Nutritional Superiority of Organic Foods

he need for a return to healthy organic foods is supported by a comprehensive review of forty major scientific studies published since 2003 which delivers definitive evidence on a controversial issue “why organic?”
The report “New Evidence Confirms the Nutritional Superiority of Plant-Based Organic Foods,” State of Science Review, March 2008, prepared by Charles Benbrook, Xin Zhao, Jaime Yanez, Neal Davies and Preston Andrews claims the nutritional superiority of organic foods.

Nutrient levels were studied in 236 matched pairs of foods – for example, one type of food from an organically grown crop was compared to the same type of food from a nearby conventional farm with similar environmental conditions and harvest practices. The comparative studies of organic and conventional production systems found organic fruits, vegetables, grains contained higher levels of eight out of eleven nutrients studied, including significantly higher concentrations of anti-cancer, anti-osteoporosis and anti-cardiovascular disease polyphenols and antioxidants.

The report clearly supports the conclusions that:

“Organic plant-based foods are, on average, more nutritious in terms of their nutrient density for compounds validated by this study’s rigorous methodology” and

“The average serving of organic plant-based food contains about 25% more of the nutrients encompassed in this study than a comparable-sized serving of the same food produced by conventional farming methods.”