Posted on 09/03/2009 6:13:03 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
When I first started writing my upcoming book Organic Manifesto a year ago, I fully expected to have lots of information about how organic foods are healthier for you because they are more nutritious. The more research I did, the more I realized that nutrition is the least of our worries. Aside from the fact that the nutritional content of just about ALL of our food has declined over the past 50 years, we are, as a rule, overfed. And good nutrition is available from many sources in our diet.
So I wasn’t surprised in the least when a report was released last week by a British research team saying that a review of studies showed that organic foods aren’t more nutritious than chemical foods. As it turns out, there are some significant flaws in the way that analysis was done, as reported by Rodale.com and others. But beyond that is a larger point: The quest for more nutrition should be the last reason to eat organic foods.
What’s the first reason? The REAL reason we should eat organic foods? The real reason to eat organic food is that the thousands of chemicals used to grow chemical foods are causing horrific health and environmental problems. In my book (due out in March 2010) I discuss multiple well-documented studies from reliable sources showing that chemical pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, and the GMO’s used in chemically based food production, are implicated in, if not causing, the following health problems: diabetes, obesity, cancer, autism, Parkinson’s disease, male sterility, genital deformities, female infertility, miscarriage, infant deformities, ADHD, hormonally caused gender confusion, asthma, allergies, accelerated aging, and smaller penises in boys, amphibians, and other wildlife.
I have also discovered (and reveal in my book) that the chemicals used to grow so-called “conventional food” are responsible for the majority of our climate-change problems, the majority of our water-pollution problems, the majority of our plant and insect disease problems, and the majority of our economic woes.
Sounds crazy, but it’s true. You’ll have to wait until the book comes out to find out the details. But in the meantime, for your sake, for your kid’s sake, and for the planet’s sake, keep on eating organic!
I agree with her, except for the globull warming part.
I have also discovered (and reveal in my book) that the chemicals used to grow so-called “conventional food” are responsible for the majority of our climate-change problems, the majority of our water-pollution problems, the majority of our plant and insect disease problems, and the majority of our economic woes.
LOL, I'm sure there is some REAL science...not.
We should grow our own organic vegetables since buying them in the stores is outrageously expensive. The average person cannot afford organically grown foods.
Chemicals are chemicals.
There are chemicals in the animal waste used to fertilize the organics. The plant or the body doesn't know the difference.
I’ve gardened organically for, forever. Not because I want to save the earth, but because I’m CHEAP and the old ways ARE the best ways for the avereage home garden. It does NOT always work on a massive scale when you are a business and must honor your bottom line during times of grasshopper invastion and tomato blight!
I totally respected her Grandpa Robert Rodale. She’s just a shill using scare tactics to sell magazines and books.
Organic Gardening magazine these days sucks. It is completely dumbed-down for the average to advanced gardener, and just filled with LefTard feel-good and alarmist propaganda from page one.
Mike McGrath was an awesome editor from yesteryear; Maria sucks.
Let’s see,
FOOD is responsible for global warming, water pollution, a tanking economy, small pee pee’s, gender confusion (kinda ties in to that small pee pee thing), and under-hung lizards. Who knew???
We truly are doomed.......
The organic food push has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry thanks to the power of advertising and the fears instilled into the credulous teeming masses.
Why isn't the whole population of the U.S. toppling over clutching their shrunken genitals because of all the lethal poisons on our supermarket kumquats?
Is Gore making more millions from financial interests in the organic food industry, also?
Leni
Sorry for the typ-os. More coffee, Cabana Boy!
...Because mineral food generally isn’t digestible.
And anyone who suggests that any food that was living and grew and was harvested isn’t organic is never displaying their sophistication and intellect, they are displaying their ignorance and hubris. no matter how many credentials they wave in your face, and how outraged they are at this statement.
It’s a good thing he passed away when he did. ;)
“...the credulous teeming masses.”
Apt description.
She had to come up with some reason to still publish her book considering the recent bubble-bursting evidence that organic food is no healthier than chemical-grown food.
I worked on an organic farm when they were first becoming trendy. I always worked on chem-farms and orchards before that. I pretty much swore off organic food way back then!
While this article seems a little crunchy and whatnot, there is a difference.
If a bird lands on a pile of manure, it does not drop dead on the spot; the same cannot be said for many farm chemicals. Manure does not kill trees 10 miles downwind like broadleaf weed killers that are in common use.
I know we would all starve without these innovations, but there is a downside and a cost.
That’s great!
I never new they lined up like that.
I have to wonder how many subjects studied to glean the detrimental effects of pesticides, fungicides, et al, were on a heavy diet of soy products.
This is, of course, why the average lifespan continues to grow longer. This is one of the few indicators of human health that is not subject to spin or reporting issues. You're either dead or you're not.
BTW, one of the major reasons for the growth in cancer rates and heart disease is that these are usually diseases of later life. If you die first from something else, like an infectious disease, you'll never get cancer.
My mom, a lifelong health nut and Rodale reader, died at 72 from liver and bowel cancer. Spent the last six months of her life incensed that this was happening to her when she'd done everything right.
My garden also is mostly organic but I lose a lot of plants to bugs and disease but I’m not too worried, I can always go to the store.
OTH, we are farmers. There are many diseases and fungi that can kill people but most of all destroy crops. Without the chemicals we have access to many people would be starving.
If people were dropping off right and left, I’d certainly suspect food but since we are living longer and healthier lives and it has happened with the advent of the science of chemicals, agricultural and medical, I would think just the opposite.
