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Organic foods are quickly becoming America's health food of choice. Whether choosing vegetables, fruits or meats, Americans are filling their shopping carts with products that carry the USDA-Organic green and white label.
This boom has fueled an estimated $14 billion industry. As a result, market researchers now label the organic food and beverage market as the fastest growing category of the food industry. Since 1990, organic food sales have grown more than 20 percent annually.
But experts debate whether organic foods are better than conventionally grown food. Research shows that consumers ingest fewer pesticides and chemicals in organic foods, but many still question whether these foods are more nutritious or worth the extra expense. To consider this debate, we must define organic food and explore the meaning of different organic food labels.
Defining Organic
Quite simply, organic foods are grown without synthetic chemicals. The USDA-Organic seal certifies that the food is raised without most conventional pesticides, petroleum-based fertilizers, sewage sludge, growth hormone, antibiotics, and irradiation. Rather than use chemical weed killers, organic farmers conduct sophisticated crop rotations and use plant extracts instead of chemical pesticides to kill rodents and insects. Farmers also substitute compost and manure for synthetic fertilizers and use mechanical weeding and plant extracts instead of chemical pesticides. 
Organic meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy products can't contain antibiotics or growth hormone. In addition, farmers must raise livestock on organically grown feed. Therefore, cattle, pigs, turkeys, and chickens cannot be fed animal by-products, a common practice in conventional farms. Nor can they be given antibiotics. In addition, these farm animals must have plenty of sunshine and open pastures, mimicking the animal's natural environment.
Organic Labeling
The National Organic Program (NOP) provides oversight for the United States Department of Agriculture Organic Program, which regulates standards for companies and farms selling an organically produced agricultural product. In fact, the United States Department of Agriculture oversees inspection of the facility and grants basic organic designations.
Once organic meat, milk and produce finally arrive at a consumer's grocery store, they can carry a variety of organic labels:
- 100 Percent Organic: Products that state they are 100 percent organic contain only organically produced ingredients. Therefore, the law allows no synthetic ingredients. In addition, these products can carry the USDA-organic label on the product package.
- Organic: Products that are simply labeled "organic" have at least 95 percent organically produced ingredients. The remaining ingredients must be approved nonagricultural substances or agricultural products that are not available in organic form. None of the ingredients can use excluded methods, such as sewage sludge or ionizing radiation.
- Made With Organic Ingredients: Products packages that use "made with organic ingredients" must contain at least 70 percent organic ingredients. They can list three of the organic ingredients or food groups on the front of the package. For example, the label may say, "Soup made with organic peas, potatoes and carrots." In addition, this product can't use excluded methods, sewage sludge or ionizing radiation. And the produce cannot carry the USDA-seal.
Products that contain less than 70 percent organic ingredients cannot use the term "organic" anywhere in the principal display package (e.g., on the front of the cereal box). These products may identify organic food on the information panel, however.
Other popular terms for organic foods also can confuse. Terms such as "free range," or "no drugs or growth hormones used" are not regulated by the government. Most of these terms seem self-explanatory, but not always. For example, a common term is sustainable harvest, which is a farming method that mixes conventional and organic farming methods, using no chemical fertilizers, but some chemical pesticides.
Lack of Pesticides
Whatever the label, the lack of chemical pesticides is organic foods' claim to fame. Studies have linked high doses of pesticides to various negative health effects, including cancer, infertility, birth defects, neurological problems and respiratory ailments. However, critics point out that these studies generally take a look at high-dose exposure to pesticides, studying farmers who spray the chemicals daily, for example. Pesticide levels on food grown using conventional farming methods are well below the recommended Environmental Protection Agency's standards, they explain.
Still, no one understands how various chemicals, which often are used in combination on produce, might affect human health over a lifetime. In addition, the presence of these chemical residues differs from plant to plant, harvest to harvest and season to season--making it an almost impossible object of study.
Studies show, however, that consumers who eat organic food are definitely getting less pesticide residue. A recent study published in Food Additives and Contaminants concluded that organic fruits and vegetables contain one-third as many pesticide residues as conventionally grown foods. The combined data covered more than 94,000 food samples from more than 20 crops. These findings are based on studies performed over years from the USDA, the California State's Department of Pesticide Regulation and the Consumers Union.
