There is a great article published today in the NYT about a pediatrician in California who experimented by eating only organic food for 3 years. (Of course he lived in California it is one of the few places you can get organic food all year round). Dr Greene runs a website aptly named drgreene.com – it is a great resource for all pediatric questions. Anyway for 3 years he had nothing but organic food. After his experiment was over he felt that he had more energy and became ill less often. Perhaps also because he ate less garbage food, since most of the not so healthy ‘food’ doesn’t come organic.
However, I do believe that organic food is very important to our health. Many experiments have shown that organic food has more nutrition that non-organic food, because plants make beneficial phytochemicals when they are stressed by nature. When bugs pick at berries for example they will make more phytochemicals that protect the plant from being eaten, but also offer us a wide variety of beneficial nutrients. Plants that are sprayed with chemicals will have less stress and therefore less phytochemicals.
Read the article and think organic – as long as local isn’t a choice.
In Health,
George Mandler
Licensed Acupuncturist
Licensed Dietitian / Nutritionist
Certified Chinese Herbalist
Maynard, MA and Cambridge, MA
