Organically-fed rats in better health

February 19, 2005

Organic rats in rude good health

David Adam, science correspondent

Saturday February 19, 2005

The Guardian

Organic food can help you sleep, keep you slim and boost your immune system

- if you are a rat.

Scientists at the Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences experimented

with 36 rats, feeding one group organic food, another group food grown

conventionally with high levels of fertiliser and some pesticide, and a

third group minimally fertilised food. They say the rats fed organic food

were measurably healthier, in that they slept better, had stronger immune

systems and were less obese.

Dr Kirsten Brandt of Newcastle University's school of agriculture, who

helped to design the study, said: " This study doesn't prove anything about

which food is better than the other, but it does show that it can make a

difference. "

The results have been submitted to a scientific journal but have not yet

been published. They were released yesterday by the Danish Research Centre

for Organic Farming, which funded the study. It said: " In all cases where

differences were observed there was a beneficial effect of the organically

grown diet. This indicates a positive effect of organically grown foods as

compared to conventionally grown food. "

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