The benefit of organic produce compared to conventionally grown produce was the focus of a recent debate between food technologists. Despite new research that suggests some organic produce could have additional health benefits, the final verdict was that it’s too early to reach a firm conclusion.
The Institute of Food Technologist’s annual meeting held in Las Vegas two weeks ago was the forum for this debate. Alyson Mitchell, a food chemist at the University of California at Davis reported that organic tomatoes contained higher levels of metabolites and vitamin C. Mitchell also looked at supermarket varieties of broccoli and found significantly higher levels of the flavonoids in organic broccoli.
Flavonoids are unique antioxidants found in a variety of plants. They have been shown to provide several beneficial effects to the cardiovascular system, including a decrease in LDL cholesterol, inhibition of aggregation of blood platelets (which contributes to the risk of blood clots that produce stroke and heart attack) and decreasing the body’s inflammatory immune responses (which contribute to atherosclerosis). These findings add to a small body of literature that suggests higher levels of antioxidants exist in some organic produce.
Organic produce is rather expensive, especially if you eat a lot of vegetables. If your budget allows it, you may want to give organic produce a try. However, as such a modest amount of evidence suggests that organic produce is more nutritious than regular produce; I wouldn’t lose sleep over not choosing organic produce.
