Is Organic Food More Nutritious Than Conventionally Grown Food?

Is organic food more nutritious than conventionally grown food?

Check out this answer from Consensus:

The current body of research indicates that organic foods are not significantly more nutritious than conventionally grown foods, although they do tend to have lower levels of pesticide residues and cadmium. While some studies suggest higher levels of certain bioactive compounds in organic foods, these findings are not consistent. Overall, the choice between organic and conventional foods may be more influenced by factors such as pesticide exposure and environmental impact rather than nutritional superiority.

The debate over whether organic food is more nutritious than conventionally grown food has been ongoing, with various studies providing differing conclusions. This synthesis aims to present a cohesive analysis of the current research on the nutritional value of organic versus conventional foods.

Key Insights

• Nutritional Content Comparison:
  • Most studies find no significant differences in nutrient levels between organic and conventional foods, except for slightly higher phosphorus levels in organic produce, which is not clinically significant1 2 3 6.
  • Some studies suggest that organic foods may have higher levels of certain bioactive compounds like phenolics, vitamin C, and antioxidants, but these findings are not consistent across all research2 4 10.
• Pesticide Residues:
  • Organic foods generally have lower levels of pesticide residues compared to conventional foods, which is a consistent finding across multiple studies1 2 5 6 7 8.
  • Children consuming organic diets have shown significantly lower levels of pesticide metabolites in their urine2.
• Heavy Metals and Contaminants:
  • Organic foods tend to have lower levels of cadmium, a heavy metal, compared to conventional foods. However, there are no significant differences in other heavy metals and contaminants like mycotoxins and bacterial contamination4 5 8.
• Protein and Nitrate Levels:
  • Organic crops may have lower nitrate levels and higher protein quality compared to conventional crops, although the overall protein concentration might be lower3 9 10.
• Health Outcomes:
  • There is no strong evidence to suggest that consuming organic foods leads to better health outcomes or reduced disease risk compared to conventional foods. Most studies do not find clinically meaningful differences in health markers between consumers of organic and conventional foods1 6 8.

Is organic food more nutritious than conventionally grown food?

Cynthia Curl has answered Uncertain

An expert from Boise State University in Public Health

Organic fruits and vegetables have been shown to have antioxidant concentrations about 25% higher than fruits and vegetables that are conventionally grown. This statement is primarily based on a 2014 meta-analysis published in the British Journal of Nutrition that compiled data from several studies and showed this finding to be consistent across those studies. In addition, organic milk has been shown to have a lower omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acid ratio than conventional milk. Omega-3’s are the “healthy” fatty acids, and while the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3’s in conventional milk was about 5-10, that ratio was ~2 in organic food. This finding is primarily attributed to the higher proportion of grass in the diets of cows in organic dairies.

While these data suggest that organic food may, in some ways, be considered more “nutritious”, it is important to note that these differences in nutritional content have not been shown to be directly associated with any measures of improved health. In other words, it is difficult to draw a firm conclusion as to whether these differences are sufficient to result in any clinically-relevant health benefits. One can achieve a healthy diet rich in antioxidants and low in omega-6 fatty acids from either conventional or organic sources.

Is organic food more nutritious than conventionally grown food?

JM Mulet has answered Unlikely

An expert from Polytechnic University of Valencia in Plant Biology, Agricultural Science

Nowadays there is no any strong data supporting this affirmation.

The term “organic food” refers to the method of cultivation, allowing only fertilizers and pesticides from natural origin and banning synthetic agrochemicals and GMO organism. The point is that the basis of the regulation is philosophical not scientific, as the properties of any material depend on its composition, not on its origin. And there is some obvious pseudoscience in several regulations, as the explicit mention allowing the use of homeopathy or biodynamic farming practices which can be found in several regulations.

Another fact is that the same plant could be cultivated as organic or as conventional, so at the end, the nutritional composition is going to be very similar. If we apply the “reductio ad absurdum” argument we could speculate whether eating organic hemlock is more nutritious. Of course, it’s as poisonous as non-organic hemlock, because organic cultivation does not make a plant healthier for you.

The first metanalyses were published by Dangour et al in 2009. After that there were some studies describing some improvements in organic cultivation like more antioxidants and less cadmium (Barański et al., 2014), but according to the same data, the amino acid and the vitamin content was lower (Mulet, 2014) So, what you earn on one side, you lose on the other. And the consensus is that the nutritional content is similar in both cases.

Is organic food more nutritious than conventionally grown food?

Roberto Lo Scalzo has answered Uncertain

An expert from Research Council in Agriculture of Italy in Biochemistry, Food Science, Agricultural Science, Organic Food

Depends to what meaning we give to the term “nutritious”. If this term means richer in antioxidants and protective substances, many studies were performed on this matter. A recent article (Baransky et al., 2017, https://doi.org/10.1080/16546628.2017.1287333) has an interesting and confirming title: “Effects of organic food consumption on human health; the jury is still out!”. This means that the argument on the effect on human health of the consumption of food obtained from organic is far to be fully understood.

However, it seems that the content of antioxidants is higher in organic than conventional products of vegetal origin. This is due to a differentiated balance between C and N uptake by plants, with lower rate of N uptake in organic plants, so driving the metabolism towards the biosynthesis of C compounds, several of them belonging to the category of the natural antioxidants. A clear example is given by ascorbic acid and phenol compounds presence, with a mean higher percent of 28.7 and 119.3 respectively, in organic than conventional plant products, taken from a meta-study of 36 previous papers (Rembiałkowska, 2007, https://doi.org/10.1002/jsfa.3000).