Organic Foods vs Non-Organic

by Georgianna Donadio, MSc, Dc, PhD

Several years ago scientists at Rutgers University set-out to specifically disprove any claim that organic produce was more nutritious than non-organic produce. The study used produce from supermarkets and health food stores. The main focus was to analyze the mineral content of the various vegetables and compare them for nutrition value, in particular, mineral content.

The term used today to identify non-organic produce is “commercial” which is grown using a variety of chemicals that either destroys plant pests or chemicals that can enhance plant growth. Many of these chemical are known carcinogens as well as being toxic to the soil and environment.

There has actually been very little “hard data” to prove that organic produce is in any way superior to organic produce, as most folks who purchase “organic” simply believe innately that naturally grown vegetables and fruits, without chemicals and pesticides are intuitively better and healthier.

While the researchers were willing to accept an outcome that might show a very slightly higher content in the organic produce than the commercial, due to the chemicals used to grow the commercial plants, the outcomes of the study shocked the researchers! When they saw that the amount of iron found in the commercial spinach was 97% higher than in the organic spinach and that manganese was 99% higher in the organic over the commercial, they were truly amazed. In the commercially grown vegetables many trace elements were completely absent compared to the organic produce where they were abundant.

Here are some comparisons:

Snap Beans organic =
10.45 phosphorus compared to 4.04 in commercial
.36 magnesium compared to .22 in commercial
227 boron compared to 10 in commercial
69 iron compared to 3 in commercial

Cabbage organic =
10.38 phosphorus compared to 6.12 in commercial
.38 magnesium compared to .18 in commercial
94 boron compared to 20 in commercial
48 iron compared to .04 in commercial

Lettuce organic =
24.48 phosphorus compared to 7.01 in commercial
.43 magnesium compared to .22 in commercial
516 boron compared to 9 in commercial
60 iron compared to 3 in commercial

Tomatoes organic =
14.2 phosphorus compared to 7.01 in commercial
.35 magnesium compared to .16 in commercial
1938 boron compared to 1 commercial
53 iron compared to 0 in commercial

Spinach organic =
28.56 phosphorus compared to 12.38 in commercial
.52 magnesium compared to .27 in commercial
1584 compared to 49 in commercial
32 iron compared to .3 in commercial

Here’s a disturbing outcome of this study – in all 5 of the tested vegetables: snap beans, cabbage, lettuce, tomatoes and spinach the organic vegetables all contained healthy levels of cobalt, an essential trace mineral compared to the commercial vegetables which contain none!

So, the next time someone tries to argue that there is no difference between organic and commercial vegetables you can share this information with them and then happily buy your organic produce!

With all good wishes,
G

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