Research: Organic Food Overrated, Pesticides Maybe Not That Bad

Organic food is almost always more expensive. But increasing numbers of people are willing to pay this price to limit the amount of pesticides and other unnatural chemicals leaching from their food into their bodies.

Research says this is bologna. Science Daily reports:

The increasingly prevalent notion that expensive organic fruits and vegetables are safer because pesticides -- used to protect traditional crops from insects, thus ensuring high crop yields and making them less expensive -- are a risk for causing cancer has no good scientific support, according to an authority on the disease.

Researcher Bruce Ames, who developed the Ames test is used to test for potential carcinogens, presented this research at the National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society this week. Ames said in his presentation at the meeting that animal cancer studies do not accurately reflect how a substance will affect humans:

"Animal cancer tests, which are done at very high doses of synthetic chemicals such as pesticides -- the "maximum tolerated dose" (MTD) -- are being misinterpreted to mean that minuscule doses in the diet are relevant to human cancer. 99.99 percent of the pesticides we eat are naturally present in plants to protect them from insects and other predators. Over half of all chemicals tested, whether natural or synthetic, are carcinogenic in rodent tests," Ames said.

. . .

At very low doses, many of these substances are not of concern to humans, he said.

Ames goes further saying that fear of excessive fear of pesticides may prevent some consumers from buying fresh produce, if they cannot afford the more expensive -- and seemingly better for them -- organic version.