Study Finds Organic Foods are More Healthy

As seen at Eat. Drink. Better.:

The French Agency for Food Safety (AFSSA) released a study last week that outlines a number of health benefits to eating organic food.

Photo by www.flickr.com/photos/jdickert/

This comes on the heels of a UK study that said just the opposite. According to the AFSSA study, organic foods are not only more nutritious, but they’re safer. Here are the study’s main findings:

• Organic fruits and veggies contain more iron, magnesium, antioxidants and micronutrients.
• Organic animal products are higher in heart-healthy polyunsaturated fatty acids, and cows raised on grass have a higher muscle mass, which means leaner meat.
• This was the most interesting finding, in my opinion: “94–100% of organic food does not contain any pesticide residues.” This is huge. Not only are pesticides hard on the environment, certain pesticides are linked to cancer and other health issues.

The study itself can be read viewed by downloading this PDF: ASD_Lairon_2009.pdf.

Want to learn more about organic?

• Organic food topic at The New York Times
• How Stuff Works: Organic food
• Organic foods: Are they safer? More nutritious? — from The Mayo Clinic
• The organic food entry at Wikipedia
• OrganicFoodee.com: An organic food and organic lifestyle magazine
• Agricultural Marketing Service: National Organic Program

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