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Chespirito
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Registered: 02/13/09
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Organic Food
#10761614 - 07/29/09 12:37 PM (14 years, 6 months ago) |
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'Organic has no health benefits'
Organic food is no healthier than ordinary food, a large independent review has concluded.
There is little difference in nutritional value and no evidence of any extra health benefits from eating organic produce, UK researchers found.
The Food Standards Agency who commissioned the report said the findings would help people make an "informed choice".
But the Soil Association criticised the study and called for better research.
Researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine looked at all the evidence on nutrition and health benefits from the past 50 years.
Among the 55 of 162 studies that were included in the final analysis, there were a small number of differences in nutrition between organic and conventionally produced food but not large enough to be of any public health relevance, said study leader Dr Alan Dangour.
Overall the report, which is published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found no differences in most nutrients in organically or conventionally grown crops, including in vitamin C, calcium, and iron.
The same was true for studies looking at meat, dairy and eggs.
Differences that were detected, for example in levels of nitrogen and phosphorus, were most likely to be due to differences in fertilizer use and ripeness at harvest and are unlikely to provide any health benefit, the report concluded.
Gill Fine, FSA director of consumer choice and dietary health, said: "Ensuring people have accurate information is absolutely essential in allowing us all to make informed choices about the food we eat.
"This study does not mean that people should not eat organic food.
"What it shows is that there is little, if any, nutritional difference between organic and conventionally produced food and that there is no evidence of additional health benefits from eating organic food."
She added that the FSA was neither pro nor anti organic food and recognised there were many reasons why people choose to eat organic, including animal welfare or environmental concerns.
Dr Dangour, said: "Our review indicates that there is currently no evidence to support the selection of organically over conventionally produced foods on the basis of nutritional superiority."
He added that better quality studies were needed.
Peter Melchett, policy director at the Soil Association said they were disappointed with the conclusions.
"The review rejected almost all of the existing studies of comparisons between organic and non-organic nutritional differences.
"Although the researchers say that the differences between organic and non-organic food are not 'important', due to the relatively few studies, they report in their analysis that there are higher levels of beneficial nutrients in organic compared to non-organic foods.
"Without large-scale, longitudinal research it is difficult to come to far-reaching clear conclusions on this, which was acknowledged by the authors of the FSA review.
"Also, there is not sufficient research on the long-term effects of pesticides on human health," he added.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8174482.stm
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Chespirito
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Registered: 02/13/09
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If you say so
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Chespirito
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Registered: 02/13/09
Posts: 3,259
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Nice redirection there, unfortunately for you its a logical fallacy, also this study was done in the UK.
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Chespirito
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Registered: 02/13/09
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Yes I agree. Although truthfully I do wonder if organic meats, particularly liver, is more safe. This study as far as I can tell did not go into that (except for a single line in the article). Id love to find out its no better however.
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Chespirito
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Registered: 02/13/09
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Yes that point was indeed said by the member of the organization designed to promote organic food (the Soil Association). I'm not sure of the harm of pesticides, though I think that area of research has a body of work that is quite large. We've been using pesticides for a long time and I know of numerous pesticides that were banned because of research done on them. The ones we use now have passed those tests, that said Id have to investigate further to find recent studies.
This study is focusing on nutritional differences as you will hear a lot of times people talk about organic food as being notably higher in nutrition. My roommate was a big user of that
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Chespirito
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I wonder if you people could pass a blind taste testing
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Chespirito
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Registered: 02/13/09
Posts: 3,259
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Alright, Ill give it a go at some point. My roommate used to buy all organic and frankly I never noticed a difference. Im going to put this one under the power of suggestion, however ill wait for final judgment until I get the ball rolling on this test.
As for micronutrients, dont make me fucking laugh
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Chespirito
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Re: Organic Food [Re: dstark]
#10774761 - 07/31/09 01:21 PM (14 years, 5 months ago) |
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Quote:
dstark said:
Quote:
trendal said:
Quote:
PDU said: Organic tastes better alot of the time
I would have thought so, too...but last night on Penn and Teller they had taste tests of random people on the street. Something like 80% of them chose the regular fruits over the organic. When asked (before being told) why they liked it...they mostly said it was because it was organic.
Not organic food in most cases has things people put in there, in factories etc. that makes the taste of fruit or whatever much stronger, sweeter and so on...
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Chespirito
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Registered: 02/13/09
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Quote:
Andre Nickatina said: I'm sorry but maybe you like chemical laden nutrient deficient food but I'll stick to what mother earth intended for me to eat.
I guess you didn't read the whole point of this post. Organic food has no more nutrients than non-organic
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