Cindy Hill taught North Beach Elementary students the importance of eating fruits Tuesday afternoon.
Hill, from the from the community-based organization Once Upon a Carrot, also told them the difference between organic food and conventional food.
Hill prefers organic food to conventional, but at Stanford University, researchers found “organic” doesn’t necessarily mean “healthier.”
“What we’ve gotten from this is good, solid evidence that organic produce is not necessarily superior in terms of safety or nutrition,” Lisa Cimperman, a clinical dietitian said.
Researchers found the two were virtually the same in vitamin content. All of the produce studied had pesticide levels below federally-set safety limits, but organic foods had less pesticide residue.
For Hill, that's the deciding factor.
"The biggest issue is the pesticides and the herbicides,” Chef Hill said. “We do not want our children consuming those toxins on a regular basis."
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There was also no difference in the protein or fat contents in organic and conventional milk. However, few studies found organic milk may have higher levels of healthy omega-3 fatty acids.
Now, you can almost find anything organic, even baby food.
Hill hopes teaching after school classes, like the one in Miami Beach, lead to a healthier South Florida.
"Our goal is to give the cleanest food we can and it organic food is slightly more nutrient-dense than conventional, then that's the direction we're going in," Hill said.
Even though researchers claim cheaper, conventional foods may be just as healthy, organic food sales brought in $30 billion.
