My Body & Soul magazine arrived a couple of days ago–immediately, an article caught my attention. It’s entitled, “Is Organic Really Better For You?” The article analyzes some recent findings on this subject.

Apparently, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition released a report finding that organic food is no more nutritious than conventional foods. The authors of the report looked at 55 studies from the past 50 years and proclaimed that “despite a few findings to the contrary, organically and conventionally farmed crops and animal products don’t significantly differ in nutrient quality. The British government agency funding the report claims ‘no evidence of additional health benefits from eating organic food.’” As I read those words, I was mortified–how could this be? Well, read on!

According to Elizabeth Barker of Body & Soul magazine who is quoting Charles Benbrook, Ph.D., chief scientist of the Organic Center, a pro-organics nonprofit that tracks and generates studies on organic food, the older studies that were included in this report/review didn’t measure the antioxidant factor, since we didn’t start measuring antioxidants in food until the 1990s. Antioxidants are a significant indicator of the nutritional value of foods. According to Dr. Benbrook, the review also didn’t address the major differences between organic and conventionally grown food. Included in that comparison would be evaluation of phosphorous (which is an essential mineral and usually is at lower levels in conventional crops) and nitrogen (which appears to be higher in conventional crops and is considered a health hazard because of its potential carcinogenic effects). This review also included studies that never looked at factors that can impact nutrient density.

The Organic Center did its own review of the same studies, with the exception of studies that seemed unreliable. They determined that on average, nutrient levels in organic food were 25% higher than conventional. A recent study that was conducted this year by another organization indicated that “organic foods contain more antioxidants, minerals, and healthy fats than their conventionally produced counterparts.”

A huge area of concern for me which was not explored by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition report was the use of pesticides–it did not address pesticide residue in food. The Body & Soul article states that “many view pesticide exposure as a key incentive to go organic.” For me, this is absolutely a true statement. Knowing that pesticides are linked to an increased risk of certain cancers is cause for me to avoid conventional foods. This article also states that there are new studies coming out that might also link neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s to pesticide exposure. There may even be a link to type-2 diabetes!

The place to go to learn more about which foods retain the most pesticide loads, go to the Environmental Working Group’s Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides which can be found at FoodNews.org. However, as Anna Lappe’, coauthor of Grub:Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen is quoted as saying at the end of the Body & Soul article, “We shouldn’t just be looking at whether an individual orange has fewer pesticide residues or more vitamin C, but how our diet as a whole affects our health, the health of the farmers who grow our food, and the health of our planet.”

After seeing first-hand this past September what the farm workers are exposed to when they work on a conventional farm, I am convinced–and so is my entire family, including my teenage daughters–that we should stick with organic foods simply because of pesticide usage. One last reason for me to eat organic foods is that they cannot contain genetically engineered or modified ingredients (GMO’s). We now know that GMO’s pose a health risk to people, animals, and natural ecosystems. Unless a food is organic, there is no way to know whether or not that food contains GMO’s.

Just about every reason for eating organic comes back to better health–for our families, our communities, those who grow our food, and Mother Earth herself. Maintaining and supporting a healthy state leads to quality life and longevity for all. Could there be any better reason?

Last night our family was having a discussion about why it’s important to eat organic food. My husband and I were talking about some of our concerns with buying produce and meats that are not organic. One of my 14-year old daughters said, “Well, why didn’t you tell us this a long time ago? If you’d told us about some of these issues we would have understood. Telling us it’s healthy means nothing!”

So, out of the mouths of babes (or should I say “out of the mouths of teenagers?”)! Long ago, my husband and I didn’t share our deepest reasons for eating organically because we didn’t want to frighten our girls. I don’t believe trying to make people (or children) change out of fear is the right way to approach any issue. Over the years, we’ve mentioned things like pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, and feed, but not in a real graphic sense. What my daughter was telling us last night, though, was they need some “gory details” (teenager perspective) to understand why they should make sure what they eat is organic. Duly noted!

After our trip to California this past September, my girls saw first-hand what it looks like when fruits and vegetables are being bombarded with pesticide spray. They saw what the farm workers were being exposed to. And they now have a real image to hold in their minds as to how it looks for those beautiful fruits and vegetables to be dusted more than once a week with chemicals intended to keep the vegetation free from pests. So far, my girls do not have graphic images of what is being done to animals but, suffice it to say, they now understand more of the inhumane and harmful methods that are used to “manufacture” non-organic poultry and meat and “farm” fish.

In doing a little investigation on reasons for eating organically, I came across an article published in August 2009 by Maria Rodale, author of the upcoming book Organic Manifesto (due out in March 2010). I’m including a portion of the article below.

“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.

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!”

To read the entire article, go to The Huffington Post.

There are others who have written their own “Top 10 Reasons to Eat Organically.” One of my favorites was written by Dr. Andrew Weil in 2005. You can go to Organic Consumers Organization to read his list in its entirety.

