{"id":534824,"date":"2010-04-19T16:34:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-19T20:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18884161.post-2991177733769318493"},"modified":"2010-04-19T16:34:43","modified_gmt":"2010-04-19T20:34:43","slug":"benefits-of-organic-food-questioned-yet-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/534824","title":{"rendered":"Benefits of organic food questioned yet again"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is There a Difference between Organically and Conventionally Grown Food? A Systematic Review of the Health Benefits and Harms<\/a>
  
Background: Global sales of organic <\/b>
food have surged in the past five years despite costing from 10-300% more than conventional food and without detailed evidence of its nutritional content or safety. Recent outbreaks of food-borne illness, some including organic produce, have raised questions about whether organic food is “healthier” than conventional food.<\/p>\n

Methods:<\/b> We systematically reviewed the published evidence in the medical and agricultural literature on the nutritional content and level of pesticide, heavy metal, mycotoxin, and bacterial contamination of organic and conventional foods and also searched for studies in humans consuming organic versus conventional diets. Searches were limited to English language articles from 1\/1966- 08\/2009 involving unprocessed, fruits, vegetables, grains, beans, meats and milk reporting outcomes of interest that compared organic with conventional foods or organic versus conventional food consumption. Summary risk difference of contamination and difference in mean nutrition or contamination levels were calculated using random effects models when possible.<\/p>\n

Results\/Conclusions<\/b>: We identified more than 5,371 citations and included approximately 220 studies. Overall, sample sizes were small and study methods heterogeneous. The best evidence came from large governmental monitoring programs rather than small research studies. Organic produce had a significantly lower risk of contamination with pesticide residues, though this difference was of unclear clinical significance as the level of pesticide contamination in conventional and organic food was low, below maximum recommended levels. Organic produce did not appear to have superior safety or nutrition quality in any other outcome measured, including risk of bacterial, heavy metal, or mycotoxin contamination. Studies suggested that other factors, such as geography, seasonal weather, local ambient pollution, ripeness at time of harvest, and storage and other agricultural practices unrelated to organic label were better predictors of nutritional quality or contamination with harms. Evidence from human studies suggests that children who consume organic fruits and vegetables and adults who consume organic cereal may significantly reduce their pesticide exposure compared with groups consuming conventional diets, although the levels of pesticide exposures in both groups is within accepted safety standards. There is no evidence of any other benefits of consuming organic food based on human dietary studies. Finally, although rates of bacterial contamination did not differ significantly between organic and conventionally grown meats, eggs, and milk, the antibiotic resistance of bacteria cultured from conventional meats, eggs, and milk was significantly greater than for organic products.
  
CHP\/PCOR Conference Room117 Encina Commons, Room 119
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305<\/p>\n

Research in Progress Seminar
Date and Time<\/p>\n

April 21, 2010
1:30 PM – 3:00 PM  
Speakers
Crystal Smith-Spangler – Stanford University
Margaret L. Brandeau – Stanford University
Dena M. Bravata – Stanford University
Vandana Sundaram – Stanford University
Paul Eschbach – Research
Assistant Clay Bavinger – Stanford University<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is There a Difference between Organically and Conventionally Grown Food? A Systematic Review of the Health Benefits and Harms    Background: Global sales of organic food have surged in the past five years despite costing from 10-300% more than conventional food and without detailed evidence of its nutritional content or safety. Recent outbreaks of food-borne illness, some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":710,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-534824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/710"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534824\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}