Organic Isn't Healthier for You

Organic Isn't Healthier for You

Well all you farmers market folks can get off that soap box as a new study shows that there's very little health benefit to getting your produce at a farmers market.

You’re in the supermarket eyeing a basket of sweet, juicy plums. You reach for the conventionally grown stone fruit, then decide to spring the extra $1/pound for its organic cousin. You figure you’ve just made the healthier decision by choosing the organic product — but new findings from Stanford University cast some doubt on your thinking.
“There isn’t much difference between organic and conventional foods, if you’re an adult and making a decision based solely on your health,” said Dena Bravata, MD, MS, the senior author of a paper comparing the nutrition of organic and non-organic foods, published in the Sept. 4 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine.

It basically goes on to state that organically-grown produce doesn't really contain any more nutrients or vitamins than its conventional counterpart. It puts into question if it's worth the cost to get the pesticide free stuff or even if the stuff grown with growth hormones is really worth it.

So while there's no health reasons to pick organic over regular, i do think that the article and study misses the more important point of buying organic or buying from a farmers market, even if it's a little more than the cost of the non-organic version.

The real thought behind buying the organic stuff is to know where exactly the things you are putting in your mouth come from. Seeing or talking to the producer and knowing what came from where. I know that when I get fruit, if I know the region it came from, I'll have a better understanding on how it will taste.

A lot of people are still into supporting local vendors and small time producers. So it's not really, nor has it ever really been something about the health levels of what you're buying - more to the point that it's about who you are buying it from.

While it may not be any more healthier for you, it sure as hell does taste a lot better when it's given more care in how it was raised and produced opposed to things generated for the thousand tons worth of it.