The debate over which foods are better for us in terms of conventionally grown produce versus organically grown food continues to rage on as we head into the final months of 2009. The organic food promoters have been making claims from day one that their organically grown food is more nutritious than the food grown by conventional means. Their opponents who promote conventional growing methods respond that it does not make much difference, so the added cost of buying organically grown food is not worth the added cost. In fact one recent study from the United Kingdom compared the results of more than fifty earlier studies that compared the nutritional value of organically grown food against conventionally grown food. The UK study concluded that both methods produced foods with about the same nutritional value for the eight most significant categories. The eight categories included calcium, magnesium, potassium, copper, zinc, vitamin C, phenolic compounds, and total soluble solids.

A recently published French review came to an opposite conclusion. It confirmed that organic foods are more nutritious and promote better health compared with the conventional foods, because they have higher mineral content and they have more antioxidants. The data that tipped the balance over to the organic foods were the results of the measurements of pesticide residues and nitrates. The conventionally grown food had 50% more nitrates than the organic foods due to the fertilizer used to increase crop yield. The organic foods had lower pesticide residues than the conventional foods that required the use of pesticides to improve their products marketability. Finally a comparable study from the 2008 Organic Center reported that plant-based organic food had a 25% greater nutrition density compared with conventional food. The higher pesticide residues found in the conventional foods by both the French and United Kingdom studies raises a red flag in terms of senior health. Pesticide exposure may be responsible for the senior disease of Parkinson’s, so it would be wise for seniors to consume foods with the least amount of pesticide residue. For example blood tests performed on subjects who had switched over to organic food for less than a week found sharp reductions in levels of several pesticides.