When it comes to food safety, many people started to look more into the concept of “eating organic.” Now, that might be beneficial for overall health as a new French study concluded that organic foods might lower cancer risks.
But that’s a first since a 2014 British study carried out on about 500,000 women revealed that there is no difference regarding cancer risks between the group who ate non-organic food and that who ate organic foods. However, the French study, published in JAMA, was conducted on only 70,000 French individuals. Nonetheless, the results are impressive, but there might be a need for more studies to confirm that organic foods are indeed beneficial in reducing the risks of developing cancer.
Back to the study now, it focused on pesticides, starting from the premise that organic foods (fruits and vegetables) are presenting lower amounts of pesticides than their non-organic counterparts.
Organic Foods Might Lower Cancer Risks
According to the study’s report, its objective was “to prospectively investigate the association between organic food consumption and the risk of cancer in a large cohort of French adults.” The researchers also highlighted that “although organic foods are less likely to contain pesticide residues than conventional foods, few studies have examined the association of organic food consumption with cancer risk.”
On the downside, the study focused on the responses provided by the participants in a form and not on clinical trials, which might result in biased outcomes, as previous studies proved it. However, statistically, those subjects who consumed more organic foods presented lower cancer risks than those who mostly ate non-organic food which is known to be rich in chemicals from pesticides. As for the latter group, the most common forms of cancer were breast cancer, colorectal cancer, prostate cancer, skin cancer, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
“A higher frequency of organic food consumption was associated with a reduced risk of cancer. If these findings are confirmed, further research is necessary to determine the underlying factors involved in this association,” the researchers concluded in their study’s report. However, additional research might be needed to confirm the results.
Vadim is a passionate writer on various topics but especially on stuff related to health, technology, and science. Therefore, for Great Lakes Ledger, Vadim will cover health and Sci&Tech news.