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The Benefits of Eating Organic
I believe that chemicals in the body and a lack of nutrition in our foods are probably the two major causes of cancer in this cancer ridden, modern world (see the corresponding article on understanding cancer).
All food that is not organic usually contains chemicals. In the US, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports that the average American consumes four pounds of pesticides a year and has residues from over 400 toxic substances in their body. The food in American supermarkets contains more than 3,000 chemical additives. In Australia it was revealed that the average Australian consumes and average of 5 litres of herbicides and pesticides a year.
As well as being full of chemiclas, non-organic food also tends to be extremely low in nutrients (see the corresponding chart).
Chris Alensen of the Organic Retailers and Growers Association of Australia (ORGAA) conducted a survey comparing organic samples to supermarket bought samples. All efforts were made to give the fairest and most accurate results.
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Calcium |
Potassium |
Magnesium |
Sodium |
Iron |
Zinc |
Organic beans |
480 |
1900 |
240 |
<10 |
<6 |
<3.4 |
Smkt beans |
40 |
260 |
26 |
<1 |
0.6 |
0.38 |
Organic Tomato |
67 |
300 |
89 |
26 |
<5 |
1.2 |
Smkt Tomato |
6.7 |
200 |
10 |
2.4 |
<0.5 |
0.19 |
Organic Capsicum |
84 |
1600 |
700 |
20 |
<5 |
2.5 |
Smkt Capsicum |
4.7 |
150 |
11 |
<1 |
<0.5 |
0.13 |
Organic Silverbeet |
1600 |
2600 |
1700 |
1800 |
9.4 |
130 |
Smkt Silverbeet |
6 |
450 |
69 |
180 |
1.4 |
0.57 |
Measurements are mg/kg
Take for example, the magnesium figures in the chart. To get the equivalent magnesium from the supermarket tomato I’d need to eat (and purchase!) ten times as many as the organic ones. To get the equivalent magnesium from the capsicums I’d need to eat almost 70 times as many supermarket capsicums. That’s a lot of capsicums!
Or to look at it in reverse, one organic capsicum would be the equivalent of eating almost 70 supermarket capsicums! Looking at the chart, most of the ratios are at least ten to one. This is a very substantial difference.
Imagine if you cut down your food intake by 90% so that you were only eating one tenth of what you eat now. That would be pretty radical, and more than likely you would not be able to sustain yourself for very long at the reduced intake. And yet, nutritionally that may be exactly what you’re doing if you’re not eating organic!
Only getting one tenth or less of your nutritional requirements. It’s not surprising when you look at this information that so many of us overeat, snack incessantly and get powerful food cravings. When it comes to nutrients, our bodies could be starving!
It’s also interesting to note that this chart only presents information on 6 individual constituents of the vegetables. In a single spinach leaf there are over 12,000 separate constituents! Modern science only understands about 120 of them. What else are we missing out on that we don’t even know about?
Of course, the decision is always yours (or should be) as to what you put into your body. But I know for myself since looking at the figures in this chart, that I’m now making a much bigger effort to eat only organic food.
Good health!
Jim Banks
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