Organic Products

Updated on January 12, 2011
D.W. asks from Indianapolis, IN
20 answers

Lately, there have been a lot of people posting about "organic" products and "all-natural" products as a safer alternative. Even though I'm a Biologist and a cancer survivor, I haven't quite bought into the concept yet. Especially when Whole Foods announced yesterday that they're requiring all "Personal Care" products that claim to be organic or to contain organic ingredients to be "Certified Organic" by 2011......just wondering what your reasons are for wanting to purchase these products?

When I asked my Oncologist if I needed to move to "organic" products, his only response was to eat more protein to help me get through chemo, but there's no evidence to support the use or non-use of organic products at this time. He's a leading researcher at our best Oncology center here in Indianapolis where Lance Armstrong was treated.

Where do you get your information that other products (non-organic or all-natural) are not safe?

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So What Happened?

Thank you for sharing your points of view so far. My reason for asking the question is simply to understand how we each arrive at our decisions and what sources of information we choose to seek in helping to validate it. There is no right or wrong answer. Just a question of curiousity.

I'm not sure I'd consider Food, Inc. a documentary because it's very politically motivated and likely funded by organizations that have an agenda to push (such as Michael Moore's movies tend to be slanted away from strictly reporting factual information). But, I think it's good to watch films like this and then research through credible sources and come-up with your own conclusion. Remember, marketing is all about getting people to do what someone else wants - e.g. buy a product, join a cause, etc.

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K.N.

answers from Cleveland on

Does it really matter if all the hormones and chemicals are safe? For me it's an issue of "why risk it?" I'm not over the top about it, I don't stress over any of it. I clean my house with steam and baking soda and vinegar because it works, and it's cheap. I buy local produce when I can get it because it just plain tastes better, same with free range, hormone free meat. I don't pump my kids full of medications when they aren't ill, so why would i want my food pumped full of drugs for no good reason? Chances are none of it's going to help me live any longer than the next person, or keep me healthy, but if it does then that's great, and if not then I'm not out anything.

3 moms found this helpful
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J.B.

answers from Indianapolis on

Like many of the other posts, I have no interest in eating or feeding my family pesticides, herbicides or meat, eggs or dairy products where the animals have been given hormones or unnecessary antibiotics. I do take great interest in eating and feeding my family meat, eggs and dairy products where the animals have been treated with the greatest respect possible - cage free, free range, etc. As for the "Personal Care" products, in addition to the chemical concerns, I do not buy products that are tested on animals. These are all very personal, value driven decisions and these are some of my reasons for buying organic. Good luck. There is a lot of info out there.

1 mom found this helpful

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I.G.

answers from Seattle on

Personally I believe that it's you best bet to stay away from most cosmetics period. All you really need is maybe a moisturizer and a sunscreen and there I go with whatever has the shortest ingredient list.

As far as Food, I definitely believe that organic is better for you. As a biologist you know how pesticides and herbicides accumulate along the food chain. They have been linked to may diseases and disorders, and while I do not believe that they are solely to blame for issues from cancer to ADHD, I believe that the effect is cumulative with other environmental factors. I would rather be on the safe side on this one - apart from the fact that most organic foods (and we are talking whole foods, not processed organic food) tastes better as well.
Just my two cents...

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T.H.

answers from Kansas City on

As a biologist I would think you would be more in tune to the fact that not only are pesticide free products healthier to ingest, they are healthier for the earth. The amount of chemicals that go into these foods not only affects the humans but the plants, animals, and water in our areas. I'm not a crazy organic person by any means, but I do believe in buying some things organic and all natural to cut down on the articficial ingredients being placed in our bodies. Maybe there are not studies that necessarily prove or disprove the theory, but in my opinion a food that is closer to it's natural state is much better for me to eat, would you disagree? That being said, I do think that a lot of companies claim their food is "all natural" as a marketing ploy when in fact there are still some things in there I don't necessarily want to eat (High Fructose Corn Syrup being one of them), but overall, eating food that is grown locally and/or without chemicals is a good choice and I don't need research or doctors to believe that.

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J.S.

answers from Dallas on

My family chooses to buy Organic and Natural products b/c of the hormones and additives that are put in or used on items now. I want my boys to have the best chance to grow and develope how God wants them to not how pesticide and hormone using growers/producers want them too. My family is healthier by using organic, natural, and local products.

2 moms found this helpful
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J.B.

answers from Atlanta on

I'm a 50/50 purchaser of organic foods and products. I am not going to freak out if my family eats a non-organic meal, and I don't have the time or inclination to use all natural cleaning stuff, etc. I still LOVE my Lysol! I do use some natural cleaners when I find one I like the smell of and that does a great job -if it's priced well. My main inclination is that I think limiting the amount of chemicals we take in is helpful. We don't know everything about what causes cancer, certain types of cancers, etc. but in my opinion the fewer chemicals we inundate ourselves with -the better. For example -when I go camping, I have to use DEET products in order not to be eaten alive. I'm really glad vanilla and citronella and skin so soft works for many, but not for me! However, for my family -there are lists of certain foods that seem to soak up more pesticide than others -like strawberries -so I try to buy organic for those. The whole "pink slime" nastiness, hormones and nightmare we've created in our cattle and poultry industries make me by all-natural, organic, free range and cage free beef, pork and poultry products. It costs more so we eat less of it -and that's all good! At least when we eat it -it tastes better and it's so much "purer."

