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Organic Foods - Natural Foods With No Pesticides Or Fertilizers

Fruits and veggies grown organically show significantly higher levels of cancer-fighting antioxidants than conventionally grown foods, according to a new study of corn, strawberries and marionberries. The research suggests that pesticides and herbicides actually thwart the production of phenolics — chemicals that act as a plant's natural defense and also happen to be good for our health. Fertilizers, however, seem to boost the levels of anti-cancer compounds.

The findings appear in the Feb. 26 print edition of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society. The article was initially published Jan. 25 on the journal's Web site.

Flavonoids are phenolic compounds that have potent antioxidant activity. Many are produced in plants in response to environmental stressors, such as insects or competing plants.

"If an aphid is nibbling on a leaf, the plant produces phenolics to defend itself," says Alyson Mitchell, Ph.D., a food scientist at the University of California, Davis, and lead author of the paper. "Bitter or harsh phenolics guard the plant against these pests."

The need for these natural safeguards decreases with the use of herbicides and pesticides in conventional agriculture. This decrease is reflected in the total amount of antioxidants the plants produce. "This helps explain why the level of antioxidants is so much higher in organically grown food," Mitchell says. "By synthetically protecting the produce from these pests, we decrease their need to produce antioxidants. It suggests that maybe we are doing something to our food inadvertently."

Mitchell measured antioxidants found in corn, strawberries and a type of blackberry called a marionberry. "We started with these three due to plant availability," Mitchell explains, "but we intend to widen our search to include tomatoes, peppers, broccoli and a variety of other vegetables. We expect these results to be transferable to most produce."

The investigation compared the total antioxidants found in foods grown organically (using no herbicides, pesticides or fertilizers) to foods grown sustainably (in this study fertilizers but no herbicides or pesticides were used) and conventionally (using synthetic chemicals to protect the plants and increase yield).

The results showed a significant increase in antioxidants in organic and sustainably grown foods versus conventionally grown foods. The levels of antioxidants in sustainably grown corn were 58.5 percent higher than conventionally grown corn. Organically and sustainably grown marionberries had approximately 50 percent more antioxidants than conventionally grown berries. Sustainably and organically grown strawberries showed about 19 percent more antioxidants than conventionally grown strawberries.

Antioxidant levels were highest overall in sustainably grown produce, which indicates that a combination of organic and conventional practices yields the highest levels of antioxidants. "This may reflect the balance between adequate nutrition in the form of fertilizers and external pest pressures because of the lack of pesticides and herbicides," Mitchell explains.

"Originally, the question was just really intriguing to me," says Mitchell, whose research grew naturally from a personal interest in organic foods. "I found that the higher level of antioxidants is enough to have a significant impact on health and nutrition, and it's definitely changed the way I think about my food."

ADVANTAGES OF ORGANIC FOODS

Organic foods such as an organic tomato have a qualitative value which a commercial tomato could not match. The organically grown tomato has not had any pesticides used to keep its natural enemies away from them. Typically, organic farmers use a natural pesticide that is safe and does not diminish the quality of the tomato. However, a commercially grown tomato has lost a great deal of its nutrition because of the pesticides used to keep it safe from its natural enemies. Another reason to eat an organic tomato (or foods for that matter) is that organic food is picked when it is ripe versus the commercial tomato. This may seem like a small issue but it is perhaps the most important issue which makes organic food a most invaluable tool for bodybuilders.

Since organic food is picked when it is ripe, the food has had the ability to absorb all the trace vitamins and minerals which is sadly lacking in commercial foods. Commercial foods are picked when the vegetables are still green and does not have the opportunity to absorb all the trace vitamins and minerals which the soil offers. In essence, all the consumer is getting from the commercial grown food is filler with very little amounts of vitamins and minerals. In contrast, the organic tomato has an enormous amount of nutrition and a taste which the commercially grown tomato will not match.

Since the organic tomato has more nutritional value than the commercial tomato, the bodybuilder can benefit from consuming organic food by the body receiving all the vitamins and minerals that the body needs from exertion from strenuous exercise such as weight training. Since the body is receiving all the vitamins and minerals it needs, the recovery time is faster, thus an improved physique in a shorter period of time. This may prompt the question: What about taking a vitamin/mineral supplement? Is that sufficient? Unfortunately no, because the a vitamin/mineral supplement has the macro vitamins and minerals, but not the trace vitamins and minerals (generally speaking). This is the beauty of eating organic foods. With organic foods being the cornerstone of your diet, taking a multivitamin is unnecessary.

Another benefit of eating organic food is that the body is getting all of the quality of the nutrition without having to eat huge amounts of food, which commercial foods could not match. For example, an organic tomato has the nutritional equivalent of four commercial tomatoes, thus the less amount of food a person has to consume to get all the necessary nutrition. A local organic farmer once told me that an apple grown 100 years ago has 50 times the nutritional value that a commercially grown apple has today. I don't know if that is true or not, but if it is, imagine the quality of a physique that nutritionally dense food such as that could provide. It has been rumored in the organic "underground" that the cause of many of today's maladies are because of the quality of food keeps diminishing yet the quantity keeps increasing. The increase in quantity of food is increased because of genetic engineered food, which on the surface may seem like a good idea, but in reality, we are curing a headache by cutting off the head. However, this is a topic for future reading. But for now, let's focus on the issue of consuming and supporting organic farming.