Obesity: Blame organic food?

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(CBS) Can organic food make you fat? It's a question some people are asking, in light of a new study showing that consumers often assume - incorrectly - that organic fare contains fewer calories than conventionally produced versions of the same foods.

In the study, 144 people at a shopping mall were asked to compare what they thought were "regular" and organic versions of chocolate cookies, plain yogurt, and potato chips, according to a statement released by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB). In fact, all of the foods were organic - only the labels were different. Using a nine-point scale, the shoppers rated each food on 10 different attributes, including how it tasted and how much fat and how many calories it contained.

The foods labeled "organic" were perceived to lower in calories and higher in fiber and overall more nutritious. That raises at least the possibility that people who seek out foods bearing the "organic" seal may be eating more than they would if they bought "regular" versions of the same foods. More research will be needed to confirm that hypothesis.

The study may reflect the "halo effect." That's the term psychologists use for the phenomenon in which how we perceive a particular trait of a person influences our perceptions of other traits of the same individual, according to the statement. For example, people are sometimes assumed to be intelligent just because they are good-looking.

This isn't the first study to show that the halo effect can apply to food as well as to people. Previous research showed that people tend to consume more calories at fast-food restaurants that claim to serve healthy fare than at typical burger-and-fry joints.

The study, conducted by Wan-chen Lee, a graduate student at Cornell University, was scheduled to be presented on April 10 at an FASEB conference in Washington, D.C.

[Nate650]

This reminds me of the flawed decades-old low-fat diet in which people scarf down anything that has "low-fat" on the label, yet we became fatter than ever. As foodandart already mentioned, organic food can still be a processed food. Having the "USDA Organic" seal on a food doesn't necessarily mean it's healthy, though it does mean that it's at least healthier than its non-organic counterpart.

[LyraCoraline]

I really, truly despise it when journalists (or editors) deliberately choose headlines that misrepresent the facts of the story. If people are too stupid to read nutrition labels, then they're going to be overweight no matter what they eat.

For the record, though, I was at my healthy weight, then gained about 15 pounds, and the way I've lost 10 pounds of that so far is by switching almost exclusively to organic food and reading the labels on any products I buy. I look and feel much healthier than I did before. Writing a headline that says "blame organic food?" is ridiculous, misleading, and a misrepresentation of what you write in your article.

[foodandart]

Even if a processed food is labeled as 'organic'.. it is STILL a PROCESSED food.

It's NOT the product.. it is the PROCESS that is the problem.

Eat only FRESH, real food - fruits, vegetables and (in small amounts if you like it) meat.

It doesn't HAVE to be organic, but it should come from as close to where you live as possible.

If everyone tries to stick to this at least, you help your *local* economy, which works to your benefit on taxes (and that never hurts) and it's also less distance food gets shipped (gas/diesel IS going to be expensive this summer) and is fresher.

Only bonuses here and let's not even get into how better you'll feel.

Peace.

[OrganicTrade]

There are definite factors that have been linked to obesity, including a sedentary lifestyle, overconsumption of calories, and economic-driven factors. But, there is no proven correlation between the growth of Americans' waistlines and the growth in U.S. organic sales.

It is important to recognize that there are real differences between organic packaged foods and their non-organic counterparts. By law, organic packaged foods must be made without the use of artificial colors, flavors and preservatives. This is particularly important given recent research illustrating the link between exposure synthetic food dyes and increased incidents of health problems, including ADHD (http://www.organicitsworthit.org/quick/chemical-additives).
Organic packaged foods also reflect the true cost of the food production. By contrast, there are hidden costs generated through the production of non-organic products for which everyone pays indirectly.

As Dr. Sandra Steingraber has written (http://www.organicitsworthit.org/make/economic-sense-organic-food), "Among the costs not incorporated into the bar codes that beep their way through the check-out lane: fertilizer-contaminated groundwater, insecticide-contaminated fish, herbicide-contaminated rain, dead honeybees, poisoned wildlife, deformed frogs, eroded soil, toxic algal blooms, ozone depletion, and antibiotic resistance. These are what economists call "externalities"-the costs of an activity that are borne by others. The bad thing about externalities is that they lead to market outcomes that are costly to society even though privately profitable."

At the same time, organic packaged products support a system of sustainable agricultural management that promotes soil health and fertility through the use of such methods as crop rotation and cover cropping, which nourish plants, foster species diversity, help combat climate change, prevent damage to valuable water resources, and protect farmers and farmers' families from exposure to harmful chemicals.

It is also worth noting that mounting evidence (http://www.organicitsworthit.org/organic-food-article/nutritional-considerations) indicates that organically grown fruits, vegetables and grains may offer more of some nutrients, including vitamin C, iron, magnesium and phosphorus, than their counterparts grown using synthetic pesticides and fertilizers.

Given these and the many other benefits organic products have to offer, it is clear that organic is worth it for our health as well as the health of our planet.