Are Organic Foods Safer?

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Organic food consumption appears to reduce exposure to pesticide residues and antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

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The stated principles of organic agriculture are “health, ecology, fairness, and care” but if you ask people why they buy organic, the strongest predictor was concern for their own health or their family’s. People may spend more for organic more for selfish, rather than altruistic, motives. Although organic foods may not have more nutrients per dollar, consumption of organic foods may reduce exposure to pesticide residues and antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Food safety-wise, they found no difference in the risk of contamination with food poisoning bacteria in general. Both organic and conventional animal products were commonly contaminated with Salmonella and Campylobacter, for example. Most chicken samples were found to be contaminated either way with Campylobacter, about a third with Salmonella but, the risk of exposure to multidrug-resistant bacteria–resistant to multiple classes of antibiotics–was lower with the organic meat. So they both may carry the same risk of making us sick, but food poisoning from organic meat may be easier for doctors to treat.

What about the pesticides? There is a large body of evidence on the relation between exposure to pesticides and elevated rate of chronic diseases such as different types of cancer, diabetes, neurodegenerative disorders like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and ALS, as well as birth defects and reproductive disorders, but they’re talking about people who live or work around pesticides.

Take Salinas Valley California, for example, where they spread half a million pounds of the stuff. Daring to be pregnant in an agricultural community like that may impair childhood brain development, such that pregnant women with the highest levels running through their bodies, as measured in their urine, gave birth to children with an average deficit of about seven IQ points. 26 out of 27 studies showed negative effects of pesticides on brain development in children. These included attention problems, developmental disorders, and short-term memory difficulties.

If you compare kids born with higher levels of a common insecticide in their umbilical cord blood, those who were exposed to higher levels are born with brain anomalies. And these were city kids, so presumably this was from residential pesticide use.

Residential exposure to pesticides, like using insecticides inside your house, may be a contributing risk factor for cancers like childhood leukemia, suggesting that awareness be increased among populations occupationally exposed to pesticides about their potential negative influence on the health of their children–though I don’t imagine most farmworkers have much of a choice. Pregnant farmworkers may be doubling the odds of their child getting leukemia and increase their risk of getting a brain tumor.

So conventional produce may be bad for the pregnant woman who picks them, but what about our own family when we eat them?

First of all, just because we spray pesticides on our food in the fields doesn’t mean it ends up in our bodies when we eat it–or at least we didn’t know that until this study was published in 2006. Researchers measured the levels of two pesticides running through children’s bodies by measuring specific pesticide breakdown products in their urine. Here are the levels of pesticides flowing through the bodies of 3- to 11-year olds during a few days on a conventional diet. Then they went on an organic diet for five days, and then back to the conventional diet. It’s clear that eating organic provides a dramatic and immediate protective effect against exposures to pesticides commonly used in agricultural production. The study was subsequently extended. Can you guess when the kids were eating organic? You don’t even need the labels on the graph to tell. What about adults, though? We didn’t know, until now. Thirteen men and women consume a diet of at least 80% organic or conventional food for seven days, and then switched. And no surprise, during the mostly organic week, pesticide exposure was significantly reduced, and not just by a little: a nearly 90% drop in exposure.

So it can be concluded that consumption of organic foods provides protection against pesticides, but does that mean protection against disease? We don’t know—the studies just haven’t been done. Nevertheless, in the meantime, the consumption of organic food provides a logical precautionary approach.

To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by Katie Schloer.

Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.

Image thanks to Rob Franksdad via Flickr.

The stated principles of organic agriculture are “health, ecology, fairness, and care” but if you ask people why they buy organic, the strongest predictor was concern for their own health or their family’s. People may spend more for organic more for selfish, rather than altruistic, motives. Although organic foods may not have more nutrients per dollar, consumption of organic foods may reduce exposure to pesticide residues and antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Food safety-wise, they found no difference in the risk of contamination with food poisoning bacteria in general. Both organic and conventional animal products were commonly contaminated with Salmonella and Campylobacter, for example. Most chicken samples were found to be contaminated either way with Campylobacter, about a third with Salmonella but, the risk of exposure to multidrug-resistant bacteria–resistant to multiple classes of antibiotics–was lower with the organic meat. So they both may carry the same risk of making us sick, but food poisoning from organic meat may be easier for doctors to treat.

What about the pesticides? There is a large body of evidence on the relation between exposure to pesticides and elevated rate of chronic diseases such as different types of cancer, diabetes, neurodegenerative disorders like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and ALS, as well as birth defects and reproductive disorders, but they’re talking about people who live or work around pesticides.

Take Salinas Valley California, for example, where they spread half a million pounds of the stuff. Daring to be pregnant in an agricultural community like that may impair childhood brain development, such that pregnant women with the highest levels running through their bodies, as measured in their urine, gave birth to children with an average deficit of about seven IQ points. 26 out of 27 studies showed negative effects of pesticides on brain development in children. These included attention problems, developmental disorders, and short-term memory difficulties.

If you compare kids born with higher levels of a common insecticide in their umbilical cord blood, those who were exposed to higher levels are born with brain anomalies. And these were city kids, so presumably this was from residential pesticide use.

Residential exposure to pesticides, like using insecticides inside your house, may be a contributing risk factor for cancers like childhood leukemia, suggesting that awareness be increased among populations occupationally exposed to pesticides about their potential negative influence on the health of their children–though I don’t imagine most farmworkers have much of a choice. Pregnant farmworkers may be doubling the odds of their child getting leukemia and increase their risk of getting a brain tumor.

So conventional produce may be bad for the pregnant woman who picks them, but what about our own family when we eat them?

First of all, just because we spray pesticides on our food in the fields doesn’t mean it ends up in our bodies when we eat it–or at least we didn’t know that until this study was published in 2006. Researchers measured the levels of two pesticides running through children’s bodies by measuring specific pesticide breakdown products in their urine. Here are the levels of pesticides flowing through the bodies of 3- to 11-year olds during a few days on a conventional diet. Then they went on an organic diet for five days, and then back to the conventional diet. It’s clear that eating organic provides a dramatic and immediate protective effect against exposures to pesticides commonly used in agricultural production. The study was subsequently extended. Can you guess when the kids were eating organic? You don’t even need the labels on the graph to tell. What about adults, though? We didn’t know, until now. Thirteen men and women consume a diet of at least 80% organic or conventional food for seven days, and then switched. And no surprise, during the mostly organic week, pesticide exposure was significantly reduced, and not just by a little: a nearly 90% drop in exposure.

So it can be concluded that consumption of organic foods provides protection against pesticides, but does that mean protection against disease? We don’t know—the studies just haven’t been done. Nevertheless, in the meantime, the consumption of organic food provides a logical precautionary approach.

To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by Katie Schloer.

Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.

Image thanks to Rob Franksdad via Flickr.

Doctor's Note

This is the second of a five-part video series on organic versus conventional foods. What about the relative nutrient content? See my last: Are Organic Foods More Nutritious?

Here’s what to look forward to next:

For more on the infectious disease implications of organic vs. conventional, see Superbugs in Conventional vs. Organic Chicken. Organic produce may be safer too. See: Norovirus Food Poisoning from Pesticides. Organic eggs may also have lower Salmonella risk, which is an egg-borne epidemic every year in the U.S. See my video Who Says Eggs Aren’t Healthy or Safe?

More on Parkinson’s and pesticides in Preventing Parkinson’s Disease With Diet.

Those surprised by the California data might have missed my video California Children Are Contaminated.

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