damaging insecticides are banished in organics.
#11. A healthier climate. According to studies done on soil science, if all the cropland on Earth were treated organically, the soil would sequester 41 percent of all the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere; pastureland could sequester an additional 71 percent! If just half the world's cropland and pastureland were converted, organic soil could pull 55 percent of annual carbon emissions out of the atmosphere.
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