Organic Food Not Healthier, Researchers Say

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f you shop at Whole Paycheck—er, Whole Foods (an easy mistake to make), you'll be dismayed to learn that researchers are now saying that organic meats, dairy products, and produce aren't any healthier or more nutritious than non-organic meat, dairy, and produce. A large-scale study from Stanford University has found that organics are not significantly safer than conventional foods, either.

A study in the UK also found that organic farming may not be better for the environment.

Organic foods can cost as much as a third more than non-organics (although, to us, it feels like it's even more expensive than that!), and people often paid the extra cash without hesitation, knowing they were getting healthier, safer, better food. But researcher Dena Bravata stated in the study, "There isn't much difference between organic and conventional foods, if you're an adult and making a decision based solely on your health."

Both organic and conventional foods get sprayed with pesticides.

The researchers found that there was no guarantee that organic food would be pesticide-free, though it had 30 percent lower levels of pesticides than traditional foods. Still, the reserach didn't reveal much evidence that foods that had 30 percent more pesticides (read: the conventional foods) posed any health risks. Additionally, researchers found that all of the levels of pesticides present were within the allowable safety limits.

The study was published this week in the Annals of Internal Medicine, and a separate study from Oxford University in the UK also found that organic farming may not be better for the environment, either. Organic products such as milk, cereals, and pork actually generate higher greenhouse gas emissions than their conventional counterparts, while organic beef produced lower emissions.

It's startling to think that this information we've been, uh, fed for the past decade or so might turn out to be all but a lie, but at least now us 99 percenters can stop feeling bad about buying our groceries from our local grocery stores and bodegas rather than The Fresh Market.