Eliminate the Doctor

Eliminate the Doctor with Healthy Vegetables

By Barbara Fix, Researcher & Writer for Lipscomb Enterprises Inc.

There has been a lot of talk about the health benefits of growing our own organic vegetables. It makes sense that just-picked vegetables are fresher, and therefore healthier than produce that was picked days before we purchase them at the grocers. It is also a given that canned vegetables do not contain the vitamins, minerals and nutrients that fresh, organic garden vegetables have. There’s also the benefit of knowing we aren’t eating GOM (genetically modified organisms) foods found in most corn, soy and sugar beets when we grow our own vegetables with heirloom seed. All this, and we haven’t even touched upon the carcinogens found in the herbicides, pesticides, and insecticides that all but organic growers saturate their crops (our food) with. But what, exactly, is the difference in the nutritional benefits between eating organically grown foods and commercially grown that’ll keep the doctor away?

A study conducted by the Journal of Applied Nutrition done in 1993 concluded there was a big difference with regards to nutritional value when comparing organically grown with conventionally grown vegetables. Over a two-year period they studied potatoes, pears, wheat and sweet corn, both organic and conventionally grown that was purchased in the Chicago area and analyzed them for mineral content.

Their findings were that organically grown vegetables were 63% higher in calcium, 73% higher in iron, 118% higher in magnesium, 178% higher in molybdenum, 91% higher in phosphorus, 125% higher in potassium, and 60% higher in zinc than were their commercially grown counterparts. Also noteworthy, the organic vegetables were 29% lower in mercury.

Another source, this time published by Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry stated that organically grown corn, strawberries and Marion berries have much higher levels of cancer-fighting antioxidants than did conventionally grown vegetables.

Finally, a review of 41 studies comparing the nutritional value of organically and conventionally grown foods found that organically grown fruits, vegetables, and grains provided 27% more Vitamin C, 21,2% more iron, 29.3 % more magnesium and 13.6% more phosphorus.