Organic food is grown in such a way that it minimizes potentially harmful additives and ingredients, and to a certain extent maximizes nutrition. For a number of reasons organic food is better for our health than its conventional counterpart. To fully understand organic food, it’s necessary to compare it with conventional food production.

What is conventional food?
Conventional food is the kind of food that you’d find in a typical grocery store. Whether consumed by itself as produce, fed to food animals, or used as ingredients in other products, conventional food is that which is grown to maximize profit, with no consideration for health. Conventional farming methods include growing in depleted soil and using synthetic fertilizers, toxic pesticides, and genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Depleted soil and fertilizers
If crops aren’t rotated – planting different kinds of crops on the same soil every year so different nutrients are needed from and returned to the soil – the soil becomes depleted of nutrients, and crops aren’t usually rotated on commercial farms for economic reasons. To keep this soil up to minimal plant-producing conditions, chemical fertilizer is used. Most commercial fertilizer contains only nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, called NPK from their chemical symbols, which will allow plants to grow and provide their fruits, seeds, and vegetables.

But plants actually need more for optimal health, from trace minerals to organic matter. These other nutrients, by increasing the plant’s health, can help it ward off pests and plant diseases. Organic foods are healthier and can usually take care of pests without chemical help. A plant on NPK fertilizer is outwardly fat and green and healthy-looking, and can be compared to someone on a junk-food diet who is more or less fat and outwardly healthy-looking but may well have a lot of underlying disease conditions.

We are what we eat…and, in turn, the plants we eat are what they eat. Plants can’t contain more nutrients than they can take up from the soil. If we eat plant foods grown only with NPK – or, for that matter, eat animals fed on such plants and their grains almost exclusively – it’s clear that we won’t get all the nutrients we need.

GMOs
Genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, have been in the news and on the ballot lately. But what are they? Genes from some plants and animals are inserted into the cells of other plants to provide characteristics that are beneficial to the seed-distributing companies, but not necessarily beneficial to us. In fact, the harm that can potentially be caused by GMOs may not be known for decades.

GMOs aren’t legally required to be listed on the food label, so it can be difficult to make an informed choice. But some manufacturers of healthier foods have made it a point to not use GMOs and to let this be known on the product label. Also, organic food, by legal definition, can’t contain GMOs.

Pesticides
Pesticides are used to kill animal pests of various kinds, but pesticides can also cause us harm. In fact, the only reason that pesticides don’t kill us right away as they do bugs is that we have fat in our bodies so the chemicals can be stored. But these chemicals can be released slowly into your body and do their damage over time.

So what do organic plants do about pests instead? Plants produce phytochemicals (phyto means “plant”) such as carotenoids and polyphenols to protect them against plant pests and diseases, and plants that have to defend themselves against pests without the aid of pesticides produce more of these phytochemicals. Many of these have powerful antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and other beneficial effects in people.

What organic is…and isn’t
The legal definition of organic is mostly negative – it states what can’t be included or used, but not how things must be grown. Organic produce is that which contains no chemical fertilizers, no pesticides, and no GMOs. In order for these things to be possible in the first place, the soil, as discussed, needs to be healthier than that for conventional produce. And this healthier soil leads to healthier plants and thus healthier people who eat the plants.

In order for meat, eggs, and dairy to be considered organic, the animals need to be fed only organic food and given no hormones, routine antibiotics, or pesticides.

But organic doesn’t mandate such beneficial things as compost or pest-controlling ladybugs, and is essentially a list of minimal requirements. Despite organic’s crunchy-granola reputation, organic also doesn’t mean that the food is locally grown, sustainably harvested, or that the workers were paid fairly.

Organic and conventional – a continuum rather than two absolutes
A lot of people think there are only two kinds of food, organic and conventional. Foods actually exist on a continuum of sorts, with conventional at the least healthful and most harmful end. Organic foods are far better, but not all organic foods are created equal. To complicate matters, there’s a lot of food that’s essentially organic but isn’t labeled as such.

It’s expensive and difficult to get the organic certification, and a lot of small farms can’t afford this or don’t bother. Such food is often sold at farmers’ markets. Often called unsprayed or transitional, it’s essentially organic but sometimes even better.

The very best food is usually that grown by the consumer using organic principles. While commercial organic farms follow the minimal letter of the law to be considered organic while focusing on profit, the home grower isn’t worried about profit and can thus take extra care in their growing. The healthiest produce is often from a home garden that is grown using crop rotation principles, and the soil is enriched with years of compost and crawling with earthworms.

Sneaky labeling
As consumers become more health-conscious, companies that grow, produce, sell, and label products do what they can to lure these consumers.

“Natural” is a word that is used a lot, but organic and natural aren’t the same thing. Organic food is grown according to legally defined standards, while natural is simply a marketing term that means almost nothing.

Look for labeling that says Organic or 100% Organic. Some labels say “contains organic ingredients,” but this could mean that only two of twenty listed ingredients are organic.

But organic food is so expensive!
Well, yes, organic food can be pretty pricey. But let’s look at what you’re getting for that money. It has been found that conventional produce contains more water than organic produce, so although organic produce is more expensive per pound, it might well be the same price as conventional per pound of food value. The lower water content and higher amounts of trace minerals and phytochemicals account for organic foods’ superior flavor and superior nutrition.

If you need to watch your food budget and can’t afford to buy everything organic, focus on certain foods. The foods where organic vs. conventional makes the most difference is in the produce that doesn’t have thick skins that can be peeled off. Greens and salad vegetables should be organic whenever possible.

Also, there are other ways to measure costs. Health care is expensive, and any measures that can increase health – and eating organic foods whenever possible is in this category – can save you money in the long run.