Is organic always healthy?

I must admit I love organically grown produce for quite a few reasons: lower environmental impact, no GMOs, less chemicals such as pesticides and fertilizers on the products, higher antioxidant content and if you're eating animal products, organic means higher welfare standards and no antibiotic overuse.

However, it’s easy to get an illusion that everything that’s organic is somehow better. Then you can buy crisps and sweets that are organic, organic pastries and cakes, organic fudge and soft drinks. And they may be “better” to some extent: the materials used probably caused less environmental damage as it was grown organically, promoting wildlife, not using bee-killing pesticides etc.

Also, these products will probably (or hopefully) be made by ethical businesses that invest in charitable causes and are more respectful of the environment, so you are supporting them over the big mainstream companies that only care about more and more profit.

But health-wise, there is no big difference between organic and non organic sugar or vegetable oil. For example, these substances are so processed that they don’t have anything else but a simple carbohydrate and fat, respectively, with no nutritional benefits and with possible health-damaging effects long term. The same can be said about almost all processed foods and white flour products.

A piece of non-organic fruit or veg is much more nutritious and beneficial than “the most organic” sweets, even if they had added vitamins, minerals, “superfoods” or friendly bacteria. I recommend reducing processed foods to a minimum, organic or not. And if you do buy them organic, be honest with yourself – it’s not any healthier!

Originally published in my nutrition blog.