I believe the more we educate ourselves and our children about why eating organic food is important, the more we’ll see that this is a change that makes sense for the present and the future. Through educating ourselves, we learn and are able to then make decisions based on our response to the information rather than from a place of fear. Although I’m convinced eating organically is a must for me and my family, I ask you to do your own research and then sit with that information in order to come to a decision that is right for you and your family. That’s the best we can each do for ourselves and the ones we love.

Every October, we are reminded about breast cancer–we are invited to celebrate Breast Cancer Awareness Month. What has always bothered me about this is the focus on disease–we are focused on celebrating our awareness of a disease. In my opinion, our focus is in the wrong place, because I believe what we focus on, we manifest. I wish we could begin to focus on breast health instead.

In order to move this posting in the direction of ways you can promote breast health, however, I feel the need to include some comments and statistics excerpted from Breast Cancer? Breast Health! The Wise Woman Way by Susun S. Wise as background and to substantiate what I believe:

Susun S. Wise states in her book, which was published in 1996, “It’s true that there’s more breast cancer now than ever before, that between 1979 and 1986 the incidence of invasive breast cancer in the United States increased 29 percent among white women and 41 percent among black women, and incidence of all breast cancers doubled. It’s true that the percentage of women dying from breast cancer has remained virtually unchanged over the past 50 years, and that every 12 minutes throughout the last half of the twentieth century another woman died of breast cancer. And it’s true that breast cancer is the disease that women fear more than any other, that breast cancer is the biggest killer of all women aged 35 to 54, and that of the 2.5 million women currently diagnosed with breast cancer, half will be dead within 10 years.”

She further states, “These facts frighten me, and they also make me angry. My studies spanning 25 years and many disciplines have convinced me that the majority of breast cancers are causally related to the high levels of radiation and chemicals released into our air, water, soil and food over the past 50 years. United States government researchers estimate that 80 percent of all cancers are environmentally linked.”

She asks in her book, “What can be done?” As she explains, and I concur, “The answer isn’t as simple as a yearly mammogram. That may help detect breast cancer, but it won’t prevent it. To prevent breast cancer we need to take individual and collective action.”

The action necessary isn’t to continue to search for a cure. As Ms. Weed explains, “Effective action requires understanding the causes of breast cancer and what decreases breast cancer risk. But there are few conclusive answers to these queries, partly because most research focuses on eliminating breast cancer after–not before–it occurs. Science has validated so few risk factors for breast cancer that 70 percent of the women diagnosed with breast cancer have ‘no identifiable risk factors.’”

There are risk factors for breast cancer that are scientifically accepted. These include sex, age, lifetime exposure to estrogen (which includes whether or not and when a woman had children, whether or not and for how long a woman nursed,and when a woman started and ended menses), family history (including genetic predisposition), lifetime exposure to radiation, race, culture, height and weight, level of exercise, and a woman’s exposure to DES in utero.

There are other risk factors that I believe are likely ones–and Susan Weed discusses these as well in her book–however these are not yet scientifically accepted. These, along with a few others, are listed on the American Cancer Society’s website as causes that are not yet proven. They include organochlorines, petrochemicals, electromagnetic fields, and tobacco smoke (which is usually linked to lung cancer).

According to the American Cancer Society, the only steps one should take to lower your risk of breast cancer, are as follows:
1. Yearly mammograms.
2. Eat a healthy diet to help control weight, since being overweight or obese may raise breast cancer risk.
3. Get regular physical activity. The American Cancer Society recommends 30 minutes a day, 5 or more days a week. Forty-five to 60 minutes a day is even better for reducing breast cancer risk.
4. Limit the amount of alcohol you drink to no more than 1 drink per day. Alcohol is clearly linked to an increased risk of developing breast cancer.

This is not enough! In my opinion, and as stated in Ms. Weed’s book, there are actions we can take as individuals to promote breast health and thus prevent breast cancer that go far beyond what the American Cancer Society lists. There is a limit to the control we have over our exposure to petrochemicals, radiation and other environmental cancer-inciters; however, the more we understand and learn, the more we can make educated choices about what we ALLOW into our lives. So, some of the steps I believe we can take as individuals include the following:

1. Buy organically grown food. It is important that we eat foods that have not been chemically treated with pesticides, antibiotics, or growth hormone. It is better to eat a primarily vegetarian diet, or if you follow the guidelines of The China Study, eat a completely vegan diet, with all foods derived from plants, seeds and grains. According to Whole Foods Diet Cookbook, you can elect to become a “flexitarian” which is someone who eats a predominantly plant-based diet but still eats moderate-size servings of land and sea animals one or two times a day. Whichever you prefer or whichever way you choose to go, the essential elements to a healthy diet are to GO ORGANIC and EAT WHOLE FOODS primarily.

