A study by French researchers reveals that regularly consuming organic food would be beneficial for health, since it would reduce the risk of cancer by up to 25%.
While 81 harmful chemicals are found every day in children’s meals, eating organic would have many advantages. A new study, published in the JAMA Internal Medicine this Monday, October 22, demonstrates the benefits to our health: regular consumption of organic food would reduce the risk of cancer by 25%. The reason: the less frequent presence of pesticide residues and at lower doses in ingredients from organic farming, compared to those from conventional farming.
The study was conducted by researchers from the Center for Research in Epidemiology and Statistics Sorbonne Paris Cité, including Inra, Inserm, Paris 13 University and CNAM. It was carried out from the analysis of data from 68,946 participants. The frequency of consumption of organic or conventional foods – never, occasionally, most of the time – was asked for 16 different food groups, over seven years. During this period, 1,340 new cases of cancer were recorded in medical records.
Choose foods less exposed to pesticides
And it turns out that a 25% reduction in the risk of cancer was observed among “regular” consumers of organic foods compared to more “occasional” consumers. The decrease is even 34% for breast cancer in postmenopausal womenor 76% for lymphomas. Several hypotheses have been raised by scientists to explain these figures, in particular the presence of fewer pesticides but also potentially higher levels of certain micronutrients (carotenoid antioxidants, polyphenols, vitamin C or more beneficial fatty acid profiles) in organic foods. .
According to previous research, consumers of organic food would also have a healthier diet, smoke less and exercise more regularly. In order not to distort the results, socio-demographic conditions, diet, lifestyle or family history were thus taken into account. But these risk factors ultimately did not change the researchers’ analysis.
These findings need to be confirmed by further research, they explain. However, they support the recommendations of the High Council of Public Health (HCSP), which suggests “prefer foods grown using production methods that reduce exposure to pesticides for fruits and vegetables, legumes and whole grain products”.
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