Should Children Eat Organic Food?

Supposedly organic food is healthier than non-organic, because organic foods are grown without exposure to pesticides, fertilizers, antibiotics, or growth hormones. Thus, children should eat organic food?

The latest report on organic food and nutritional needs of children referred to the child should not eat organic food, necessary because the children are nourished. Children are advised to eat fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat milk, regardless of whether the food is organic or not. Similarly, the opinion of Dr. Janet Silverstein, a member of the committee nutrients in the American Academy of Pediatrics, which is involved in a research report, as quoted by LiveScience, Tuesday (10/23/2012). The report was released at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics in New Orleans.

Research on organic foods is still very limited, so the report recommends continued research on the potential health benefits of organic food. Moreover, studies conducted by the American Academy of Pediatrics has not found significant differences on the nutritional value of organic foods and non-organic. In addition, there is also no research on the effects of eating organic foods for a long time.

The report prepared by collecting dozens of research articles on organic food and conventional food in recent decades. The focus is on the study of related new nutrition and pesticides on food.

In some studies mentioned organic foods have more vitamin C and phosphorus than conventional food. However, a report in the American Academy of Pediatrics says there is no evidence that the differences were significant for the health of children.

It is true that organic foods have high levels of exposure to low levels of pesticides. However, it remains unclear whether these differences affect a person's health over time.

"But we know that children, especially children whose brain is developing, vulnerable to chemical exposure," says Dr. Joel Forman, another author of the report.

When washing vegetables or fruit with water, it removes the content of pesticides, but not all of the content of pesticides shed. Yet evident how pesticide exposure against people who eat them.

Many people also choose to drink organic milk to avoid milk from cows given growth hormones in conventional farming. However, the specific growth hormone for cows is not believed to have a biological effect on humans. Moreover, the bovine growth hormone will be degraded in the human stomach acid.

Sometimes cows given the hormone steroid, a kind of estrogen, to increase muscle mass and accelerate growth. So is there any effect of these hormones in cow's milk? The report has not yet seen its association, so that exposure to estrogen through cow's milk should be clarified through research.

Organic farms avoid the use of antibiotics in farm animals, so the meat is relatively free of bacteria that are resistant to the drug. But the proper way to cook suspected to reduce the risk exposure to the bacterium. But the fact remains there is a disease caused by bacteria that are resistant to the drug.

Generally, people choose to consume more organic food for environmental reasons rather than health reasons. Because the reduced use of pesticides, the organic products are more environmentally friendly.