Cancer Care: Could Buying Organic Improve Your Odds?
Health and Nutrition As more studies suggest the malignant impact of non-organically produced food on public health, the path to long-term health is looking increasingly green.
Going organic isn’t just a trend. It’s a healthy way of living and the movement is gaining momentum from new research highlighting the benefits of organic.
In the past year, several exciting scientific breakthroughs have linked the importance of food to human health.
More than a pest
Pesticides have especially been in the hot seat, with an innovative study showing that dietary exposure to low-level pesticide residues in a conventional diet can have health consequences.
Between a World Health Organization report concluding that the active ingredient in pesticide, Roundup, “probably causes cancer in humans” and multiple studies about the negative effects of pesticide exposure to children’s health, the recent research provides overwhelming evidence that avoiding pesticide residues in your diet is in fact critical to reducing health risks.
Did you know pesticides are four times more likely to be found in conventionally grown crops like peppers, leafy greens, berries and grapes than organic crops. That’s because conventional farmers use 2 to 12, or sometimes more, synthetic pesticides on crops.
"Eating organic produce can increase your cancer-fighting antioxidant intake about 30 percent more than eating conventionally grown produce."
Organic farmers don’t use toxic synthetic pesticides, artificial fertilizers or hormones or antibiotics. They also avoid GMOs, trans fats and artificial ingredients. The healthy result? Food production that promotes biodiversity: the healthy cycling of nutrients, as well as plant and animal health.
Luckily, research is also showing that avoiding pesticide residues is as easy as choosing an organic diet. By eating organic, you’re significantly reducing your exposure to dangerous chemicals, which have been linked to health problems including ADHD, obesity and cancer.
Within the last year, several studies have compared eating an organic diet to a conventional diet, and shown that choosing organic products can significantly decrease your exposure to pesticides. In addition, eating organic produce can increase your cancer-fighting antioxidant intake about 30 percent more than eating conventionally grown produce. By drinking organic milk, you’re consuming 62 percent more healthy omega-3 fatty acids than you would get from conventional milk.
Study results also showed that even eating organic even occasionally can have a beneficial impact on pesticide avoidance, so make an easy commitment to improving your health. Choose organic.