Here is one more benefit of going organic: a research proved that regular consumption of organic food can reduce a person's risk of developing cancer.
Julia Baudry, an epidemiologist from the Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale in France, led a research that looked at the various diets of nearly 70,000 French men and women. Volunteers were tracked and observed for around 4.5 years.
The study was published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.
Benefits Of Eating Organic Food
"Organic" is a term used to refer to food items that are less likely to contain pesticide residue. Before a product gets labeled "organic," the producer must follow strict standards set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that bar the use of synthetic fertilizers, irradiation, genetic engineering, etc.
Pesticide is among the risk factors of cancer and organic food has less of the stuff compared to regular food. For the study, the researchers organized the volunteers into four groups depending on the frequency of their consumption of 16 organic foods that include fruits and vegetables, meats and fishes, vegetable oils and condiments, supplements, and others.
By the end of the study, out of the 68,946 participants, a total of 1,340 cancer cases were recorded. The most common was breast cancer which was diagnosed in 459 volunteers. The second most common was prostate cancer (180 cases), followed by skin cancer (135 cases), colorectal cancer (99 cases), non-Hodgkin lymphoma (47 cases), and other lymphomas (15 cases).
The researchers, then, compared the participants' organic food consumption with cases of cancer. They found that those who ate organic food most frequently saw their risk of developing cancer go down by 25 percent compared with their peers. Specifically, they are 73 percent less likely to develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma and 21 percent less likely to be diagnosed with post-menopause breast cancer.
Organic Is Better
The study adds to the growing number of evidence backing the claims that organic products are better than their counterparts. A separate study in 2014 made similar findings, linking a reduced risk of cancer with eating organic foods.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer also found that pesticides are causing cancer in humans. The study also claimed that organic food is associated with lowered risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma in patients.
