Sunday, July 08, 2007

Another well, duh!

A study has found that organic tomatoes are better for you than those hard pink gassed 'tomatoes' you try not to buy in the grocery store. This study took ten years.

Is organic food healthier for you, after all? A 10-year study comparing organic tomatoes with those grown conventionally suggests that it may be. It's the kind of evidence that pro-organic groups have been desperate to dig up, as most studies have suggested otherwise.

According to the new findings, levels of the flavonoids quercetin and kaempferol were found to be on average 79 and 97 per cent higher, respectively, in organic tomatoes. Flavonoids such as these are known antioxidants and have been linked to reduced rates of cardiovascular disease, some forms of cancer and dementia, says Alyson Mitchell, a food chemist who led the research at the University of California, Davis.

I coulda told them that for free....

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Trader Joe's has cheap bananas. $0.19 per each or $0.29 for organic ones.

My wife can't get over the 50% price difference, even when she's buying maybe two bananas. I keep saying it's only 20 cents difference total, but it's hard to make her see this as worth it.

Any suggestions?

Sorghum Crow said...

Organic tomatoes better for you? Impossible. Next they'll tell us that home grown tomatoes taste better. Not that I have to worry here in sub-arctic Vermont. Want some nice root vegetables?

Anonymous said...

Leaving the nutritional considerations aside for a moment, wouldn't the reduction of ingesting the poisons of pesticides be a health benefit?

mapaghimagsik said...

How are you supposed to build up your tolerance to pesticides?

Steve Bates said...

"How are you supposed to build up your tolerance to pesticides?" - mapaghimagsik

mapaghimagsik - ROTFL! I believe I've been doing that for fifty-odd years (some of which have been odd indeed).

I buy organic tomatoes when I'm able. When they're not available, I try to buy locally grown tomatoes. (It is extremely rare that I can find organic, locally grown tomatoes w/o making a special trip to a local farmer's market, an adventure which has its own pitfalls.)

As to cost, my entire grocery bill is negligible... yes, negligible... compared to my medical insurance bill. Even allowing for Stella's propensity to dine out, that statement is still true. What is wrong with this picture?

ellroon said...

Dee, I don't know... pesticides give food that nice spicy flavor... And for weeks afterwards, mosquitoes that bite you fall dead on the floor.

Mapaghimagsik, one bite at a time...

Steve and whig, good for you on the organic food. I can't get over the price difference. Somehow I keep thinking organic should cost less because of less crap they have to spray.

Sorghum Crow, I love California's year round growing season. An eastcoaster who moved here called it relentless. I think I'd die if I couldn't grow tomatoes and green stuff...

Steve Bates said...

ellroon, in your situation, especially in CA, I'd try to find smaller farmers who sell through local markets, farmers who use best organic growing practices despite not having the bucks to go through the USDA organic certification process (which doesn't mean as much in the Bush era as it once did anyway).

Ask around... the best sources are often found by word-of-mouth. (If I weren't so lazy, I could do this myself, but I live too close to both a Whole Foods and a Central Market, and I really am lazy about it.)

You may very well be able to get the best of all worlds... affordable, locally grown, organic produce. Give it a try. If you need incentive, just think how much better your homegrown "tomatoes and green stuff" are than what you can buy at the grocery store. Organic produce is similar.

I don't know if you regularly read Fallenmonk's blog, but he posts a lot about the tradeoffs individuals face in finding, buying and preparing healthful food. His politics resemble ours as well.

Steve Bates said...

Oh, and ellroon, when you get cranked up creating wonderful recipes involving organically grown foods, I expect you to start a parallel recipe blog. Call it "Cants from the Cookery."

ellroon said...

Cants from the Cookery... sounds like the Herman joke of the wife appearing at the door to tell her husband,"We're eating dinner in the kitchen, your dinner is stuck to the stove."

I've slung the hash for many people over the years. Just recently began watching the Food Network and learning new skills... like how not to burn the food.

Steve Bates said...

Take heart, ellroon. I am nearly 59 years old, and I was into my late forties before I acquired anything resembling a cook's intuition... not to say I am a good cook even now; I'll reserve that description for people like Fallenmonk, who clearly knows what he is doing. But at least I don't burn stuff as often, and omelets come out an acceptable texture. IOW, I have some notion how food interacts with heat, before I put the food in the pan. What a concept! :)

ellroon said...

Food interacts with heat?