Performance-Enhancing Drugs Just Fine For Zucchini: Study
Organic food is no better for you than the stuff soaked in chemicals
By GREG WILSON
Updated 9:30 AM EDT, Thu, Jul 30, 2009
Go ahead and choose the ratty-looking organic veggies over their pesticide-treated brethren if you must, but don't think buying your food from back-to-the-earth hipsters is going to boost your own shelf life.
A new study says organic food has no nutritional or health benefits over ordinary food, Reuters reported. Apparently, all those chemicals used to keep bugs away won't kill you after all.
"Our review indicates that there is currently no evidence to support the selection of organically over conventionally produced foods on the basis of nutritional superiority," said Alan Dangour, one of the researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, who authored the study.
The revelation could be a big blow to shoppers who have been feeling good about buying organic for years, not to mention the $50 billion-per-year industry. The study was based on an exhaustive review of 162 scientific papers published over the last 50 years. It was commissioned by the British government's Food Standards Agency, and published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Dangour did toss a free-range bone to true believers.
"A small number of differences in nutrient content were found to exist between organically and conventionally produced foodstuffs, but these are unlikely to be of any public health relevance," he said.
Meanwhile, some markets report sales of the usually more expensive organic foods have dropped some amid the worldwide recession. So if you have been opting for the oddly shiny apples or skipping the eggs that come in a carton made of hemp, consider yourself absolved of guilt.
First Published: Jul 30, 2009 8:17 AM EDT
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