A Swedish cooperative grocery chain, Coop, conducted a study on a family that ate only organic for 2 weeks.
Result:the level of pesticides present in the urine has dropped considerably.
Eating organic, in principle everyone agrees. But when it comes to applying this principle on a daily basis, it's more complicated:tight budget to buy organic products, lack of time to cook...
As a result, we often buy non-organic products in traditional stores.
In order to encourage families to eat organic more often, the Swedish grocery chain Coop financed an experiment on a family of 5, the Palmbers, for 3 weeks.
The 1st week , nothing new:the Palmbers continued to eat what they used to eat. The only change for them:each member had to provide urine samples every day.
The urine samples were analyzed by the Swedish Environmental Institute. Result:no less than 8 pesticides were discovered in their urine. “We discovered insecticides, fungicides and growth regulators,” says Dr. Jorgen Magner, head of the study.
During the other two weeks From this experience, the Palmbers family only ate organic products. Each of the members continued to provide urine samples.
But here the results were completely different. And good news for the Palmbers family:in just a few days, nearly a trace of pesticides are gone in their organisms has been detected!
The scientific study (available here in English) recalls, however, that the levels of pesticides present in the Palmbers the first week of the test respected the thresholds authorized by law. But the risk comes from a possible interactivity between all these chemicals present in human organisms.
“We know very little about the long-term effects of eating pesticide-treated food. Especially when we know that chemicals can be much more dangerous when they are mixed” recognizes Jorgen Magner.
Although little is known about the ability of these chemical molecules to interact with each other, they are suspected of promoting the rise of allergies and diabetes. Eating organic could be a simple way to fight these diseases.
And what do you think of this study? Do you try to eat organic even if it's more expensive? Tell us in the comments! We can't wait to read you.
