Living Maxwell

Better Choices

Another Reason to Eat Organic — Organic Apples Contain More Diverse, Healthier Bacteria than Conventional

An apple a day will keep the doctor away.

Thanks to a new study, that saying has taken on even more meaning, particularly for organic apples.

In a recently published paper in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology, it was found that organic apples contain a more diverse population of beneficial bacteria than conventional apples.

Researchers analyzed the peel, flesh, seeds, and stem of both organically and conventionally grown apples, looking to find how much and what kinds of bacteria were present. While organic and conventional apples contained the same amount of bacteria, there was a big discrepancy in the types of bacteria found.

“Organically managed apples harbor a significantly more diverse, more even and distinct bacterial community compared to conventional ones,” said Professor Gabriele Berg, an author of the research study.

And that diversity could be key to improved health.

Our guts are home to approximately 100 trillion bacteria, and it is widely believed in the medical community that the more numerous and diverse the bacteria in your gut, the stronger your immune system is likely to be.

Healthy, diverse colonies of gut bacteria can help prevent and treat many common diseases, and research on mice has linked improved gut health to protection against some cancers.

Furthermore, many conventionally-grown foods are sprayed with the super-toxic herbicide glyphosate, the primary ingredient in Monsanto’s RoundUp and a chemical that has been found to disrupt the gut bacteria in honey bees. Not surprisingly, the Frontiers in Microbiology paper showed that conventionally-grown apples contained fewer beneficial strains of bacteria than organic.

Given that diversity is key to gut health, this makes organic apples an even more obvious choice for those looking to improve their well-being.

As a bonus, organic apples were found to contain more of the microbe methylobacterium. Why is this significant?

This is the bacteria that is known to enhance the biosynthesis of strawberry flavor compounds. As such, it could also be one of the reasons why organic apples taste better than conventional.

What this all tells us that it is not just the human gut that thrives on the diversity of healthy bacteria — so does soil, the bedrock of our food system.

That means that organic products — like apples — aren’t just potentially healthier for you, they’re better for the environment, too.

A message from E3Live

"My Everyday, Must-Have Green Organic Aquabotanical"

The best testimonial that I can give is that I drink this every single day, as it impacts my mood in an incredibly positive way.

E3Live + BrainON is certified organic, fresh-frozen AFA (Aphanizomenon flos-aquae) with a concentrated, aqueous, organic extract of Phenylethylamine and Phycocyanin.

Learn more.

Go deeper

Living Maxwell

Better Choices

Local vs. Organic: I Choose Organic – Here’s Why

For several years, the local food movement has been gaining some serious momentum. Supermarkets are pushing locally-grown food and restaurants insert “local” into their menus as often as possible.

I have a good friend of mine who proudly and constantly tells me that he is eating local food all of the time. When I hear this, I just kind of shake my head. Why do I have this reaction?

While this issue is very complicated and the circumstances of every single piece food is vastly different, there is a lot more to this than many people realize and “local” isn’t necessarily better.

Yes, local food means that it has traveled a lot less (within 150 miles seems to be the accepted range) than something that has been shipped across the country.

Go deeper

Living Maxwell

Better Choices

Another Reason to Eat Organic — GMOs and Weedkiller Found in Conventional Cereal

If anyone you know is still feeding their children conventional cereal, maybe this piece of news will get them to change their habits.

GMO Free USA, a non-profit that educates consumers and other stakeholders about the potential hazards of GMOs, just published its results of independent lab tests (verified by DNA analysis) done on Kellogg’s Froot Loops cereal.

Here’s what they found:

1) 100% of the corn in the Froot Loops was genetically-modified, containing DNA sequences known to be present in insecticide-producing Bt and Roundup Ready corn. This corn produces insecticides inside of the plant’s cells and cannot be washed off.

Go deeper

Living Maxwell

Better Choices

Another Reason to Eat Organic – Decrease Pesticide Exposure by 90%

Here are a few things that we know.

1) In its pioneering testing several years ago, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) identified up to 493 chemicals in Americans of all ages, including 287 industrial chemical pollutants found in the cord blood of 10 babies born in 2004.

So, from the time we are in the womb of our mother, our body is flooded with synthetic toxins.

2) Even though this EWG data was collected a decade ago, not much has changed since then, in terms of our exposure to chemicals.

Go deeper

Explore Coverage

"My Everyday, Must-Have Green Organic Aquabotanical"

Go deeper

Local vs. Organic: I Choose Organic – Here’s Why

Another Reason to Eat Organic — GMOs and Weedkiller Found in Conventional Cereal

Another Reason to Eat Organic – Decrease Pesticide Exposure by 90%