Study Shows More Vit. C. in Organic Oranges

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Misty L. Trepke

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Study Shows More Vitamin C in Organic Oranges than Conventional

Oranges

 

http://www.rawfoodinfo.com/hom­e/home_a.html

 

MINNEAPOLIS, June 2 - Organically-grown oranges contain up to 30%

more vitamin C than those grown conventionally, it was reported today

at a Great Lakes Regional meeting of the American Chemical Society,

the world's largest scientific society. The Great Lakes meeting is

being held at the Radisson Hotel Metrodome June 2-4 and more than 400

scientists and students are expected to attend. This research paper

is being presented in Memorial Hall of the McNamara Alumni Center at

the University of Minnesota. Theo Clark, a visiting chemistry

professor at Truman State University (Kirksville, Mo), reported the

finding based on work done by him and a group of undergraduate

students. He said he decided to conduct the analysis because of a

lack of analytical information about the nutritional content of

organically-grown produce.

 

" Quite often, organic goods come from smaller farms that market their

goods with provocative labels such as 'healthy,' 'delicious,' or

'natural', " he said. " These statements are generally made without

reference to any comparable standards. " Clark added that he chose

oranges to begin the assessment because they are high-profile fruits.

" The orange is the traditional source of vitamin C, and it is highly

commercialized, but no one to our knowledge has thought to compare

the organic and conventionally-grown oranges. "

 

Conventional oranges are larger than organically-grown oranges, and

they have a deeper orange color. Because of their size, " we were

expecting twice as much vitamin C in the conventional oranges, " said

Clark. But to his surprise, chemical isolation combined with nuclear

magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy revealed that the

organically-grown oranges contained 30% more vitamin C than the

conventionally-grown fruits - even though they were only about half

the size.

 

Clark said the reason for the added nutritional punch isn't clear,

but " we speculate that with conventional oranges, (farmers) use

nitrogen fertilizers that cause an uptake of more water, so it sort

of dilutes the orange. You get a great big orange but it is full of

water and doesn't have as much nutritional value, " said

Clark. " However, we can only speculate. Other factors such as

maturity, climate, processing factors, packaging, and storage

conditions require consideration. "

 

In addition to the chemical analysis, Clark and his team conducted a

survey of 27 households (approximately 71 individuals) in the rural

town of Miller, Mo., to gauge their expectations of organic oranges.

Eighty five percent of respondents believed that organic oranges

would have a higher nutritional content than their

conventionally-grown counterparts, and Clark's research shows

that " they were right on. " However, 65% believed that there was

little or no price difference between the two types of oranges. In

fact, Clark's team found that organic oranges cost an average of

twice as much.

 

Clark says these issues are important because consumers have a right

to know the real nutritional content of organic produce, and hard

numbers such as the vitamin C content can validate the claims of the

burgeoning organic industry. On the other hand, farmers considering a

change from conventional to organic farming methods need to know what

consumers expect, and what they are willing to pay for it.

 

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