Those of you who know my work will know that I spend a lot of time and energy creating content that emphasizes the unique nutritional value of specific foods.
In the majority of cases, this value depends largely on the presence of flavonoids – which I often discuss on my platform.
Flavonoids and compounds such as these are not technically essential nutrients such as vitamins or minerals, but generally offer a number of tangible health benefits when consumed regularly over time.
In today’s position, I will explore the extent to which the content of these valuable compounds varies between organic and conventional products.
A special thank you Croplife canada who have financed this position financially and supported me in exploring this extremely relevant issue for my audience.
The views and conclusions expressed are mine and will certainly not surprise anyone to hear that I often fail questions from customers whether the choice between organic and conventional products will be decisive for their long -term health.
We are ready to take a step closer to learn.
Let’s get to the good things!
What does “biological” actually mean?
In Canada, when a food is characterized as organic it means that it is produced in alignment with the criteria specified by the organic standard of Canada – guidelines listed methods of production for organic foods.
These guidelines do not speak or suggest that foods highlighted by organic are safer to consume, nor suggest that organic foods have higher nutrient content – both of which are common misunderstandings on organic foods.
Do you want to know more myths against events about organic and conventional foods? Croplife Canada has a Excellent resource for the topic you can access here.
How much does it have organic matter?
To explore the answer to this question in a way based on evidence, I will rely on two recently published documents.
Paper #1 – a piece of 2023 Plants (kingdom)
“Organic against non-organic plant food-a comparative study of phenolic content and antioxidant capacity”
And…
Paper #2 – a piece of 2024 Sunny
“Are they organic more nutritious than conventional foods? A complete systematic review “
My findings – paper #1
Let’s start with some notable findings from paper #1 – as mentioned above.
THE Plants (kingdom) The study was great for today’s discussion because it examined a group of foods for differences in antioxidant capacity and content of flavonoids (anthocyanins, flavanols, flavonols) Among the organic and conventional cultivated versions of these foods.
Foods included olives, orange, cherry, tomato, onions, Swiss Chard, almonds, hazelnuts and nuts.
It is a type of flavonoids that give some red and purple foods their color.
Are compounds of great interest to me as someone specializing in liver health and insulin resistance because they have been proven You are positively contributing both through anti -inflammatory effects and positively affecting many aspects of cellular signaling.
The samples analyzed in this study found that on average, organic cultivated products had a 6% higher amount of anthocyanin and then conventional cultivated products.
I will describe it as a measurable but moderate difference and the one that is exciting to observe but not necessarily overwhelming.
Scientists assume that one reason why organic products may have slightly levels of these compounds is that these herbal species produce more of these protective compounds in response to higher stress -related stress -related conditions.
Very cool, right?
But it is certainly not enough for me to tell a customer to consume biologically at all costs.
So were anthocyanins, but what about other related phytochemicals and their influence?
As for the overall content of polyphenol, it is true that in 33% of the samples, organic products were higher in total polyphenol content, but that the actual difference was again generally about 6%.
Once again, measurable but moderate.
My findings – paper# 2
The study of 2024 outside Sunny He examined the cumulative findings of 147 scientific studies-each of which compared the nutritional content of vegetable foods cultivated either conventional or organically.
Here are some of their basic findings:
1 in ~ 29% of the comparisons were statistically significant difference between the content of phytochemical compounds between organic and conventional products.
2. In ~ 29% of comparisons the differences between organic and conventional products were not consistent between studies
3. In ~ 42% of comparisons, no significant differences in nutrient content were found.
*Findings like these emphasize why it is so important to consider systematic review data (ie: HELIYON paper that examines many studies) to better understand this issue, because it can be very difficult to fully determine the relationship between the contents of nutrients of a Given food and the way it is cultivated. There are many factors that play beyond organic against the conventional aspect that include variations in soil quality, geography and climate, which are equally or more likely to affect the nutrient content of a given food.
What does it mean for you
As a dietitian who spends 6 days a week discussing the diet either publicly or privately, I will offer some thoughts on what this information means and in particular what it means to you.
1. If you were to get a piece of organic against conventional cultivated products by chance, it is more likely that its nutritional value is very similar to very different.
2. Sometimes organic and conventional cultivated products have different contents of nutrients, but we cannot make widespread claims that organic is always superior because the results vary between studies, depend on the nutrient they are studying and what foods we compare.
For example:
This document noted that while organic products tend to be higher in vitamin C, the reverse was true for lycopene and β-carotene content, which was higher among conventional products.
Download a message at home:
I want to offer some very important messages at home from today’s post.
1. The health gap between eating foods such as fruits, vegetables and nuts regularly and not eating at all is huge.
2. The health gap between the consumption of any of these foods conventionally cultivated against organic cultivated is variable and two -way and does not support an idea that it must be “biological or nothing”.
3. There is nothing wrong with the biological market, but I can’t justify to urge my customers to get out of their way financially to focus only on organic products. 4. Items show organicConventional cultivated products are equally safe and dietary differences are negligible
.
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Until next time,
Andy de Santis rd mph
