Is Organic Food Healthier For Us?

Everyone’s motivations for buying organic differs, but one of the most commonly listed reasons is that it is healthier for you. Now organic farming was first and foremost developed to protect the environment, but could these old-school agricultural ways also benefit our health? Tune in to Nutrition Bites to find out!

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Credit to MonoSheep for the theme music.

Transcript

Welcome to Nutrition Bites. The no nonsense podcast where you get the truth about food so you can eat what you want and be healthy. I’m your host Maggie and welcome to the series! Our food choices today are heavily influenced by labels - from local to fair-trade to sugar-free. But one stamp in particular, has had everyone’s attention for decades. On the menu today, organic.

Buying organic food was something I started doing in earnest when I lived in Denmark. Proportionally speaking, this tiny Scandinavian nation has the biggest organic market in the world, comprising roughly 13% of total food sold in the country. Now to some that may seem like a small number but it’s actually more than double the proportion of organic purchases in the US, and quadruple the stat in Canada. And from personal experience - this tracks! When I was grocery shopping in Denmark two things always stuck out. One - how limited my options were, and two - the abundance of organics. Being raised in suburban Canada I grew up going to warehouse-sized grocery stores with 15 options for tortilla chips alone, and all organics grouped together in a tiny section for the rich hippies. In Denmark, however, it was standard to have maybe 3 tortilla chip choices, but with at least one being organic. Not only is organic food more widely available, the cost is also reasonable, and consuming it is deeply ingrained within the culture. Organic milk is commonly provided in Danish schools, hospitals use organic ingredients for their in-patient meals, and organic restaurants are the rule, not the exception. So it’s no surprise that I soon adopted the organic habit and brought it with me when I eventually moved back to Canada. But while the availability of organic products here has really boomed, the cost is still a tough pill to swallow. The organic label can up the price of an item by up to 70%. And with rising food costs around the world, people, including myself, are re-evaluating their purchases. Everyone’s motivations for buying organic differs, and one of the most commonly listed ones is that it is healthier for you. But is this really true? Let’s find out.

Despite being a widely used word, the definition of “organic” isn’t so simple. Generally speaking it refers to specific agricultural practices farmers must follow that are more, shall we say, “natural”. But to understand what it really means we have to use our Time-Turners to re-visit the history of agriculture. Once upon a time we grew food by taking seeds from nature and replanting them in our own fields. We tilled the land and pulled weeds by hand, and used natural techniques to protect crops. When it came to animals, we raised cows, chickens and pigs in open pastures, on land adjacent to our own. But…there was also no alternative to this Little House On the Prairie lifestyle. Until the 1900s that is. Starting at the turn of the 20th century, industrialization body slammed our way of life - especially in agriculture. Heavy machinery and synthetic chemicals were introduced to help produce food en masse. And the efficiency of meat and dairy production soon overtook considerations for an animal’s quality of life. To put it bluntly, farms became factories. Around the 1920s groups started to emerge that resisted this new food system, and by the 40s the term “organic farming” was coined to refer back to our OG agricultural ways. After decades of use, the organic term eventually gained widespread adoption and in the 1990s official certification programs began appearing across the globe.

The authority which labels a food as organic differs depending on which country or region you live in. But for the most part a little icon, likely containing the colour green or a leaf image, is placed on products that meet very specific criteria. Often the rules for organic certification mandate that 95% of the contents of a food must have avoided the use of: synthetic fertilizers and pesticides and genetically modified seeds. Farming methods for organic crops must also manage the land in a sustainable way. And when it comes to animals, organic certification prohibits the use of antibiotics, and also requires that livestock are fed, housed, and bred in a more ethical manner than conventional practices. Now this birds-eye definition of organic is pretty clear, but unfortunately the actual regulations for certification are mind-numbingly dense. And each country or region has their own take on every rule, like, how much artificial light, if any, can be used to grow produce indoors and still call it organic? Or, take for example, a new rule brought about by COVID-19. If a pandemic, or natural disaster disrupts the supply chain for organic feed, how many days can a farmer give his cows regular feed while still maintaining the organic certification for their milk? And without the legal counsel of Elle Woods present, I was not about to undertake a deep dive comparison on what organic means to every country.

What’s most important to know is that many countries share the same core principles when it comes to defining organic. So much so that we even have equivalency arrangements between nations which essentially state that two regions trust each other’s certification process. So if you’re in Canada or the US and you spot an imported organic EU delicacy, like delectable Dutch stroopwafels, rest assured it’s followed similar enough practices as your own organic label. And that’s the beauty of the definition of organic in general - you can trust it! Unlike most of the meaningless food labels we see, like “all natural” or “clean”, organic is defined, certified, and regulated. But while there may be relief in knowing that purchasing organic actually means something, the question still remains - does it benefit our health?

To start off answering this, we need to understand if there are any fundamental differences in the nutrition profile of organic vs conventionally grown food. Now right off the bat, scientists agree that there is no variation in macronutrients between the two groups. However, small differences in micronutrients have been seen. Some studies show that organic milk has slightly higher omega-3 levels than conventional milk. And that organic beef can have less cholesterol than its standard counterpart. Finally, research has shown that organic fruits and veggies tend to have more antioxidants than non-organic produce. But before we crown organics king, you gotta know that these kinds of food comparisons are very complicated and flawed. The micronutrient levels in food can change as drastically as the public opinion of your city’s football or hockey team. The specific species of plant or animal, soil composition of the land, and amount of sun or rain that season, all influence the quantity of micronutrients in food. And these factors may create differences between two apples in the same bushel. So it’s difficult to confidently say that organic food will always have a better micronutrient profile than their conventional counterparts. And, honestly, it doesn’t even seem that researchers care that much about this anyways. Instead, their focus tends to be on what organics do not contain.