On the small penis problem, I wonder how many years we’ve kept records on penis size, LOL. Are we even sure that they are small penises? Maybe the majority are growing large penises and so those that stayed the same appear small in comparison? Did she do penis research. Did she take pictures or plaster casts or maybe just trace them.
Did she measure them when they were flaccid or turgid?
Okay, enough but you could have a field day with just that “symptom”.
A person after my own heart. I have often asked the question, “Would you rather have your child die of starvation at 8 or cancer at 80?”
Sure Chemicals are Chemicals. I am sure you love your bowl of nitrogen in the morning.
Exactly. And, I'd be willing to bet that there's a lot more organic produce sold, than grown.
I do worry about the chemicals on things I eat directly. I’ve learned to garden without them and don’t have a majority of pest problems. I’ve gotten so efficient at gardening the old way I can and have sold at a profit, especially at today’s prices.
The other thing is that the store varieties suck in flavor and nutrition. I know plenty of old heirlooms that produce well and are superior in quality in every category.
Nutritionally, you get out what you put in. Poor soil yields poor quality, nutritionally worthless produce.
More B.S. from the “I’m smarter then the masses, so you had better obey me crowd”.
I don’t know how it turned out in other areas of the country but our Wal-Mart went organic a while back and it went over like a lead balloon. You can still buy organic at the health food store but Wal-Mart...not so much.
If you live in an area where there are thunderstorms you breath in that nitrogen. It is a natural substance. A lot of plants produce it, beans for one. All plants require it. Organic food is grown using nitrogen, they just get it from manure or rotten fish guts or some other source.
The stuff is old because after the first flush of "Oh, what a good girl am I" experienced by trendy, fad-following housewives wore out, they're not buying the stuff anymore.
Leni
The earth's atmosphere is 78% nitrogen. If it scares you that much, may I suggest that you stop breathing.
I have been avoiding soy also. Soy can interact with the thyroid gland. I read a study (granted it was compiled by a non-profit supported by American Dairy Farmers) that claimed soy stunted human growth. The report showed stats of Asian height vs. Asian American height. Asian Americans each much less soy than Asians, and they tend to be taller than Asians.
How come you swore off organic, I do have my suspicions but I’ve honestly never been on an organic farm.
It’s the estrogen like effects of soy that is a major concern. My red flag went up when I read “smaller penises” in the article. This, girls getting their period much too early, allergies, and gender identity are directly attributed to massive soy intake - particularly baby formula. Mama’s don’t let your boy babies eat soy products.
We have switched to many products that don’t have xenoestrogens in them, specifically body care products. We use natural products like Burts Bees. Skin is the largest organ of the body and what we put on our skin is not filtered out. When we ingest bad things, the liver filters out some of that. The skin does not have that capability. Since switching, I have noticed a dramatic change for the better with my “female problems”. I think xenoestrogens where making my problems worse.
OTOH, I wonder if eating soy might be beneficial to adult women, for this exact reason.
A close friend went vegan a few years ago, and eats a LOT of soy. She seems quite noticeably more feminine to me.
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I avoid soy for that reason. I don't buy products that contain it, both for my sake and my husband's.
I grow my own foods because I don’t like what’s in BiLo and Walmart. Also, I’m sure to have clean foods instead of pesticided, larvicided, day laborer poopy pants veggies.
FWIW, there are quite a few organic and widely eaten foods, notably onions,spinach and garlic, the use of which would not be allowed if they were produced synthetically.
They contain some rather nasty chemicals, if consumed in quantity.
Sufficient apple seeds, not to mention Vitamin A, will do a dandy job of killing you stone dead.
Depends on where you live. Whole Foods in New York organics is cheaper than the limp, conventionals offered here where I live.
One must remember that soy beans are poison similar to Castor beans. The beans are processed heavily to be human consumable (not true for soy sauce as it is fermented). In fact soy pulp was first used as a filler to make cardboard. There are other means to boost estrogen levels in females that do not involve soy.
What more does this ditz want? I don't have the acreage for a cow.
I've eaten quite a bit of soy beans over the years just by cooking them like any other beans.
AFAIK, without any negative health effects.
How can this be if they're poison?
The thing most important to remember is not so much the quantity of estrogen’s in the body (male or female) since we all need them both. The issue is the ratio of estrogen’s to testosterone. When there is an imbalance favoring estrogen in the body, female characteristics will tend to be more dominant. I would caution men especially to steer clear of anything containing soy as it can be just as big a sex drive killer as Finasteride or other hair growing chemicals. Further, and this is just my opinion, I believe that can lead to serious prostrate problems and “shrinkage” in the future. In other words - use it or lose it.
You are eating soy beans right off the vine?
The Chinese have been eating massive amounts of soy for thousands of years.
There seem to be a remarkably large number of Chinese around if soy consumption interferes with reproduction.
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Exactly right.
Since the liver is connected to both the skin and digestive system only by the bloodstream, I'm curious why you think it's more effective at filtering out ingested stuff as opposed to stuff absorbed thru the skin.
Soy beans purchased just like pinto beans or other beans.
Not much recently, as I prefer other bean types, but I used to eat a fair amount.
I only have one reason to ever eat organic food, and that is to support the CEO of Whole Foods Markets who ripped Obamacare in the Wall Street Journal
This is a common misconception. Asians actually eat less processed soy than we Westerners. Asians have always eaten copious amounts of fermented soy which negates and estrogen like effects.
and = any
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