Six organic foods you should buy …and six you shouldn’t
Our expert picks the must-haves and what's optional
MORE of us are turning to organic food in the belief it is better for us.
Four out of five households in the UK choose organic fruit, veg, poultry and dairy, the Soil Association says.
The organic food industry was worth a staggering £1.79billion last year – with half of parents opting to buy organic baby food.
But what is all the fuss about – and is organic food really better for us? If you don’t want to eat nasty chemicals, the answer is YES.
Pesticides used to grow our food include nerve poisons, carcinogens, and “gender benders”, which can disrupt our reproductive health and cause problems such as infertility.
The Government assures us that at low levels, they do us no harm. But we are all swallowing additives, meat from genetically modified farm animals or food that has been processed in a highly industrial way.
In today’s cash-strapped society, it can be tough to buy all-organic.
Here, food journalist and author JOANNA BLYTHMAN reveals the must-have organic produce – and what’s not quite so vital.
DO
MILK
WHOLE organic cows’ milk has more health-boosting omega-3 fatty acid and vitamin E than non-organic milk, according to scientific studies.
One found the levels of omega-3s were 68 per cent higher.
Other research, funded by the Dutch government, showed children who consumed organic dairy foods had a 36 per cent lower eczema risk at the age of two.
MUSHROOMS
CONVENTIONAL mushrooms are treated with fungicides and insecticides.
Chemical disinfectants, such as chlorine, are also routinely used to sterilise mushroom sheds between growing cycles.
Organic growers aren’t allowed to use these chemicals and must steam-clean their sheds.
Mushrooms grown organically cost only slightly more than the conventional sort.
COOKING OIL
NON-ORGANIC oil is extracted at a high temperature, destroying its natural goodness, in a process that uses a chemical solvent.
The oil is then chemically bleached and deodorised, and two controversial preservatives, BHA and BHT, are added as a preservative. Some research links these to cancer.
Organic oils are not extracted using high heat and mostly cold-pressed. They can’t be bleached, and any deodorisation must be done with steam. No solvents or preservatives are permitted.
PORK
NON-ORGANIC pork usually comes from pigs that have been fed on genetically modified soya, but feeding studies on lab animals show GM food can be toxic.
For instance, rats fed GM tomatoes developed stomach lesions.
Trials haven’t been done to show whether eating meat from GM-fed animals can affect human health – but if you would rather not be a guinea pig, choose organic.
Organic standards prohibit the feeding of GM rations to livestock.
PEPPERS
CONVENTIONAL farmers can legally use up to 320 pesticides.
About a third of all the conventionally grown food we eat contains residues, while almost half of our fruit and vegetables are contaminated.
Peppers are one of the worst vegetables for pesticide contamination.
Organic farmers can use just six pesticides, and very restrictedly, so organic food almost never contains traces. In recent years, no residues have been found in organic peppers.
YOGHURT
LIKE many processed foods, yoghurt often contains chemical additives to give it fake colour, flavour and consistency.
There are 329 chemical additives – some of them highly controversial on health grounds – permitted in non-organic food.
These include the sweetener aspartame, flavouring MSG and the artificial yellow colour tartrazine.
Organic food processors can use only 32 additives.
They must come from natural sources – such as vitamin C from lemon juice.
DON'T
EGGS
ORGANIC eggs must come from hens that feed on grass, so they are likely to have higher levels of cancer-fighting fatty acid CLA than eggs from caged hens fed on cereals and soya.
But since free-range hens are given access to the outdoors, their eggs can also be a good source of CLA – and they are a bit cheaper than organic.
WHITE BREAD
WHITE loaves are less nutritious than brown bread, because they do not contain the bran and wheat germ, which provide vitamins and minerals.
But if this is the type of bread you eat, there is less reason to buy organic.
Most of the pesticide residues left in wheat are either removed when the flour is milled or destroyed during baking.
But organic bread – white or otherwise – will not contain the additives you find in most non-organic bread.
SALMON
MOST of the salmon on sale – organic or non-organic – comes from caged fish.
Organic salmon scores plus points for animal welfare because the fish are less crowded and given more room to swim around.
But there is no nutritional difference between the pricier organic salmon and its non-organic equivalent.
WATERCRESS
THIS is a super-healthy food loaded with disease-fighting vitamins C and E and beta-carotene, but there isn’t any strong health reason to choose organic.
All watercress is naturally grown in shallow beds in a gentle flow of clean spring water.
For most other salad leaves, however, pesticide residues are a very real concern, so organic may be worth the extra pennies.
PASTA
DRIED pasta is made from just durum wheat flour and water.
Since the wheat used is milled to remove the outside layer, it’s highly unlikely that pasta will contain pesticide residues.
So organic dried pasta may not be top of your list if you’re on a budget.
But if you buy fresh egg pasta, organic versions will very likely contain fewer undesirable additives, such as artificial flavours and preservatives.
LAMB
MOST UK and New Zealand lamb – organic or otherwise – comes from sheep that graze outdoors on rough pasture, so all lamb is a rich source of heart disease and cancer-fighting fatty acids.
As lamb can be expensive, going for the non-organic option does make the cost much more manageable.
To save a bit of money snap up the tasty, but cheaper “secondary” cuts, such as scrag, shank, breast, and mince.