How Our Food System Affects Personal Health

While there are many reasons to eat food that has been sustainably produced, one important reason is for your own personal health. What we eat makes a difference, whether in how our diet makes us feel or how it affects our short or long term health. Here, we answer your most pressing questions.

Is organic food better for me?

Organic produce is grown without chemical pesticides. When you eat organic food, you are not consuming chemical pesticides and therefore you carry less (or no) chemical residue in your body.¹ While the amount of pesticide residues on (and in, in some cases) non-organic food is considered “generally regarded as safe” (a.k.a., “GRAS”) by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), some health experts still warn about potential harm from pesticides, especially for babies and children, who carry a large “pesticide load” for their size.² In addition, research has yet to be done on the effects of being exposed multiple times throughout one’s life and possibly carrying within oneself a cocktail of pesticides from various foods.

Do pesticides cause health problems like cancer?

There’s also the matter of the known adverse effects of certain pesticides, including various cancers, neurological effects and reproductive effects, on farmworkers, their children and other community members who live near farms where pesticides are applied. Hawai’i was so concerned about the effects of chlorpyrifos, which has been linked to developmental delays, lower IQ, learning deficits and persistent neurological problems in children ³, that it banned its use throughout the state in 2018. ⁴ California recently introduced a similar bill.

There is some evidence that the commonly used pesticide glyphosate, known commercially as “Roundup,” is a possible carcinogen in people who are exposed to it intensively — such as farm workers and others living near the farms where it is applied. ⁵ At the very least, more studies are needed, since the amount of glyphosate being applied on crops is skyrocketing.

How does eating organic animal products help me?

When it comes to organic animal products, there are benefits. Organic grassfed meat and milk generally have more healthy fats in them, because the animals are raised on pasture (grass). ⁷ Consumers of organic meat and eggs also get products raised without growth hormones, unnecessary antibiotics or other additives. ⁸

Does local, seasonal food taste better?

Anecdotal evidence says that local, fresh food tastes better. One way to verify this is to try it yourself! Check out our Seasonal Food Guide to find out what’s fresh in your neck of the woods.

Keep in mind, though, that there are good reasons to eat local food that go beyond personal health, including supporting local economies and fostering environmental health, since a local food system relies less on fossil fuels for transporting food over long distances. ⁹

Are pastured animal products (like chicken, beef and eggs) better for me? How about grassfed beef? Grassfed dairy products?

It makes sense that what an animal eats directly affects the nutritional profile of its meat, dairy products or eggs. Research suggests that meat raised on pasture (grass) has better fatty acid composition (as in omega 3 fatty acids) and higher levels of antioxidants.¹⁰ Grassfed beef also has less fat than its industrial counterpart, since the animals are not fattened with soy- and corn-based feed.

Pastured eggs are also much more nutritious: they have been shown to have twice as much vitamin E and total omega-3 fatty acids as eggs from commercially-raised hens. ¹¹

Once again, however, the benefits of animals being raised on pasture go well beyond the personal health benefits to the consumer. Pastured animals have a much higher quality of life, and the farming practice is much better for the soil, water and surrounding air – which is, of course, better for you!

Why should I care about antibiotic-free food? Are antibiotics in food bad for me?

Antibiotics are widely used in industrial livestock production, i.e., the raising of cows, pigs and chickens for meat. They’re used to prevent infections, not just treat them, since overcrowded factory farms mean lots of animal waste and opportunities for infections to spread quickly. There is some antibiotic residue in the meat you eat, but it is extremely low ¹², as measured by the US National Residue Program which measures these levels to make sure that the meat is safe to eat.

Are GMO foods bad for me?

There is a lot of buzz about genetically modified foods (GMOs) and their labels (including the recently proposed “Be” label from the USDA, which refers to “Bioengineered”). But why should you look for this label? Why does it matter?

GMO foods have not been studied enough

Whether eating GMO foods is bad for you is not yet known. At this point, there haven’t been enough longitudinal studies (covering a long period of time) on the effects of consumption of GMO foods to know for sure, because these foods haven’t been around for very long. To learn more about the indirect ways in which you might be affected by GMO foods, read on.