Is Organic Food Better For Health?

Every time you go for shopping in super market or grocery store, you choose plenty of vegetable, fruits and meats for having a healthy lifestyle. You even choose foods that labeled with organic certification. Organic food has now become popular and a new trend for some people. Stores have specific section for selling organic food in Singapore are very common in these days.

Advocates support organic food is healthier and safer than conventional food. They also say organic farming protects environment. Usually people buy organic foods because they believe organic food are more healthy and nutritious than conventional.

Is organic food really better for your health? Do you really know what organic foods stand for? Organic food is means how the food is processed, created and raised. Organic crops grow with natural fertilizers, such as manure or compost. To produce organic livestock, organic farmers are cannot use hormones to feed animals. Farmers do not give antibiotics to animals and they move more around and access to outdoors than conventional animals. Organic farmers do not control weeds by using chemical herbicides. They control weeds by natural method, hand weeding, crop rotation or tilling. Organic farming used more natural method to grow crops. Pests are control by natural-derived pesticides.

Some people support organic foods because they want to avoid pesticides. However, organic crops still contains fewer pesticides. Organic farming are allowed to use pesticides to grow crops, but the amount are lesser then conventional. Remember, even you buy organic vegetables or fruits, you need to wash it before eat. Organic foods are little safer than conventional food because they use lower pesticides. Organic chickens also contain lesser antibiotic-resistant bacteria than conventional chicken.

Organic foods do not contain preservatives to make the foods stay fresh longer. Until now there are no any strong evidence to prove organic foods is better for health. Studies found that the nutrition of organic foods is slightly better than conventional. Overall, there is no big difference. For the years of study on organic food, scientists had found that organic foods contain higher levels of antioxidant level compare to conventional food. Plus, organic foods contain lower level of cadmium.

In the study in 2012, scientists also found organic foods had slightly higher phosphorous level than conventional foods. In the same year, Stanford team analyzed 240 studies on conventional food and organic food. They found out that the vitamin content of organic product is same with the conventional food. In a result, organic milk contains more omega-3 fatty acids than conventional milk.

Organic foods may not have significant effect on health, but as a consumer, you should buy organic foods based on your needs and budget. Organic foods are more expensive than conventional foods. If you are buying organic foods to eat healthier, is a waste of extra money if you can afford the price. To support organic foods, you may also purchase direct from organic farmers. Local organic markets also need consumer support and their price are cheaper than imported organic foods.