Remember that organic farming prohibits the use of synthetic pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers on crops. So unsurprisingly organic produce has less pesticide residue on it than non-organic fruits and veggies. Around 30% less, at that. Now for those wondering why organic produce is not completely pesticide-free, it’s because organic farming does allow pesticides to be used - just not synthetic ones. And it’s these synthetic chemicals that consumers, and some scientists take issue with. Now before the fear mongering alarm goes off, it is important to note that the pesticide residue found on our conventional food is well within the safe limits. But that’s not enough to stop the controversy regarding the health risks of chronic, low-level, dietary exposure to these synthetic chemicals. Let’s use the global reaction to one of the world’s most popular pesticides as a case study.

Glyphosate is an incredibly effective weedkiller, and in many countries it is the #1 pesticide in use. Also known as RoundUp, this synthetic chemical is sold by GMO giant, and corporate agricultural villain Monsanto. In 2018, Monsanto was successfully sued by an American groundskeeper for causing his terminal cancer. This landmark lawsuit then opened the floodgates to more than 13,000 similar cases against the company, and a laundry list of countries vowing to ban the use of Roundup. In addition to cancer, synthetic pesticides in general have been associated with disrupting our hormones, fertility, cognitive function and neurological health. But so far it’s only really been linked with people in high-exposure jobs, like those who work in agriculture. And as a consideration for those with vulnerable systems like adults with chronic illnesses, or pregnant women and children. Now from a regulatory perspective, dietary intake of pesticides is not considered a health risk because the residue levels we are exposed to are so low. But at the same time, many pesticides are only banned retroactively - when enough negative health impacts have been identified. So, is this where organic food can earn its Marvel superhero status?

A few years back an observational study aimed to answer that question. Researchers assessed the diets of nearly 70,000 French adults and subsequently checked-in with them over the years to see how their health progressed. After the study was over, researchers discovered that consumption of more organic food was associated with a reduced risk of some cancers: post-menopausal breast cancer and lymphoma to be specific. But hold off on your applause. Hidden within the depths of the article they also reported that eating a lot of organic food was negatively and positively associated with overall cancer risk. Now if this was reported in a Buzzfeed article the headline would probably read: eating organic gives you cancer, but that’s not really truthful. As confusing and backwards as this result may seem, it actually makes sense when you think about how people eat.

Multiple studies have found that those who consume lots of organic food tend to also just eat more fruits and veggies in general, many of which will be conventionally grown with synthetic pesticides. Now this mix and match diet of organic and conventional produce makes it really hard to isolate the effects of dietary pesticide exposure on our health. I mean, the only way around this is if you found a group of people who exclusively ate organic. Which, now that I think of it, perhaps the organic-or-die Goop community could be of value here. But that’s besides the point. Often the outcomes of research in this field find the same association linked with high volumes of organic and conventional produce. Take for example a small study that evaluated American women trying to conceive. The result of this research found that worse birth outcomes were associated with women who ate lots of fruit and veg known to have high pesticide-residue levels. But, these same women also ate the most organic produce of the group. So which is to blame for the worse birth outcomes? I mean at this point, it’s like the Spiderman pointing meme - no one really knows who is at fault. Another common result from large-scale organic research is merely no association with health. In a decade’s long observational study on 1.3 million UK women, researchers found no link between consumption of organic food and cancer risk.

Now obviously this is frustrating news for the pro-organic crowds, especially because it is known that high exposure to synthetic pesticides is dangerous. But we just don’t have any evidence to prove that chronic, low-levels of synthetic pesticides, like what we are routinely exposed to through our food, is bad for us. And similarly, we have very limited evidence which strongly associates an organic diet with any positive health benefits.

Now I know it’s human nature to ditch anything that doesn’t benefit us directly or immediately, but there’s good reason to buy and consume organic food. When we think about improving our health, we need to consider the health of our planet. Organic farming is designed first and foremost to benefit the environment - and it works! These farming practices improve soil fertility, promote biodiversity, preserve waterways, improve the welfare of animals, and help combat climate. Unlike with the keto diet, or any get-fit-quick trend, long-term sustainability is at the heart of organic agriculture. And in a world where drought, floods, killer bees and the whole rolodex of natural disasters constantly threatens our supply chain, it’s vital that we produce food in a resilient and sustainable way. 

Now with all this info rattling around in our noggins, let’s try and address the original question - is organic food healthier for us? Well, the answer kinda depends on your view of health. What’s clear is that there is no substantial nutritional benefit of organic vs conventionally grown food. And the studies we have so far show no net positives of an organic diet. So if you’re taking a literal view of bodily health then no, organic food is not healthier. But, if you can momentarily put on a tie-dye t-shirt and consider the interconnectedness of human health and the health of the planet then yes, organic is healthier! By producing food in a way that is far less detrimental to the planet than conventional practices, we help create ecosystems that support all animal life - including ourselves and the bees! We can’t forget to save the bees people! But peace and love aside, the reality still stands that buying organic is not an easy or even accessible choice for everyone. Availability and cost are huge barriers, so only buy organic when it makes sense for you to do. At least now you have the knowledge that organic is not just some wellness buzzword of the month that fit influencers use to shame us regular folk. It’s a label that has meaning, trust, and some pretty positive impact on the planet.

That’s been the bite for today. Stay hungry.