Why Organic is the healthiest choice for kids

[Guest guest]

Why Organic is the healthiest choice for kids

 

by Dr. Alan Greene

Clinical Professor at Stanford School of Medicine

Attending Pediatrician at Stanford University’s Children’s Hospital

 

Few deep-seated instincts are stronger than parents’ desire to provide healthy

food for their children. It’s an emotional issue . . . and a confusing one for

many new moms and dads.

 

Organic from the start.

I tell parents it’s important to give their child the healthiest foods possible

right from the start.

 

Like a growing number of other pediatricians, I advocate feeding kids organic

foods whenever possible.. Growing children are developing brain function and

internal organs to last a lifetime, so their food should be the purest and most

nutritious available.

 

Kids need a wider margin of safety.

Because young children are more vulnerable to developmental damage from

pesticide residues on foods, widening the margin of safety for them is

appropriate.

 

Why are children especially vulnerable? Partly, it’s because of their fast

growth and speedy metabolisms, partly because of their smaller size, which means

they eat more fruits and vegetables in relation to their body weight than adults

do.

 

Most tests done by the Environmental Protection Agency to set acceptable risk

levels for pesticide residues were conducted using 154-pound adult men, not

40-pound preschoolers! In 1993, a congressionally mandated study by the National

Academy of Sciences expressed concern that existing methods of risk evaluation

for pesticide exposure were failing children. More recently, the Consumers Union

and the Environmental Working Group released studies confirming that children

are over-exposed even if their exposure is within legal limits. This situation

is changing, but the process is slow, and encumbered in bureaucracy. Our kids

are young now—we can’t wait.

 

Has organic been proved safer?

Some people challenge that organic foods have not been proved healthier than

conventional ones. I believe exactly the opposite to be true. Organic farmers

have grown safe, nutritious food for hundreds of years; conventional farming has

been the norm for a small fraction of that time, and its safety is still in the

experimental stage.

 

Determining the safety of a conventional pesticide may take 30 years or more. We

know now, for example, that some of the older pesticides, such as DDT, caused

serious health problems in children. But this didn’t become evident until 30

years after the substance was banned for environmental reasons. We may not see

the full effects of the new, subtler poisons we’re putting on crops for a long,

long time.

 

Eating organic can help.

One of the ways I empower parents is to give them solid information they can use

to make healthy choices for their children.

 

A recent study conducted by the University of Washington tracked a group of

preschool children—18 with organic diets and 21 with conventional diets—and

analyzed their urine for evidence of exposure to five different kinds of toxic

pesticides. Researchers found that the average total was six to almost nine

times higher for children with conventional diets than for children with organic

diets. They concluded that consuming organic fruits and vegetables can provide a

relatively simple means for parents to reduce their children’s pesticide

exposure. (download full study)

 

What’s the best way to start?

If you can’t go all organic, try starting with foods that will have the greatest

impact. There’s a link to Environmental Working Group’s “A Shopper’s Guide to

Pesticides in Produce” on Earthbound Farm’s website

www.ebfarm.com/news-reference.html.

 

When you choose organic, you’re not only protecting your family’s health, you’re

helping to protect the environment, too. The environment is our groundwater . .

.. it’s our world. Organic is healthy for farmers, healthy for plants, healthy

for animals, and healthy for kids. It’s a legacy we can feel good about leaving

to future generations.

 

 

 

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