Benefits of Eating Organic Foods

We read an awful amount these days about organic foods and how good they are for us. But what are the facts about the benefits of eating organic?

If you are concerned about the impact that conventional food production methods have on our environment, then that is one compelling reason to support organic food producers. Organic food, by definition, is produced using less energy, less water resources and no pesticides or gene modification. In the long run, by shopping for organic food you are helping to save our planet.

Organic non vegetable foods such as meat and dairy products are produced from animals that have much less stressful lives. They are not confined in unhealthy, crowded and often deplorable conditions. Rather, they are allowed to graze freely on non-pesticide infected pastures.

But apart from making us feel guilt-free as we do our food shopping, what do organic foods do for us as individuals?

Firstly, organic foods contain none of the toxins and additives found in non-organic foods. Organic farms must have a buffer zone between them and neighbouring farms so that synthetic pesticides cannot contaminate the organic crops. Organic farms rely on good soil management, as opposed to chemical treatment, to produce healthy crops. A good, nutritious soil produces crops containing high nutrient values.

Livestock used in organic food production are themselves fed with organic food and are not subjected to medicinal antibiotics, so there is no risk of suffering from an antibiotic allergy reaction if you eat organic foods. Similarly, the risks of such awful diseases such as mad cow disease are vastly reduced among animals raised organically. (It is believed that mad cow disease is caused by cattle eating food containing contaminated meet; if left to themselves, cows never eat meat.)

So, organic foods contain high nutrient levels. It does not contain pesticides, hormones, antibiotics or gene-modified substances. All those are pretty compelling reasons to eat organically.

Once you have tasted organically grown food, you will almost certainly never go back to non-organic foodstuffs again. The taste of an organic carrot is so vastly superior to the bland taste of the everyday supermarket variety you will wonder if they are the same vegetable. Packed full of vitamins, high in nutrition and with a flavour to die for, what more could you wish for?

In fact, the only shortcoming of organic food is its generally higher price tag - and the fact that organically-based agriculture cannot produce enough food to feed the rising population of the world.