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Food & Nutrition

The importance of organic food

As someone who primarily eats organic foods, I can assure you that I am not doing it to waste my money. Organic foods are more expensive and justifying this expense can make you question is it really worth the extra money.

Think about the following examples for a moment. You’re at the supermarket and you see Aussie stone fruits available in early Spring for the non-organic varieties but the organic varieties only became available in late November. Some of the reasons this is possible is due to non-organic farming practices. Pesticides, herbicides and fungicides enable growers to manipulate nature’s pattern.

Even though pesticides are present in food at very small trace levels, their negative impact on health is well documented. Newcastle University studied two identical farms side by side, one of which used conventional farming practices, the other using organic methods. The study was conducted over 4 years and scrutinized by 33 academic centres across Europe. The conclusion was that organic produce contains higher levels of nutrients. This study adds to at least 90 others that also say that on average, organic food has a higher nutrient content than it’s non-organic counterparts. There is also no doubt that eating organic food reduces your exposure to pesticides.

Organic Food has come a long way since the days when it had a reputation for being grubby, ugly-looking foods only found in the darkest corners of specialty health food stores. These days you can purchase organic food almost anywhere. Australian sales of organic foods increase by 30% per year. The health benefits are clear and the public’s choice unanimous – absolutely better for you.