Some food myth busting with organic vs. conventional foods.

The first myth I would like to bust is no, as a dietitian, I do not ‘only eat organic foods’. I am not going to knock eating organic, I just want you to know the truth sans the marketing. I also have some great resources on this topic that I will link below and cite throughout this post.

What is does organic mean?

I would like to start with the definition of organic. I think we have come to have it be a catch-all for this “clean eating” movement (which is another email for another time - lots of thoughts on this) but what are the actual parameters around something being organic? Because yes, there are parameters set by the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture), which has some pros and cons. Some farmers are producing crops via “organic” methods but may choose to not be labeled as such because it needs to be certified and therefore costs extra money, time and energy. Some farmers may also choose to not be certified because then it creates parameters for the “bare minimum” instead of being able to focus time and money towards practices that could be above even the USDA’s standard of what “organic” means.

All of this lead up to say is that organic is a term set by the USDA, not actually a term meaning any increase in nutrition, quality or safety of the item. From this point I will label anything not organic as conventional, meaning the “regular” stuff.

Myth #1: Organic means no pesticides

This actually is not the case, and in some cases the same pesticides with the same amount of residue on the produce can show up in organic and conventional produce. How does this happen? There are pesticides that are approved for use by the USDA and EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and like I said earlier some conventional produce farmers may not want to spend the time and money to get organic certified, even though they would meet the qualifications. “…the vast majority of conventionally grown produce tested by United States Department of Agriculture could qualify to be labeled “organic,” specific to their residue levels”¹. Conventional also doesn’t mean that the farmer doesn’t care about their produce and many only use pesticides as a last resort just like organic farmers.

Myth #2: You should pay attention to the “Dirty Dozen”

If I am being completely honest this was a myth that I myself did not know needed to be busted. I even learned in my nutrition courses about the Dirty Dozen and had to memorize what they were - meaning they were meant to be taken seriously as something I would counsel future clients and patients on. To those that don’t know, the Dirty Dozen is a list of 12 fruits and vegetables released by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) each year that is said to be the highest in residues and therefore should be avoided or bought organic. First, there has been research to show that the residues that show up on these fruits and vegetables are still negligible and that the methods that the EWG uses to come up with these are not accurate. In a statement by Dr. Carl Winter he clarifies this point: “To accurately assess consumer risks from pesticides, one needs to consider three major factors – 1) the amount of residue on the foods, 2) the amount of food consumed, and 3) the toxicity of the pesticides. The methodology used by EWG ignores all three.”¹ To see what this means I used a calculator available on the website SafeFruitsandVeggies.com to go through a real life scenario. I took one of the fruits listed on this year’s dirty dozen list - apples. I put into the calculator of how many servings you would have to eat in a day to consume unsafe levels of residue and here are my results:

If you are a….

Man = 1,190 apples/day

Woman = 850 apples/day

Child = 340 apples/day

Case and point, the amount or residue matters, not the fact that it exists. So why does this matter so much? The Dirty Dozen list is not produced by any credible entity, it is not like when the USDA or FDA issues a food recall on something that has been deemed unsafe to consume but it likes to come across as such. It uses fear-mongering to make people think that these products are dirty and therefore un-healthy.

Imagine if you are a conventional strawberry farmer that cannot afford to get the organic label and jump through all these bureaucratic hoops and then some random group releases a list saying the crop that you have poured your life into is “dirty” and will therefore negatively impact consumption rates.

I think everyone can agree that it is good to have fruits and vegetables in your diet and that many people do not get enough. This list has been shown to lower people’s consumption of fruits and vegetables because of the fear and/or inability to afford organic. Imagine the negative impact and shame that something like this can create if you cannot afford to feed yourself or your family with only organic versions of the Dirty Dozen so you either don’t eat them or eat the conventional versions thinking that you are poisoning your family.

So what is the takeaway here?

I am not against buying organic if you can afford it and it is your way of consuming produce. What I do want to do is take away the shame and fear if you DON’T buy organic. If you buy conventional it does not mean the foods have any less nutrition, quality or safety. It does not mean that the farmers do not have sustainability practices in place like crop rotations and soil enhancers. You are not “dirty” if you buy conventional, you are not consuming unsafe levels of pesticide residue (you can email me if you are consuming 1,200 apples in a day and we can talk more) and you are not dumping toxins into your body.

The fact is the “organic” label might not mean all that you think it means. I know as consumers there are 1,000 choices we have to make every time we go to the grocery store and we like labels like this because we think it makes the choices easier. “Clean”, “guilt-free”, “lite”, “all-natural” are all there to sell us comfort, peace of mind and the feeling of “being good”. “Organic” is just that, another marketing term that is used by products to make you feel clean and good.

I am here to say eat the fruit and veggies you like whether they are organic or conventional, you’ll still be doing your body good.

Citations: (because that is how serious this blog got)

¹ Facts About the Dirty Dozen List

Website resource: SafeFruitsandVeggies.com

Podcast episode: Sound Bites Podcast Episode 97