But it's interesting to note that organic food does not eliminate all risk. In fact, organic food had some residue, likely from unavoidable environmental contamination by past pesticide use, or by "drift" from sprays blown in from adjacent nonorganic farms.
Some experts believe organic and nonorganic food are equal.
"While many consumers of organic foods believe these foods are healthier and safer than conventional products, the majority of evidence shows the two types are equivalent," says David Klurfeld, PhD, the USDA's national program leader for human nutrition.
Nevertheless, a few smaller studies point to some elevated nutritional content in organic food. For example, one study showed that fruit grown without pesticides and herbicides actually had higher cancer-fighting chemicals. Study researchers theorize the plants had to produce more flavonoids, which are phenolic compounds that have potent antioxidant activity, to protect the plant because pesticides didn't do it for them.
The study, which analyzed corn, strawberries and marionberries, compared harvests using conventional growing methods, organic methods and sustainable methods. The study found the mixed approach (without pesticides or herbicides) welded the most antioxidant-rich fruit. In addition, organically grown strawberries showed 19 percent more antioxidant content than conventionally grown fruit.
Another study that compared organic and conventionally grown peaches showed organic foods had higher ascorbic acid, citric acid and alpha- and gama-tocopherol.
Still, researchers stop short of drawing absolute conclusions and are far more likely to wait for more definitive studies. However, studying crops with adequate controls can be difficult: A vegetable or fruit's nutritional content doesn't just rely on whether it grows in the haze of pesticides or is bolstered with additives to increase color and size. Instead, fruit and vegetables rely on mercurial Mother Nature. Early frosts, rainfall, temperature and countless other variables can affect growth and nutritional content.
Even knowing the amounts of antioxidant levels, and vitamin and trace minerals in both farming methods doesn't necessarily prove one method is better, says Mary Ryan, MSRD, a nutritional counselor at Beyond Broccoli, a private nutritional counseling service in Jackson Hole, Wyo. "You have to look at the whole plant--and we may never decode the many factors at play [in organic food]. You have to consider soil, microorganisms, and so many variables that haven't even been identified yet. To me, it's more a common sense issue: If it's better for the environment, the food chain and the soil, why wouldn't it follow that it's better for our health?"
Making Smarter Choices
For those who want to pick and choose when to go organic, the Environmental Working Group, a not-for-profit environmental research group, publishes a guide with 12 fruits and vegetables that have the highest pesticide residues. It recommends limiting exposure to conventionally grown fruits on this list.
Ryan uses this guide to determine a strategy for choosing foods that are most likely infected with conventional farming methods. For example, foods such as peaches, pears and strawberries are higher in pesticide residue. Therefore, patients may want to buy organic for those "dirty dozen" foods on the list, especially if they eat a lot of it or have small children.
There's another reason consumers might want to pick and choose which organic foods they will buy: cost. Organic food costs significantly more than conventionally grown food, making the decision, for many, an economic one.
"I don't have an endless supply of money, so I don't always buy organic--but I choose organic foods that would otherwise [grown conventionally] contain the most pesticides," says Ryan. She also urges her clients to do the same thing, explaining that thin-skinned fruit and vegetables are far more likely to have pesticide residue in the fruit than a thicker-skinned fruit, such as a pineapple.
Weighing the evidence, many researchers explain that organic food is not the only path for limiting chemical exposure and improving health. Nelda Mercer, RD, who works with the American Dietetic Association, urges physicians to remind patients to wash produce, sanitize their hands, disinfect cutting boards and counters, and cook meat thoroughly. These basic steps go a long way, she explains. "Food safety is much more important than asking, 'Do I choose organic or not?'"
Regardless of the choice, consumers who turn to organic food for a perceived health benefit should know that the nutritional facts aren't all in for the green and white organic seal. For some, no chemicals most obviously translates to a health benefit. However, few conclusive studies support this theory and may never do so, given the variable and complex nature of crops.
Clearly, the choice to go organic is an individual one. But it's best if you have realistic expectations about what you're eating--and the possible benefits.
Constance Young is a freelance writer in Freeport, N.Y. Marci A. Landsmann is managing editor of Healthy Aging.
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