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Organic Insider

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Another Reason to Eat Organic — Decrease Pesticide Exposure by Up to 95%

If you read in the media or someone tries to convince you that organic doesn’t matter, do not believe them.

It does.

And it could potentially save your life.

In a just-released, peer-reviewed study, four families across the country were fed both an organic and non-organic diet, and the ones who ate all organic saw their pesticide load drop by as much as 95%!

THE STUDY

Led by researchers at the University of California at Berkeley, four families from cities around the U.S. — Atlanta, Baltimore, Oakland and Minneapolis — were fed both an organic and non-organic diet, each for six days.

What the results showed were that an organic diet rapidly and dramatically reduced exposure to pesticides in just one week. Levels of all detected chemicals dropped an average of 60.5% with a range of 37% to 95%, depending on the compound.

There were several differences between this study and similar studies that were done before:

1) Greater rigor in the administration of the organic diet versus the ones in other studies. Research assistants shopped for the families, and certified chefs prepared dinners during the organic phase to guarantee 100% organic — down to the oils, spices, beverages, etc.

Prior studies only substituted some categories of food such as fruits, breads, cereals, vegetables, dairy, eggs, juices, and snack foods.

2) This was also the first organic diet intervention study to monitor the impact of an organic diet among both children and adults. Given their different metabolisms and dietary patterns, this provides a useful comparison.

3) This study addressed an important data gap around exposure to neonicotinoids and the potential of an organic diet to reduce these exposures.

What are neonicotinoids? They are now the most widely used insecticides in the world and are among the most commonly detected pesticide residues in baby foods. Neonicotinoids are also associated with endocrine disruption and changes in behavior and attention, including an association with autism.

Additionally, most people probably recognize neonicotinoids as the main reason for Colony Collapse Disorder.

WHAT TO DO

What this study clearly indicates is that eating organic does matter, and people can incorporate the results of this study into their lives in two different ways.

First, you should feed your family as much organic as possible. Be sure to read my post Should you ALWAYS Eat Organic? which talks about the priorities of eating organic.

Two, we very much need your support on the policy level in Washington, D.C., and our elected officials must hear from us.

As someone who has written about the organic food industry for more than a decade, I am sad to report that our federal government is still pushing a GMO, industrial food agenda while trying to marginalize organic as much as it can.

In fact, there are some politicians who want to wipe organic completely off of the map and are trying to water down organic rules as quickly as possible. (This is one of the key topics that I write about in Organic Insider.)

Please call your members of Congress and ask them to support organic agriculture. You can also sign Friends of the Earth’s e-petition HERE.

The truth is that the harmful pesticides that they spray on much of the food supply are poisonous and have absolutely no business being on our dinner plates or in our bodies.

When it comes to protecting your health, organic is the only choice.

A message from Tradin Organic

How Tradin Organic is Helping Coconut Farmers in The Philippines

For more than a decade, Tradin Organic has been working with local partners in The Philippines to bring a diversified range of organic products to the market, such as coconut oil, tropical fruits and even cocoa.

The company is helping to support local farmers by assisting them with technical support and organic certification, in addition to paying Fairtrade premium on top of the organic premium.

Learn more.

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Organic Insider

Must-Read

The EPA Continues to Ignore the Danger of Atrazine, Which is Ruining Our Water Supply and Putting Our Health in Jeopardy

One of the reasons that many of us purchase organic is because we don’t want to put food into our bodies that contains synthetic chemicals.

Yet even though we may not eat conventionally-grown food ourselves, we still need to be very aware (and concerned) about what is going on in the non-organic world. Why?

Because the toxic chemicals that are sprayed on conventionally-grown food end up in the water supply.

And the EPA is not doing its job when it comes to protecting the integrity of our water.

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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.

Living Maxwell

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Why Conventional Spinach is NOT a Smart Choice

The next time some expert tells you that the most important thing to do for your health is to consume large amounts of fruits and vegetables, regardless of whether they are organic or not, you may want to educate this person about the latest scientific research and government data.

As I wrote about the other day, a study out of Harvard found that women undergoing infertility treatment in the U.S. — and who were also consuming fruits and vegetables with high amounts of pesticide residue — were associated with a lower chance of pregnancy and a higher risk of pregnancy loss.

Men are equally as impacted by the harmful effects of pesticides.

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Living Maxwell

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What You Can’t See May Be Greatly Impacting Your Family’s Health

(This is a sponsored post from my partners at Intellipure. I have been using the company’s air filtration machines for well over a decade — many years before I started Living Maxwell.)

After having eaten close to 100% organic since 2001, I have come to realize one thing — food is only one part of the equation.

While I maintain that it is still a very important piece of the puzzle, it is certainly not the only one when it comes to good health. I would put your emotional well-being, the quality of water that you drink, the EMFs that you are exposed to and the air that you breathe all in the same conversation when it comes to optimizing personal wellness.

Yet, arguably, clean air may be the most important thing to address when it comes to your health. Why?

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