Here’s What Happens When You Eat a 100% Organic Diet

Contributing Writer for Wake Up World

No doubt about it, we’re living in an increasingly toxic world. From insecticides, fungicides, and herbicides to pollution from fossil fuels and nuclear plants, it’s becoming near impossible to dodge the toxic assault. The poisons are not only on agricultural fields, but also in our oceans, homes, schools, parks, forests, roads and playgrounds.

Even so, we can reduce exposure by paying attention to the food we eat and the water we drink. A perfect example of this is a family in Sweden who decided to take a 21-day all-organic diet challenge. The results may surprise you.

The modern era of cancer, ADHD and endocrine disruption

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With the release of Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring in 1962, the general public was made aware of the damaging effects of pesticides on human and environmental health.

Over fifty years later, we may not be in active contact with DDT as much as in Carson’s time, but exposure to equally harmful pesticides has increased exponentially.

According to Toxics Action Center:

“Chronic health effects may occur years after even minimal exposure to pesticides in the environment, or result from the pesticide residues which we ingest through our food and water. A July 2007 study conducted by researchers at the Public Health Institute, the California Department of Health Services, and the UC Berkeley School of Public Health found a sixfold increase in risk factor for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) for children of women who were exposed to organochlorine pesticides.”

Moreover, scientists from the University of Montreal and Harvard University found that ingestion of pesticide residues on produce may double a child’s risk of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a syndrome that causes disruptive inattention, abnormally active behavior and impulsivity.

And studies by the National Cancer Institute discovered that American farmers, who are known for their liberal use of agricultural pesticides, have a high incidence of Hodgkins disease, non-Hodgkins lymphoma, leukemia, as well as other types of cancer.

Monsanto’s widely used Roundup herbicide has been linked to a global epidemic of kidney disease.

Nowhere to hide

Pesticides are now found everywhere, from our food and soil, to water and even human breast milk. The toxins are associated with a spectrum of health disorders, including:

Headaches
Nausea
Cancer
Reproductive harm
Developmental delays
Endocrine disruption
Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS)
Birth defects
Impaired brain development

Environmental consequences

Not only do pesticides wreak havoc on human health, they also destroy the environment. The toxins damage agricultural land by harming beneficial insects, soil microorganisms and worms — all of which contribute to healthy soil and naturally limit detrimental pests. Plant root and immune systems are also negatively impacted by pesticides, as are concentrations of important nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous.

Here's What Happens When You Eat a 100 Percent Organic Diet - Pesticides and Herbicides

A 20-year National Institute of Health study found a link between depression and conventional farming chemicals.

A personal solution to the issue of pesticides

Despite what our governmental regulatory agencies would have us believe, chemical pesticides simply are not safe — at any level. Until we can establish sustainable, organic farming practices and pest control across the board, it’s up to us to limit exposure to the toxins as best we can. An excellent place to begin is with a completely organic diet. A Swedish family has done just that by participating in a three-week trial of switching from conventional food to fully organic.

The Palmbergs normally subscribe to a non-organic diet, simply because they feel organic food is much too expensive. But when the Swedish grocery chain Coop decided to enlist a family into The Organic Effect experiment, they decided to give it a try.

For the first week, the family ate their standard non-organic meals, and provided urine samples each day to establish a baseline of toxicity. Independent lab test performed by the Swedish Environmental Research Institute found that eight of the chosen 12 pesticides were in their systems. This included a number of insecticides, fungicides and plant growth regulators.

Next, the Palmbergs adopted a 100% organic diet for the remaining two weeks. Urine samples were again taken daily. Incredibly — within just a few days — almost all the pesticides were completely gone from their systems.

Here's What Happens When You Eat 100 Percent Organic

In an increasingly toxic world, eating genuine organic food comes with some important health benefits.

But it isn’t just Coop that’s interested in the effects of an organic diet, research published in Environmental Research found that a single week of eating mostly organic food reduced pesticide levels by nearly 90% in Australian adults. Likewise, this study study evaluated 4,466 participants and had similar findings.

All in all, it pays to embrace a 100% organic diet in terms of the environment and our health. As Mark DeNicola stresses in the article, This Is What Happens To Your Body When You Switch To Organic Food:

“Living in a world dominated by affordability and convenience, far too many of us are casting aside what we know to be beneficial for our health. This is not only helping to create the first generation of children who will not outlive their parents, but is also keeping organic produce at its higher price point.

“The more we collectively demand to eat organic, the closer we come to a world where organically grown produce once again becomes the norm and the standard. In that world, more attention would be placed on finding ways to grow and produce organics more efficiently, hopefully making it more affordable in the process.”