Sometimes patients ask me if eating organic food is really worth the extra expense. I believe that it is, but formal research studies on this topic are rarely done; funding for such studies is hard to come by. But I recently came upon an article on the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed website titled “Effect of a 24-week Randomized Trial of an Organic Produce Intervention on Pyrethroid and Organophosphate Pesticide Exposure among Pregnant Women.” The 24-week intervention was also described as “long-term,” which surprised me, but other studies quoted in the discussion section of the article were much shorter.

The researchers found considerably higher concentrations of pyrethroid insecticide markers in the urine of those eating conventional produce than in the urine of those eating organic fruits and vegetables. Since organic food is not supposed to be grown with insecticides, this is predictable. But some of the people who doubted the value of organic foods have told me that they thought organic food was a fraud or that “organic” foods get contaminated by pesticides sprayed on other crops.

This study says to me that eating organic does mean a much lower chemical burden on the body, and I believe that is a very good thing.