For anyone unfamiliar with Chris Kresser, he's a functional medicine practitioner, who promotes good health through good eating practice. I don't agree with everything he writes, but much of the information I read in his weekly emails & the resources on his website make excellent reading. I've copied links from the articles for anyone who wants to read further...
Hi, everyone,
A new study of approximately 70,000 French adults suggests that eating organic can reduce cancer risk by 25 percent.
jamanetwork.com/journals/ja...
This was an observational study, not a clinical trial, so the usual caveats—which I explained in detail in recent articles here* and here**—apply. In a study like this, it’s difficult to know whether the risk of cancer declined because of the reduced exposure to pesticides and other compounds in non-organic foods, or because of the “healthy user effect”: the fact that people who eat organic food are more likely to engage in other behaviors perceived as healthy, like getting enough exercise or not smoking.
It’s also true that people who eat organic tend to be better educated and have higher incomes, both of which are associated with reduced cancer risk and longer lifespans.
That said, to their credit, the authors of this study did control for many of these behaviors that would be expected to affect the results, including smoking status, weight, physical activity, income, and education. The reduction in cancer risk from eating organic food remained even after adjusting for all of these variables.
It’s worth noting that these results conflict with another, larger study of more than 600,000 British women, which found no strong association between eating organic food and cancer risk.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...
So, what do we make of this?
Drawing firm conclusions from observational data is notoriously difficult, especially in the field of nutrition. But reduction of cancer risk isn’t the only reason to eat organic food. There are many others, including:
Greater concentration of some nutrients, including antioxidants
Better flavor
Lower levels of GMOs (the science here is controversial, but I believe the precautionary principle applies)
Along with eating organic, it’s just as important—if not more so—to eat local. I explain why in this article, but the short version is that locally grown produce that is consumed a short time after harvesting (farmers markets, anyone?) is far more nutrient dense than even organic produce that is shipped for thousands of miles to a grocery store.
chriskresser.com/why-local-...
If your budget prevents you from buying all of your produce organic, check out the Environmental Working Group (EWG) guide to pesticides in produce. They publish a list (“The Dirty Dozen”) of the 12 most important fruits and vegetables to buy organic
ewg.org/foodnews/dirty-doze... *** another list (“The Clean Fifteen”) of the 15 fruits and veggies that are safest to buy
ewg.org/foodnews/clean-fift....***
I hope this helps!
In health,
Chris
P.S. This is yet another example of why environment is more important than genes when it comes to preventing disease
*chriskresser.com/why-you-sh...
**chriskresser.com/why-you-sh...
*** Please note, this is an American website, so there are different pesticides, herbicide, & agrichemicals allowed by European food standards (so far). However, the foods that contain higher levels of chemicals will be very similar. Foods labelled as organic are safe, but check packaging & shop/producer websites for non-GM clarification, etc.