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T.C.

answers from Chicago on

We purchase organic meat & some organic fruits & snacks for the kids. We choose not to eat meat treated w/ growth hormones or antibiotics. Did you know some chickens are given growth hormones to make their breasts grow really big b/c people like white meat? This is unnatural & I don't want those hormones in our bodies. Watch Food, Inc. It's a documentary about the food industry. This will really show you what goes on in the food industry...behind closed doors. We all have a right to know what's in our food, and the big companies won't tell us. I choose some organic fruits...like strawberries, apples and some others, b/c the non-organic counterpart has been proven to have a good amount of pesticides in them. Again, we choose not to put that in our bodies. On the other hand, my great grandmother lived to 102, my grandma is 88, and they probably never ate anything organic in their lives!

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A.C.

answers from Cincinnati on

Check out the Environmental Working Group's website. They list ingredients in many cosmetic products along with side-effects and risks. All-natural may be as good as organic (I often buy our local all-natural milk to support small local farmers instead of big factory farms), but there is no national standard for "natural" products. Anyone can claim to be natural, but in order to be certified as organic, there are rules and regulations. Organic can be a waste of money, though. Not everything needs to be organic. The buyer needs to be aware of their options and the risks of each product and decide if it's worth the money.

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K.F.

answers from Salinas on

Hi- I don't have time to read all the responses but here's my two cents. Just because there isn't hard scientific evidence to back up that organic products are always better for our health doesn't mean that we aren't poisoning ourselves with chemicals, dyes, additives, hormones, antibiotics etc. History is full of instances where our government, doctors and scientists told us something was fine that turned out to be toxic. In the 50's they sprayed DDT on school children for God's sake. Consider who studies something like that, who pays for a study on the effects of all the chemicals we eat, breath, put on our bodies? I do not trust the FDA to have my best interest in mind, they are bought and sold by the agricultural industry. Honestly to me it's just common sense, my intuition tells me that consuming chemicals, antibiotics, hormones, herbicides, pesticides, everyday over a lifetime will have negative effects on my body that no one can predict. That's a risk I want to minimize. I won't even go into what we're doing to our planet, if you don't buy organic for yourself or your kids please do it for the rest of us!

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L.L.

answers from Los Angeles on

I second Tracy C's suggestion to watch the documentary Food, Inc. WOW. Unbelievably enlightening -- every American should watch it, frankly.

I'm also super picky about my family's food that we eat and beauty/personal care products that we use. If you start to follow this subject with any regularity, you'll be amazed that the very same pesticides/hormones/farming practices/beauty product ingredients that ARE used in the U.S. are banned across Europe. Why? The research says that they are endocrine disruptors, cause cancer in animals, bring on early sexual development in children, etc.

More and more, I'm perplexed and saddened that our own FDA doesn't protect us as it should.

I also second the suggestion to check out EWG's cosmeticsdatabase.com
I buy no beauty/personal products for my family without checking it first for toxicity levels.

Good luck in your quest for knowledge.

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M.B.

answers from Cincinnati on

Every person is responsible for his/her own health. You have a choice to eat foods that are "pure" and ones that are sprayed with pesticides and antibiotics. Why do you need proof that these things added to your foods are bad?? If you don't get your meats that are grass fed only then you are eating who knows what. Cancer is caused by something we eat/breathe/ or drink. You can eat whatever you want, but for me I prefer to eat healthy.

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M.W.

answers from Philadelphia on

I chose to use products that are botanically based. As I sat at a friends house learning about them, I began thinking about my grandmother who would go into her garden and chop up and cook some plants to fix any ailment. Her methods always worked. Plus, as far as skin care is concerned, women had beautiful skin in the past and they did not have the chemical infused skin care products that are out now. For thousands of years, women used plants and botanicals to take care of their skin. I began thinking that I needed to go back to basics.

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K.B.

answers from Columbus on

I use all organic products and food in our home- Or I make cleaning products as well!!! I use www.cosmeticdatabase.com as one of my many websites I go to. They have a ton of ratings on all personal products. I try to only buy ones from the list that are rated a 2 and under. I also go to www.safemama.org as well for products. We don't use fluroride in our toothpaste, no sodium lauryl sulfate- as this is in 80% of personal and some cleaning produts- not safe at all, can cause cancer. My list is very extensive on this topic. Good luck to you, K.

