6 Health Benefits of Eating Organic Food [Infographic]

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Organic food is a pretty controversial subject in health and wellness these days, with people having varied opinions about the subject. Some claim that organic is the only way to eat if you want to maintain good health, others however promise that this is just a marketing trick to be able to sell food at a higher cost and nothing more.

Today, we wish to try and demystify these claims by bringing up some facts about the real, science-backed benefits of eating organic food.

1. Less Exposure to Pesticides

Mass-produced food is usually laden with all sorts of pesticides, some of them of artificial origin. There have been numerous studies about the effects of pesticides on human and animal health, and some of them have proven that exposure to pesticides in certain amounts can actually lead to learning disorders in children, can impair the function of one’s nervous system, and increase the chances of breast cancer. Organic food is usually grown without the use of pesticides, so by eating organic you avoid these risks entirely.

2. Healthy Fats

Fats get a bad rep in nutrition these days, but the truth is that they’re absolutely essential to maintaining proper health. Monosaturated fats like omega-6 and omega-3 are something that the human body cannot produce on its own, and they’re very important for proper brain function so it’s crucial that you get enough of them.

Healthy fats can be found in animal sources such as fish, but also in various plant food such as dragon fruit. Studies have shown that organic foods contain more of these fats than their mass-produced counterparts, so if you care about healthy fats, it may be time to switch to organic.

3. More Antioxidants

An antioxidant is a molecule that inhibits the oxidization of other molecules. This leads to a number of health benefits, most significantly preventing the formation of tumor cells, and therefore cancer.

A recent study conducted by the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry proved that onions that were raised organically had a 20% increase in antioxidants compared to those that were not. Additionally, some rare foods very high in vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants (such as romanesco, or starfruit) are often only found in organic orchards and plantations, so going organic is pretty much the only way you can get them.

4. No Antibiotic Resistance

Mass-produced meat like beef, pork, and chicken is usually laden with all sorts of antibiotics – this is because farmers feed them to livestock in appalling amounts in order to prevent disease since the animals are often kept in rather unsanitary conditions.

The problem is that these antibiotics stay in the meat, and consuming this kind of meat often can make your body actually become resistant to antibiotics.

This is bad because when you actually do get sick from a bacterial infection, the antibiotics won’t be as effective and this can lead to serious health complications. Organic meat, on the other hand, comes from animals that 99% of the time do not receive antibiotics during their lives, so this risk is basically non-existent.

5. No Diseased Meat

While you are speaking for meat, even though mass-produced meats are theoretically kept safe from disease through the use of antibiotics, that doesn’t mean that animals living in unsanitary conditions are healthy.

It doesn’t happen often, but you can end up with food poisoning if you come across meat from an animal that was sick before it was slaughtered. If this is something that you want to avoid, switching to organic meat is probably a good idea.

6. No GMO

Finally, let’s briefly touch on the oh-so-controversial subject of GMOs. Although it hasn’t been absolutely proven yet that GMOs introduce health risks, there have been some unofficial studies that suggest it might lead to an increased chance of cancer. Even if this is not true, GMOs are still a relatively new branch in the industry, so there is a lot we don’t know about it, yet – especially when it comes to long-term health complications.

Conclusion

As you can see, there is definitely quite a number of reasons why you should try to introduce more organic food into your diet, especially if you care about your long-term health. To sum up, eating organic helps you stay away from pesticides, antibiotic-laden meat, GMOs, and introduces more healthy fats and antioxidants into your diet. So stay organic, and your body will thank you for it with optimal health in the long run.