‘Organic’. What comes in your mind when you hear it? You might seen this word when you go through the shelves of your local groceries store. Perhaps, you might seen a restaurant that provide organic food. Lately, eating organic foods has become popular among them who likes healthy lifestyle. They will choose organics vegetables and fruits when they are purchasing some foods in the groceries store.
Some of them literally choose organics for all their daily needs. Nowadays, people believed that foods can influenced their health so, some of them choosing a diet program to their lifestyle. To maintain their healthy lifestyle, recently people choosing to eat organics food. Also read: benefits of healthy eating.
What makes it different from the regular food which is not given the label “organic”? Organic food especially fruits and vegetables being produced without the use of any harmful chemical, fertilizers, or pesticides. They usually using earth-friendly method of farming and producing food. Which means, that these foods such as fruits and vegetables never been sprayed by harmful chemicals to avoid some insects when they grow. Using this method will effect the results of the plants that they grow and not damaging the environment where the plants grow.
Other than just fruits and vegetables nowadays, there are grains, dairy products, and meat that given the label ‘organic’. Meanwhile, the fruits and vegetables that non-organic, using those chemical that can be harmful for our health when the farmer grow them. Which is why lately people choosing the organic one rather than the non-organic.
In fact, not just fruits, vegetables, grains, dairy products, and meat which are organic. There are organic convenience food, like organic hamburgers, organic ice cream. There are even organic tobacco. Organic convenience foods are usually made without food additives such as MSG (Monosodium glutamate), food coloring chemical, and preservatives. Those chemical can be very harmful to our health if used in large amount or excessively. Also read: health risks of artificial sweetener.
Science-Backed Health Benefits of Eating Organic
This is also become one of the reason why people start eating organic foods. Some of organic foods maybe not taste as good as food with some food additives. But, few restaurants now can modify the food so it will tastes better which of course not using the food additives to make it tastes better.
Here are some of the benefits eating organics that has been proven:
- Free from harmful chemical
As we know that fruits and vegetables that given the label organic because of the method of farming and producing food are eco-friendly. It means they didn’t use pesticides. They are called ‘Organic’ because it doesn’t contained any heavy metal chemical caused by the residue from the pesticides that can be harmful or dangerous for our health. Also read: Health Benefits of Organic Tempeh
Those dangerous chemical as some experts say can cause a serious major damage if we consumed it. Even, it can causes a serious disease which the symptoms may not appear as soon after you eat the food but can be a long terms periode of time.
- Antioxidants
Here’s the science-backed health benefits of eating organic. According to the Journal about Agricultural and Food Chemistry, some of the organic fruits and vegetables carry more antioxidants than the non-organic fruits and vegetables. Which means good for our metabolism system inside the body. Having enough amount antioxidant in our body can prevent cancer, tumor, dementia and more disease. Also read: Health benefits of Chinese 5 spice
- Fats
In some cases, organic foods don’t contain too much level of fats. This is a good thing because it can prevent obesity, and heart disease caused by the large amount of fats inside the body. Dairy products such as milk, usually have the level of fats quite high and this matter to some people whom in a strict diet program. That’s why they rather choose the organic one so they can reduce the fats level that enter into their body.
- Free food preservatives
As described above, lately there are organic convenience foods such as, organic hamburgers. Few restaurants claimed to just sell organic foods will provide foods that only use organic ingredients and not using some food preservatives.
They will choose a conventional technique to make the food durable for some time. When they need to give colors to the foods, for aesthetics reasons, they will use from fruits or some vegetables that can give color to the foods which also using the organic one rather than using food dyes from chemical ingredients. For the example there are fruits and vegetables that already have a color and can be used as a food coloring. Also read: Health Benefits of Blue and Purple Fruits and Vegetables.
- Free antibiotics and synthetic hormones
There are many science-backed health benefits of eating organic. Due to the technology advances, many researchers try to produce crops and livestocks which have great quality in large quantities. But, to achieve it they will use several techniques that sometimes require chemical material. Antibiotics will be given to the livestocks when they get sick or to prevent them from illness. In the other hand, synthetic hormones is needed to make the livestocks have good quality in terms of size and heredity. Also read: Health Benefits of Indonesian Food that Rich in Carbs and Protein.
In fact, sometimes they use the synthetic hormones so the livestocks will gain weight faster. For example, they use synthetic hormones to a cow so that it gain weight faster than the usual and can produce more milk. The drugs that used have some residue that if we consume it, can be dangerous for our health.
The conclusion is organic foods are really good for our health and helps to prevent us from infected by dangerous illness. However, this doesn’t mean that the non-organic foods will always have a harmful effect to our health. Some of organic foods also can have negative effects to our health.
Therefore whatever we choose, organic or the non-organic foods, we still have to be aware to what goes in to our body so it wouldn’t endanger to our health. For some advice, if you choose to eating organics, you might want to prepare enough money because some of the organic products are costs more expensive than the non-organic.