Thursday, January 26, 2006

A vegetable is just a vegetable.

A lot of people think that biological/organic vegetables are healthier then normal vegetables, but that’s not accurate. The Dutch Consumers' Association did some research and as it turns out normal grown vegetables are just as healthy.

The Association compared fifteen different organic vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes and lettuce with their regular counterpart. They tested the levels of vitamin C, iron, calcium, fibres and anti-oxidants. Of course there is more iron in one vegetable and more fibres in the other but overall there is no difference between organically grown vegetables and its regular counterpart, so spinach is just spinach! However there is one difference: the levels of used pesticides. Duh… Consumers' Association! I always thought that people ate organic produce because they don’t want to absorb all those pesticides :)

7 comments:

wanderingthinker said...

It was a study by a dutch consumer's association, you said. Could one think, only for a short moment, that hmmm there may be some interests to state the facts in that way... ;-).

However, according to my wife, who's a nutritional scientist, this result is no wonder, and can be explained biochemical. But there are other reasons to prefer organic grown vegetables, than only the concentration of nutrients:

1.) They taste better (very important for the gourmet I am)

2.) The amount of pesticides in and around the vegetable is less; this is important from an ecological standpoint

3.) It supports small producer, because it is very challenging to produce organic food with industrial processes on a large scale; this is good for the employment rate and the diversity of products

Besides, it would have been more interesting, to compare the nutritional facts between "normal" processed and distributed vegetables and frozen vegetables. That would have shown, that the concentration of nutritients in the frozen products is significantly higher than in the "normal" products.

b o o said...

maybe they just left out the pesticides in the listing.

so.... is boo vegetable, protein or mineral?

Dakota said...

I’m no nutritional scientist, Wanderingthinker but I was not surprised by the result of the research. I thought it was just a silly study, because they could already have figured the whole thing out without expensive testing.

boo you are vegetable, protein and mineral and……….. sooooo much more :)

Always wait untill the last sentences, Stu :)You never know how I’m going to end a post :Þ
And with interesting creatures you mean slugs, snails and caterpillars etc.? Yuk!
My Mum always says: Well, we don’t have to go to the butcher; we already got free meat with the vegetables :)

Phil said...

Pesticides are an important part of a nutritious breakfast!They're Grrrrreat!
You don't want bugs eating you when you're dead...

Dakota said...

Lol Phil, but there won’t be much left to be eaten by bugs when I’m gone. I’ll chose to go up in flames!

Phil said...

Dakota, I have it figured out alrady. My ashes spread out on my kayak lake.

Dakota said...

That’s a great idea Phil and a fantastic place to become dust in the wind…..all we are is dust in the wind :)