2. Wherever and as much as possible, avoid organochlorines. Here are some ways to do that:
*Buy only organic butter, dairy, grains, beans, meat.
*Avoid non-organic produce from places where pesticide standards are lax.
*Avoid microwaving food and minimize your use of canned food.
*Avoid drinking chlorinated water. Install a chlorine filter in your home that services the entire home or, at a minimum, on the tap where you draw water for drinking and cooking.
*Avoid showering or swimming in chlorinated water. Again, install a household chlorine filter or, at a minimum, put chlorine filters on your showerheads.
*Buy peroxide-bleached or unbleached paper products.
*Use non-chemical cleaning supplies and no bleach. It’s easy to make your own cleaning supplies–you need very few ingredients and it’s very cost-effective too!
*Minimize or eliminate plastic usage in your home.

3. Avoid or minimize exposure to petrochemicals. Handling and breathing petroleum products, such as gasoline, kerosene, formaldehyde, and benzene, is risky. Petrochemicals CAN be absorbed through the skin and scalp, and then human organs and tissues – and over time these chemical agents can lead to nerve, liver and brain damage, birth defects, acute asthma, and cancer – Shocking, but true! Petrochemicals can be found in household cleaning products, fruits and vegetables, water, personal care products (mineral oil is a petrochemical), and home furnishings.

4. Distance yourself from electromagnetic fields in your home. Our house wiring, computers, TVs, refrigerators, hair dryers, electric blankets, clocks, ovens, electric fans, electrical appliances, cordless phones and cells phones all produce EMFs. Within 28 inches of the source; however, they are less than 80 percent as powerful. So, keep all electrical products at a distance. Try to minimize the time you keep other electrical products close to your head (such as cell phones and hair dryers).

5. Avoid tobacco smoke, excessive use of alcohol, and excessive calories in your diet.

6. Do include the following in your diet: phytoestrogens, cabbage family plants, grains, beans, foods with plenty of carotenes and high levels of Vitamin C, Vitamin E, and selenium.

7. Get plenty of Vitamin D.

8. Get adequate levels of melatonin production by sleeping in total darkness and consuming a low-calorie diet.

9. Get regular, significant exercise throughout your life by maintaining an active lifestyle and incorporating exercise or movement that pleases you into your life.

10. Incorporate spiritual practices that nourish your soul: prayer, meditation, journaling, and visualization are all wonderful!

11. Include laughter and play in your life! Entertain and give voice to the child within!!

12. Do what you can and then let go! Let go of fear and worry and trust that you are doing as much as you can to promote good health for yourself and your family!

13. Above all else, love and allow yourself to be loved!!!

One of the disturbing images from our trip to California was seeing how non-organic fruits and vegetables are grown.

But let me digress for a moment…My teenage daughters have, for the past few years, believed that I am a little off my rocker. They actually call me “voodoo mom” because of my beliefs when it comes to the foods, household products and body care products I am willing to allow in our home. I admit that I’ve had to relent a bit in the past couple years to keep a certain amount of peace in our home (as much peace as is possible with twin teenage daughters). However, I am still very careful about most of the food we purchase in our home–especially when it comes to fruits and vegetables. I believe that we should be eating organic produce and therefore that is what’s in our home.

So…back to our vacation. Quite a bit of agriculture is farmed along Highway 1 in California. While staying at the beach, we were very close to some of those farms which were primarily growing strawberries. During the week, we witnessed at least two days of ground spraying and an additional day of aerial spraying using helicopters over the same fields. We noticed that the people doing the ground spraying wore protective clothing–gloves, masks and headgear. My teenage daughters were shocked and frightened by what they saw. And they finally “got it!” They realized why I have not in the past wanted to buy the less expensive non-organic fruits and berries. They also commented on the farm workers who were picking the ripened fruit–they noticed that the workers wore no protective clothing and were actually concerned for them.

I am proud to say that I didn’t do a big “I told you so” but discussed with them what we were witnessing and why this is of such concern.

Since I already buy organic produce, I’m thinking about what more I can do with regard to pesticide usage. One area I have begun to research is how we handle “pests” in and around our own home. We normally avoid spraying or using any chemicals and pesticides; however, occasionally we are faced with the need to take action for specific infestations. I am looking into IPM and talking to a company that will work with us using IPM practices. IPM stands for Integrative Pest Management–it is the best way to prevent pest problems without routine spraying of herbicides, insecticides, rodenticides or fungicides. As I learn more and make decisions for our home, I will share my findings here.

DID YOU KNOW…

More than 500 insects and 270 species of weeds have now developed resistance to one or more pesticides.

In 2005, San Francisco successfully fought the West Nile Virus with IPM. Instead of aerial spraying with pesticides (which I personally experienced in the Bay Area in the early 1980′s), they trained bicycle messengers to drop packets of biological insecticides into the city’s 20,000 storm drains. The insecticide acted as birth control for the mosquitoes.

FOR TODAY…I will continue my research on IPM. I will pursue a partnership with a company willing to help us manage pests in and around our home through non-toxic, earth-friendly means. I will continue to buy organic produce, food, and personal care products. I will also look into buying organic clothing, bedding, linens, garden supplies and plants. Buying organic is healthier for people, wildlife, and the future of agriculture!