Organic Food for Kids
How severely do toxins and pesticides affect my child's overall health?
by the Babble Staff
November 30, 2006
Organic Food for Kids
Organic Food for Kids
Even the seemingly healthiest foods may carry chemicals capable of making you sick. Strawberries, apples and cantaloupe are some of the fruits most contaminated by pesticides. Though such fruits may not contain prohibitively high levels of any one toxin, they often contain a variety of chemicals that combine to make a toxic cocktail. Most of us would benefit from an organic diet, but this is especially true for babies and small children. Relative to their size, they eat many times more food than adults do. Their growing organs and fast metabolisms also make them more sensitive to toxins. A study conducted at the University of Washington supports what many have long suspected; children fed conventional diets had significantly higher levels of toxins from pesticides in their systems than those who ate mostly organic. It isn't yet known what effect low-level chronic exposure has on children, but in high doses many of the toxins used in pesticides have been shown to cause a host of problems including cancer, ADHD and reproductive problems.
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Children's Health Environmental Coalition
"The study, conducted by University of Washington scientists, is the first to test whether dietary changes can lower pesticide exposure.The researchers followed the diets of two small groups of Seattle pre-schoolers whose parents kept food diaries. One group of children ate primarily organic foods, while the other ate primarily conventional foods. [...] The analysis revealed that children eating organic foods had significantly lower levels of one particular breakdown product, dimethylthiophosphate (DMTP), than the children eating conventional foods."
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MSNBC
"If you include organic foods in your holiday menu, you'll be in step with the latest food trends, according to industry polls. And you may also be doing your children's health a favor. Parents who feed their children organically grown food can substantially lower the levels of pesticide residues to which their kids are exposed, according to a new study."
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Environmental Working Group
"Ten years after a consumer revolt against apples treated with the carcinogen Alar prompted a ban on the chemical, children are no better protected from pesticides in the nation's food supply. [...] A new study by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) shows apples, as well as some other fruits and vegetables, are so contaminated parents should consider substituting items known to be lower in pesticides."
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Dr. Greene
"Choosing organic foods can make a big difference for our children. Industrial agriculture techniques are relatively recent innovations. When my parents were young, the bulk of our food supply was not grown with antibiotics, hormones, or chemical pesticides. Their use became widespread in my lifetime. We are finally beginning to scientifically examine the impact of these techniques."
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Slate
"On the scale of food virtue, a hamburger from Jack in the Box rates low while fresh spinach rates high. That difference is perhaps the most unsettling aspect of the current E. coli scare, which has parents across America ridding their refrigerators of frozen vegetable lasagnas and grimacing over how all food suddenly seems suspect."
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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
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Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) of 1996
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Organic Lunchbox Challenge
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"Do You Know What You're Eating? An analysis of U.S. government data on pesticide residues in foods."
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