How Does Organic Food Impact Human Health?

In this article from Jean Nick, written in 2017, he points out some of the key points that arose from a study conducted by the European Parliamentary Research service a year before. ¹ This study, entitled “human health implications of organic food and organic agriculture” attempted to consolidate all of the previous studies done on the benefits of organic produce. He points out that while some of the findings are considered associative (people who eat organic tend to live healthier lives anyway), there are also some very definite benefits.

This article sums up nine of the points that the author found most significant. These range from mild benefits such as reduced risk of childhood allergies and lower body weight, to more serious health benefits such as healthy cognitive development in children and fetuses and less heavy metals in the body . He also highlights that in some cases, the food has been found to contain significantly higher levels of nutrients ² , omega fatty acids and antioxidants. Finally, he points out that eating organic food has proven to greatly increase the immune response in animals over the course of several generations. This is based on experiments done on cows and chickens eating organic produce. We will feature this experiment in another article.

Editor’s Note:

The article contains many good points and does an excellent job of summing up many of the findings produced by studies on organic food in the past decade.

 When reading the actual studies, they tend to end most of their statements with “potentially harmful chemicals not found to exceed toxic levels” when describing conventional produce or “has not yet proven to create actual health benefits” When describing organic produce. However what these studies do not take into the scope of their results are the cumulative benefits. While it is often stated that pesticides never make it into our food in harmful amounts, they are still toxins that our body must work to flush.(I will cite my previous article) Furthermore, it has been seen that even minute amounts can be harmful to unborn babies. Finally, toxic chemicals are able to accumulate in the body, especially in the fat stores.³

Another interesting point is that the studies tend to use the disclaimer “people who eat organic food are predisposed to a healthier life”. While it is true to some extent that eating organic tends to come with a lifestyle that is health oriented, one cannot completely discount the facts that state that those who eat organic have healthier eating patterns and less tendency towards obesity. There could be something to be said about higher nutritional content which keeps you full longer. Perhaps there is even something about organic food that makes you more predisposed towards living healthier life , but we must explore this further. For now rest assured that choosing organic food has a definite positive impact on your immune system.

1. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2016/581922/EPRS_STU(2016)581922_EN.pdf
2. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/42832495_Organic_Foods_Contain_Higher_Levels_of_Certain_Nutrients_Lower_Levels_of_Pesticides_and_May_Provide_Health_Benefits_for_the_Consumer
3. https://portlandpress.com/biochemj/article-abstract/477/14/2639/225930/Impact-of-pesticide-exposure-on-adipose-tissue?redirectedFrom=fulltext