One of the reasons I hear people say that they choose organic foods is because they are more nutritious. While I have no problem with people choosing to eat organic foods, I wonder about this “more nutritious” claim.
Now that we know how to read nutrition labels, let’s take a look, shall we?
I’ll admit that my local grocery store is a bit short on organic options. I did find a few comparable products, so let’s get started!
Sugar
First… organic sugar compared to plain old regular sugar.
Organic information on the left, conventional information on the right. We’ve got more information on our conventional product, but we can still work with what we have. The serving sizes are the same, the calories/serving are the same. The rest of the label looks the same – no fat or sodium in either one, 4 grams of carbohydrates in each, and no protein in either.
What? You don’t buy sugar for it’s nutrient content? Gasp! Okay… let’s look at something else.
Flour
Here’s unbleached all-purpose flour.
Again, organic on the left, conventional on the right. The serving size is about the same. The conventional flour has 110 calories per 1/4 cup; the organic has 100 calories per “less than” 1/4 cup – pretty comparable here. The difference in the flour is in the vitamins and minerals section. The organic only has 2% of your daily value of iron, while the conventional has 6% of your daily value. This is because the organic is unenriched, where the conventional flour is enriched. (Remember when we talked about fortifying milk? This is similar – extra vitamins and minerals are added to conventional flour to bump up it’s nutritional value.)
So far, we’ve not seen big differences. How about milk?
Milk
Organic on the left, conventional on the right…
The serving size is the same, 1 cup. They are both 1% milk, so you expect the same calorie and fat content, which we have. However, the conventional milk has only 0.5 grams of monounsaturated fat, where the organic milk has 1 gram of monounsaturated fat. The conventional milk also has slightly lower sodium (120 mg instead of 125 mg) and potassium (390 mg instead of 410 mg) than the organic milk. Total carbohydrates and protein are the same. The conventional has a little bit more vitamin C (4% daily value compared to 2% for organic).
Spinach
And, finally, spinach.
The serving size is different, sort of. The organic spinach has 4 1/2 cups, or 85 grams listed as the serving size. The conventional spinach has 3 ounces, or 3 cups, or 85 grams listed as the serving size. So, weight-wise it’s the same, but volume-wise it’s different. From there… the same amount of calories, fat, cholesterol, sodium, and carbohydrates per serving. But, again, there’s differences in the vitamins and minerals section. The conventional spinach actually has more vitamin A (160% of your daily value, compared to 110%) and more vitamin C (40% compared to 25%).
Are these differences enough to make you choose organic over conventional foods, or vice versa? No, probably not.
There are reasons for choosing organically-grown foods over conventionally-grown foods, and many people make this choice. There are differences in the fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides that can be used in each practice. These things are very important to some people.
But nutrition? It’s a wash. There’s very little difference between organically-grown and conventionally-grown foods.
Do you choose organic or conventional foods when you have the option? Why or why not?
I actively avoid organic animal products on ethical/animal-welfare grounds. Having worked on an organic dairy, I cannot in good conscience support a system of food production which willfully and definitionally does not use the most efficient and effective means to alleviate animals’ discomfort when suffering bacterial infection (i.e. antibiotics). When our cows at the dairy got an infection, we treated them with garlic extract and peppermint oil in lieu of antibiotics. While the experience of these “aroma-therapy” cows was indeed novel, it was by no means an effective way of getting rid of the infection and the same cows lingered in our “hospital string” for weeks.
In terms of organic produce, I have only mild issues. I find it ethically questionable to choose to produce food in a way that has decreased yield compared to conventional production systems in the face of an ever-growing hungry world population. That said, I’ll buy whatever produce is cheapest and/or represents the item I seek best. I’ve found organic fruit and veggie offerings in the store tend to be more varied than conventionally-produced offerings. Some organic produce items are surprisingly cheaper than conventional as well.
Thanks for your comments, Kerry. Some of the larger organic dairies will also maintain a non-organic herd. This way, if one of the cows on their organic farm gets sick, they can treat her with antibiotics and move her to the non-organic farm. However, that means that cow can not go back to the organic farm. And not all farms are large enough to maintain two separate herds, so some are managed the way you describe.
In my area, conventionally-farmed produce is easier to come by than organically-farmed produce. Personally, I don’t notice much of a difference in the taste between conventional and organic. I won’t go out of my way to find organic produce, but like you, if the organic produce looks fresher that day or is less expensive than the conventional produce, I’ll purchase the organic option that day.