Organic Diet Cuts Pesticides in Kids

The first study documenting the difference between conventional and organic diets has been released. The good results? Eating organic food can reduce children's pesticide-exposure levels. University of Washington researchers found that kids fed an organic diet were exposed to six to nine times less pesticides than those on a conventional diet.

Published this spring in the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences journal, Environmental Health Perspectives, 40 households took part in the research, during which scientists measured organophosphorous pesticides or pesticide breakdown products in the bodies of 18 organic-eating and 21 non-organic-eating children.

Organophoshorous pesticides are very common and toxic, linked to serious diseases in children including leukemia and bone and brain cancer.

While the agricultural chemical industry played down the findings, the study is significant because it provides proof that organic food is safer than conventionally grown produce in terms of chemical exposure. Although other studies have found pesticides in children's bodies, this is the first study to compare the pesticide residue difference between conventional and organic diets.