Can You Really Cut Down Risk of Cancer By Eating Organic Food?

Go organic now. A new study points to lower risk of cancer in those who mostly eat organic food.

Go organic! Now a study says it cuts down risk of cancer

(Photo: iStockphoto)

Go organic, now! A new study supports the claim that eating clean, organically grown pesticide free food cuts down your risk of getting cancer. According to a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine, a respected medical journal, those who eat mostly organic food have a 25 % lesser chance of getting cancer, specifically non-hodgkin lymphoma and post menopausal breast cancer.

The study is significant for a country like India where organically grown food is slowly making a comeback after years of damage resulting from over use of pesticides sparked by the Green Revolution. It is also significant considering the massive increase if lifestyle linked cancers.

Lead by a French institute, the team studied nearly 70,000 French adults over 4.5 years. They were monitored based on how often they ate 16 organic products including fruits, vegetables, meat and fish etc.

Researchers pin point specifically pesticides that may have carcinogenic properties, like glyphosate, malathion and diazinon. Glyphosate is also listed by the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer as a probable human carcinogen.

The authors say, although organic foods are less likely to contain pesticide residues than conventional foods, few studies have examined the association of organic food consumption with cancer risk.

The Pesticide Link

Farmers and agri scientists have long warned about the impact pesticide leaves on the land. In fact most organic farmers admit that what they grow in India is at best natural farming, because it takes decades of responsible farming for pesticide residue to completely vanish from the soil.

Several studies have pointed to an increase of cancer incidence in Punjab to the state’s rampant use of pesticides, specifically in the Malwa region.

Recently, Sikkim became the first state in India to go completely organic. According to a recent study by ASSOCHAM, organic market for packaged goods is growing at nearly 17 % and will cross Rs 871 million by 2021.