LONDON (Reuters) - Organic food has no nutritional or health benefits over ordinary food, according to a major study published Wednesday.
Wed Jul 29, 2009 12:29pm EDT
Researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine said consumers were paying higher prices for organic food because of its perceived health benefits, creating a global organic market worth an estimated $48 billion in 2007.
A systematic review of 162 scientific papers published in the scientific literature over the last 50 years, however, found there was no significant difference.
"A small number of differences in nutrient content were found to exist between organically and conventionally produced foodstuffs, but these are unlikely to be of any public health relevance," said Alan Dangour, one of the report's authors.
"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."
The results of research, which was commissioned by the British government's Food Standards Agency, were published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Sales of organic food have fallen in some markets, including Britain, as recession has led consumers to cut back on purchases.
The Soil Association said in April that growth in sales of organic products in Britain slowed to just 1.7 percent in 2008, well below the average annual growth rate of 26 percent over the last decade, following a plunge in demand at the end of the year.
(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; editing by Simon Jessop)
© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved
4 comments:
This should be quiet popular with our local counterculture..
I can never afford to buy organic foods on my limited income so I don't- just look for produce that looks good to eat and don't worry too much about those labels on the condiments and such I do eat. My ex was an organic food eater most of her adult life which was cut short at age 64 by cancer. I survived my cancer. I do think eating trace elements that are poisonous in our foods actually gives our bodies a chance to form anti-bodies against them--something eating organic foods strictly stops leaving the body more vulnerable to these things. Or so I think, imagine, ponder...
I don't know that I trust much out of a study by Reuters,a longtime publication advocating for a one world government.But I certainly am skeptical of the Organics industry and what is defined as being "organic".Stephen,check out HR875 to find out some potentially scary stuff.
What is with the scare of "one world government"? I know fundamentalist Christians are being brainwashed to believe a politically-based fear of liberal values forming the necessary "one world government" but has this fear moved into more places than I thought? I don't really comprehend how otherwise intelligent people would fear the rule of law protecting individual human rights extended around the worldwide so that people stop dying by uncontrolled mob politics. I don't really understand how Americans cannot help but remember why the "Wild West" was not a place for the meek to find peace and neither is much of the world because there is no universal laws in place.
Without laws governing all nations, it's inevitable that the strong militarily and financially will rule the weak and the deaths will go on and on and on..
Until we all realize around the globe that we are all one and now totally interconnected there will be no peace between nations. Do we allow our states to do whatever they want to people? Not any more because the rule of law has reached all through America. Same principle applies to the world.
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