Study proves organic fruits, vegetables good for health

11 July, 2007:

Organic fruits and vegetables have been proved to be better for the heart and general health than conventionally grown crops.

A 10-year study comparing organic tomatoes with standard produce found that the former had almost double the quantity of antioxidants called flavonoids, which help prevent high blood pressure and thus reduce the likelihood of heart disease and strokes, according to the London-based Times Online.

Alyson Mitchell, a food chemist, who led the research at the University of California, the United States, believes that flavonoids can also help stave off
some forms of cancer as well as dementia.

It was found that levels of quercetin and kaempferol, both flavonoids, were on an average 79% and 97% higher, respectively, in organic tomatoes.

Alyson Mitchell’s findings are due to be published in full in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

According to Alyson Mitchell, previously it had been hard to make comparisons between organic and conventionally grown produce because of difficulties in comparing soil quality, irrigation practices, and the handling of harvested produce.

But, for this study, researchers used data from a long-term project in which standardized farming techniques were used to reveal trends in crop productivity.

The research team believes that the different levels of flavonoids in tomatoes are due to the absence of fertilisers in organic farming.

Plants produce flavonoids as a defense mechanism; they are triggered by nutrient deficiency. Feeding a plant with too many nutrients – such as inorganic nitrogen commonly found in conventional fertilizer – curbs the development of flavonoids.

The lower levels of flavonoids in conventional tomatoes are caused by over-fertilisation, the research team concluded.

The Soil Association is now urging the Food Standards Agency to review its guidance on the merits of organic as opposed to conventional fruit and vegetables.

Peter Melchett, policy director of the Soil Association, says that there is now a rapidly growing body of evidence which showed significant differences between the nutritional composition of organic and non-organic food.

The Food Standards Agency has commissioned a three-year study into the benefits of flavonoids, on the grounds that there is accumulating evidence that dietary flavonoids may, in large part, explain the cardiovascular disease benefits of increased fruit and vegetable intake.

Recent research conducted in Europe had found that organic tomatoes contained more vitamin C, B-carotene, and flavonoids than conventionally grown tomatoes.