Organic Food
All you Whole Paycheck Whole Foods and organic junkies take note: organic food is no better for you than ordinary food. People are spending $48 billion a year to buy organic food that provides no significant difference in nutritional value from any other food. (I’ll refrain from claiming that they’re wasting $48 billion a year because if they didn’t buy organic, they’d still have to spend money on regular food. But given that organic food can cost double what non-organic would, I think it’s fair to say that at least $24 billion is wasted.)
Anyways, I’ve never been a huge believer in buying organic. I’m a pretty thrifty consumer, so I’ll pretty much buy whatever gives me the best value. Usually, that’s not organic food. Historically, if there was an organic piece of food that was on sale for the same price as regular food, I’d buy the organic because of the perceived health benefits (everyone told me it was better), but with this report, I might not even do that any more but for the fact that I know I’d be getting something on the cheap.
“Whole Paycheck”! Ha, ha!
Okay, I’m not a big organic foods buyer (like you, I buy it if it’s close in price), but I am a scientist, so I’d have to see the study. And I think really the main thing is not so much possible benefits from the absolute nutrient content in organic foods as the possible detriments from pesticide/fertlizer/hormone usage in non-organics. So I’d need to see what they did to test for residuals of those.
P.S. I just found a fun foodie blog: joythebaker.com I love it as much for her photography (which I think might catch your eye) as her down-to-earth writing. And she has some great recipes, too. I think she’s only in her early 20′s.
Hey Pat! Thanks for the comments. Man, looking at that food blog makes me hungry.
As far as reading the study itself, you’d have to grab a copy of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in order to read it. As far as pesticide/fertilizer/hormones go, I think the burden of proof lies with the “organic” community to prove that their products are, in fact more healthy, or less detrimental to people rather than the other way around. I have done little to no research on the subject, but I have yet to hear of anything promoting a causal link between organic food and good health, or non-organic food and bad health. Of course, I’m open to correction as well.