Get more “Nutritional Mileage” out of Organic Foods

The data is in! Hot off the press from the open access research journal PlosOne.org confirming  Organic fruits and vegetables are much more nutritious than their traditional “commercially grown” counterparts. Additionally Organic foods contain LESS pesticide and chemical residues than commercially grown varieties.

What does more nutritious really mean?

According to the scientests “nutritious foods are those that are more nutrient dense relative to their energy (caloric) content”. That is to say, low sugar, fat and calorie but rich in micronutrients and antioxidants.

How can this study help YOUR Health?

This study is the 1^st of its kind,  directly comparing 13 pairs of organic and conventionally grown strawberry’s for fruit and soil quality.  The researchers found that “…. organic farms had strawberries with longer shelf life, greater dry matter, and higher antioxidant activity and concentrations of ascorbic acid and phenolic compounds..” says  Reganold et al. They continue to say, “sensory panels judged organic strawberries to be sweeter and have better flavor, overall acceptance, and appearance than their conventional counterparts. We also found the organically farmed soils to have more total carbon and nitrogen, greater microbial biomass and activity, and higher concentrations of micronutrients”.

What about Antioxidants?

Organic strawberries had significantly higher total antioxidant activity (8.5% more), ascorbic acid (9.7% more), and total phenolics (10.5% more) than conventional berries

Dietary antioxidants, including ascorbic acid (i.e., vitamin C) and phenolic compounds protect our bodies from damaging free radicals, have anti-aging properties a nd anti-inflammatory conditions.  Researcher Olsson et al. noted decreased proliferation of breast and colon cancer cells by extracts of organically grown strawberries compared to conventional berries, with ascorbic acid concentrations correlated negatively with cancer cell proliferation.

What about Organic Soil?

The study noted found that organic soil is more “functional” due to the increased number of enzyme activity and greater number of microbial genes (233 in organic VS 2 in conventionally farmed soils). The organically farmed soils had more carbon and nitrogen, greater microbial biomass and activity, and greater functional gene abundance and diversity”

Major Conclusion re: the health benefits of Organic foods-Organic Is Better!!

“Our findings show that the organic strawberry farms produced higher quality fruit and that their higher quality soils may have greater microbial functional capability and resilience to stress.”

Source

John P. Reganold, Preston K. Andrews, Jennifer R. Reeve, Lynne Carpenter-Boggs, Christopher W. Schadt, J. Richard Alldredge, Carolyn F. Ross, Neal M. Davies, Jizhong Zhou. Fruit and Soil Quality of Organic and Conventional Strawberry Agroecosystems. PLoS ONE, 2010; 5 (9): e12346