Why Organic?
More Antioxidants, Less Chemicals
One key nutritional difference between conventional and organics however, is their antioxidant content. According to a study by Stanford University and one new analysis, organic fruits and vegetables can contain anywhere from 18-69 percent more antioxidants than conventionally-grown varieties. According to the authors:
“Many of these compounds have previously been linked to a reduced risk of chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease and neurodegenerative diseases and certain cancers, in dietary intervention and epidemiological studies.
Additionally, the frequency of occurrence of pesticide residues was found to be four times higher in conventional crops … Significant differences were also detected for some other (e.g. minerals and vitamins) compounds.”
Antioxidants are a very important part of optimal health, as they can control how fast you age by fighting free radicals. So the fact that organic foods contain far higher levels of them vouches for the stance that organic foods are healthier in terms of nutrition, in addition to being lower in pesticides.
Contemporary Industrial Agriculture Decimates Soil Microbes
The “faster, bigger, cheaper” approach to food is slowly draining dry our planet’s resources and compromising your health. The earth’s soil is depleting at more than 13 percent the rate it can be replaced. We have already lost 75 percent of the world’s crop varieties over the last century. Over the past 10 years, we’ve had 100 million tons of herbicides dumped onto our crops, polluting our soil and streams. And genetically engineered (GE) crops are now speeding up the destructive process by completely altering the composition of soil bacteria in the fields where such crops are grown.
The Health Hazards of These Pesticide-Producing Plants
Monsanto and the EPA consistently claimed that the genetically engineered Bt corn would only harm insects. The Bt toxin produced inside the plant would be completely destroyed in the human digestive system and would not have any impact at all on consumers, they claimed. These claims have since turned out to be false. In 2011, doctors at Sherbrooke University Hospital in Quebec found Bt-toxin in the blood of:
- 93 percent of pregnant women tested
- 80 percent of umbilical blood in their babies
- 67 percent of non-pregnant women
The study authors speculated that the Bt toxin was likely ingested via the normal diet of the Canadian middle class—which makes sense when you consider that genetically engineered (GE) corn is present in the vast majority of all processed foods and drinks in the form of high fructose corn syrup, corn oil, and other corn products. They also suggested that the toxin may have come from eating meat from animals fed Bt corn, which most livestock raised in confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) are. Other research [16] has revealed that the Bt toxin produced in GE plants is toxic to humans and mammals, and triggers immune system responses, including:
- Elevated IgE and IgG antibodies, which are typically associated with allergies and infections
- An increase in cytokines, which are associated with allergic and inflammatory responses. The specific cytokines (interleukins) that were found to be elevated are also higher in humans who suffer from a wide range of disorders, from arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease to MS and cancer
- Elevated T cells (gamma delta), which are increased in people with asthma, and in children with food allergies, juvenile arthritis, and connective tissue diseases
*Reproduced with permission from Dr. Joseph Mercola
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