Posted on 07/29/2009 12:56:03 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
Organic food gives no health benefits to consumers, according to research for the Food Standards Agency published today.
Shoppers pay more for organic fruit, vegetables, chicken, beef and milk but the food gives no nutritional enhancement to people’s diet.
The watchdog stopped short of advising consumers that buying organic produce was a waste of money but its message was clear: choosing to eat organic food will make no important difference to a person’s overall health. Eating a healthy balanced diet is the only important thing, the report concluded.
The research — the first and biggest study undertaken of scientific papers published in the past 50 years on the health and diet benefits of organic food — will come as a blow to the organic food industry, which is now worth £2.1 billion a year in Britain..
The findings, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, also threatens to put the FSA on a collision course with organic champions such as the Soil Association.
The £120,000 year-long study by a team from the London School for Hygiene and Tropical health was headed by Dr Alan Dangour, a public health nutritionist. His team identified some differences between organic and conventionally produced food but concluded that they were not sufficiently important to make any difference to a person’s health or give nutritional benefit.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Based on my own personal experience, organic milk has significant health benefits due to lack of excess hormones.
Did Monsanto pay for this article? The entire premise is so dumb it hurts. I can’t recall anyone ever claiming organically grown food is “more nutritious,” have they?
Listen, I rarely pay the extra $ for the stuff (and prefer to grow my own when I can) but the 160,000 dollar study is tripe. What about the herbicides and pesticides that organics (supposedly) don’t contain? Isn’t that the real issue? Enough people have enough cancer who live near giant farms and have runoff in their soil and wells to support organics.
Yuck - I know this reads like a hippie screed, but I’ll stand by it. This study is nonsense. the worst part is that the hippie organic clan will now bludgeon us over the head about how flawed this study is.
I can’t win.
For a long time I’ve been telling the effete and posturing Whole Foods snobs on Chowhound.com that they can get better customer service, lower prices, and quite decent groceries from their local Safeway.
Whole Foods (and its ilk) are the new Starbucks.
Organic food isn't just for hippies anymore. I but many organic items in an effort to avoid HFCS. And there's no way a study will convince me that food treated with pesticides, herbicides and growth hormones are just as healthy as organic food.
There, now you had to go and say it, didn't you? It's all "organic food"!! Everything you eat is "organic"! :~) (This article was already posted earlier today, by the way.)
>>Organic food has no health benefits, study finds<<
Duh.
>>Based on my own personal experience, organic milk has significant health benefits due to lack of excess hormones.<<
Yeah, but does it have electrolytes?
>>Did Monsanto pay for this article? The entire premise is so dumb it hurts. I can’t recall anyone ever claiming organically grown food is “more nutritious,” have they?<<
Not directly, but they were obviously promoting that perception. Just like the perception that if you smoke cigarettes you ARE going to die of lung cancer at a very young age.
Yep. We would get organic tomatoes at Costco over the others for one simple reason: They taste a LOT better. But that’s it. Food is food.
It’s not what it adds, it is what it DOESN’T add. Like hormones to chickens and beef.
Strictly interpretted, claim is almost certainly true: whether or not livestock get “organic” fees is surely irrelevant to anything. On the other hand, pasture-time for cows changes the composition of milk in ways that apparently do have health benefits, and non-use of artificial hormones may as well.
Organic milk (with the exception of Horizon Brand, which is produced by “organically” fed ‘factory’ cattle which do not get pasture-time) tastes better, as do organic free-range eggs, and organic celery.
Other than that, I only buy organic products when paradoxical pricing structures make them cheaper than “conventional” products.
I only use 91 octane in my car because it costs more so it must be better.
the food gives no nutritional enhancement to people’s diet.
Yup. The nutrients are still there, regardless of whether it's smothered in DDT and Estrogen.
Agreed. I don’t like the hormones and pesticides which is the only reason I buy organic.
Agreed. I don’t like the hormones and pesticides which is the only reason I buy organic.
=============.
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/yt-VmrF9KjlGsc/codex_alimentarius_p1/
Maybe that's why my veggies won't grow.
Idiocracy - excellent.
Heh, heh! I remember that!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.