Healing Foods
A French study, published
late last year in the journal
JAMA Internal Medicine,
has found that people
who eat a mostly organic
diet reduce their overall
cancer risk by 25 percent.
The researchers followed
almost 70,000 people
for an average of 4½ years.
In their analysis, they
accounted for many can-
cer risk factors, such
as age, gender, lifestyle,
diet, and education.
Although there was an
overall reduction in cancer
risk for those eating a
mostly organic diet, the
reduced risk was even
greater for two forms of
the disease: lymphoma
(a 76 percent reduced
risk) and postmenopausal
breast cancer (a 34 percent
reduced risk).
“The most surprising
finding was the extent
of the reduction,
which is far from the
usual risk observed
for nutritional factors,”
says Julia Baudry of
the Centre of Research
in Epidemiology and
Statistics at the Sorbonne
in Paris and lead
author of the study.One of the require-
ments for a food to be
labeled organic in
Europe and the U.S. is
that it must be produced
without the use of
most synthetic pest-
icides. About 40
pesticides currently
approved by the Envi-
ronmental Protection
Agency for use in con-
ventional (nonorganic)
food production are
classified as possible or
probable carcinogens by
the International Agency
for Research on Cancer.
“There are lots of
benefits to eating organic
foods, and limiting
exposure to pesticides is
one of the biggest,” says
Charlotte Vallaeys, a
senior policy analyst and
sustainability expert in the
food safety and testing
department at Consumer
Reports. “This study adds
to the current body of
evidence supporting the
health benefits of eat-
ing more organic foods.”
Previous research
has found a link between
eating more organic
food and a reduced
risk of non-Hodgkin’slymphoma but not breast
cancer. "One hypothesis
explaining the inverse
association between
organic food intake and
breast cancer [in the
current study] may be
the endocrine [hormone]
disrupting effects of some
pesticides,” Baudry says.MORE RESEARCH NEEDED
There are several
limitations to this study,
which the researchers
acknowledge. Though
the number of people
involved in the study was
large, the group consists of
volunteers who are mostly
female, well-educated, and
very health-conscious. In
addition, study subjects
were 44 years old on
average at the start of the
study and were followed
for only 4½ years.
“This is a very difficult
area to study, and it’s very
hard to accurately assess
habitual consumption of
organic food,” says Frank B.
Hu, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the
department of nutrition at
Harvard T.H. Chan School
of Public Health. “Overall,
these are interesting
results, but they are very
preliminary. And it would
be premature to make
organic food consumption
recommendations based
just on this study.”
“Consumer Reports
recommends opting for
organic foods whenever
possible, in part because
they are produced without
most synthetic pesticides,”
Vallaeys says. In a 2015
analysis of government
data on pesticide residues,
CR’s experts found that
conventional carrots,
cranberries, green beans,
hot peppers, nectarines,
and peaches pose a higher
risk from pesticides than
other fruits and vegetables.10 GUIDE TO WELLNESS CR.ORG
“The diet resolved refluxin all 43 women who had it
by week nine or 10, and it
wasn’t just because of the
weight loss,” says Heidi Sil-
ver, R.D., Ph.D., a research
associate professor of
medicine at the Vanderbilt
University Medical Center in
Nashville, Tenn., and one of
the study’s authors. In par-
ticular, the study found that
every additional teaspoon of
sugars increased the odds
of having GERD by 13 percent.
Feed a Cold
“Your body needs anti-
oxidants during a cold, so
eating more fruits and veg-
etables is key to feeling your
best,” Foroutan says.
What about chicken soup?The best-known research,
from Nebraska pulmonolo-
gist Stephen Rennard, M.D.,
found that chicken-vegetable
soup inhibited the move-
ment of white blood cells
that trigger cold symptoms,
such as a stuffy nose. “When
your mucous membranes
are inflamed, your nose can
get crusty and dry,” says
infectious-disease expert
William Schaffner, M.D.,
professor of preventive
medicine at Vanderbilt Uni-
versity School of Medicine.
Soup helps loosen mucus
so that you can expel it. But
you may want to avoid sug-
ars. “There’s some research
showing sugar weakens the
activity of certain [virus-
fighting] white blood cells,”
Foroutan says.
Can Eating Organic
Prevent Cancer?
A recent study offers food for thought
PHOTO:
LEVI
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ROW
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