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S.W.

answers from Toledo on

D., I honor your questions about Organic and I agree to the point of...who are the companies making these claims and who do you trust. I would love to talk more. I have lots of "MYTH" documents. Good Luck
S.
You've probably heard the warnings: "Soy may increase
> the risk of breast cancer!" "Women with breast cancer
> shouldn't use soy!".
>
> The first warning was never true. Numerous clinical
> studies have shown that consumption of soy protein is
> associated with a lower risk of developing breast
> cancer.
>
> Furthermore, the science behind the second warning has
> never been very strong. The concerns that soy might
> stimulate the growth of breast cancer cells was based
> primarily on cell culture experiments and one
> experiment in mice - even though a second experiment in
> mice came to the exact opposite conclusion.
>
> However, the possibility that soy isoflavones could
> stimulate the growth of estrogen- responsive breast
> cancer was biochemically plausible because soy
> isoflavones bind to the estrogen receptor and have a
> very weak stimulatory effect (much weaker than estrogen
> itself).
>
> Even that evidence was not definitive because soy
> isoflavones also turn on several tumor
> suppressor pathways in breast cells and help strengthen
> the immune system - so they could just as easily
> inhibit the growth of beast cancer cells.
>
> However, because the concerns were plausible and had
> not been definitively disproved, most experts,
> including me, have recommended that women with
> estrogen- responsive breast cancer might want to avoid
> soy protein.
>
> Well a definitive study has finally been performed and
> it turns out for women with breast cancer, consumption
> of soy foods actually decreases their risk of breast cancer
> recurrence and dying from breast cancer.
>
> The study was reported in the December 2009 issue of
> the Journal of the American Medical Association by
> researchers at Vanderbilt University and Shanghai
> Institute of Preventive Medicine.
>
> It was a large, well designed, study that enrolled 5042
> Chinese women aged 20 to 75 years old who had been
> diagnosed with breast cancer and followed them for an
> average period of 3.9 years.
>
> The women were divided into four groups based on the
> soy content of their diet (ranging from 5 grams/day to
> 15 grams/day).
>
> The results were clear cut. Breast cancer survivors
> with the highest soy intake had 25% less chance of
> breast cancer recurrence and 25% less chance of dying
> from breast cancer than the women with the lowest soy
> intake.
>
> The effect was equally strong for women with estrogen
> receptor-positive and estrogen receptor negative
> cancers, for early stage and late stage breast cancer
> and for pre- and post-menopausal women.
>
> In short this was a very robust study.
>
> The study also showed that soy protein intake did not
> interfere with tamoxifen. The reduction in the risk of
> breast cancer recurrence & death was just as great
> whether the breast cancer survivors were taking
> tamoxifen or not.
>
> In fact, tamoxifen was protective only for women with
> low soy intake. It conferred no extra protection for
> the women at the highest level of soy intake.
>
> What does this mean for you if you are a breast cancer
> survivor?
>
> I personally feel that this study is clear cut enough
> that breast cancer survivors no longer need to fear soy
> protein as part of a healthy diet.
>
> However. it is important to recognize that this is a
> single study. It is a very good study, but it is just
> one study.
>
> As a scientist and a cancer researcher I would like to
> see this study confirmed by other studies before
> recommending that all women who have had breast cancer
> should add soy protein to their diets. It may turn out
> that some women will benefit much more from using soy
> protein than others.
>
> Similarly, this study suggests that soy protein does
> not interfere with tamoxifen.
>
> But the use of tamoxifen after breast cancer remission
> is a medical treatment - and all medical treatments
> should be discussed with your doctor.
>
> Finally, I would like to point out that a number of
> previous studies have suggested that isolated
> isoflavones may not have the same benefits as soy
> protein foods containing the isoflavones - so I don't
> recommend skipping the soy protein and opting for an
> isoflavone supplement instead.
>
>
> To Your Health!
> Dr. Stephen G Chaney

New Alarm Bells About Chemicals and Cancer
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

The President’s Cancer Panel is the Mount Everest of the medical mainstream, so it is astonishing to learn that it is poised to join ranks with the organic food movement and declare: chemicals threaten our bodies.

The cancer panel is releasing a landmark 200-page report on Thursday, warning that our lackadaisical approach to regulation may have far-reaching consequences for our health.

I’ve read an advance copy of the report, and it’s an extraordinary document. It calls on America to rethink the way we confront cancer, including much more rigorous regulation of chemicals.

Traditionally, we reduce cancer risks through regular doctor visits, self-examinations and screenings such as mammograms. The President’s Cancer Panel suggests other eye-opening steps as well, such as giving preference to organic food, checking radon levels in the home and microwaving food in glass containers rather than plastic.

In particular, the report warns about exposures to chemicals during pregnancy, when risk of damage seems to be greatest. Noting that 300 contaminants have been detected in umbilical cord blood of newborn babies, the study warns that: “to a disturbing extent, babies are born ‘pre-polluted.’ ”

It’s striking that this report emerges not from the fringe but from the mission control of mainstream scientific and medical thinking, the President’s Cancer Panel. Established in 1971, this is a group of three distinguished experts who review America’s cancer program and report directly to the president.

One of the seats is now vacant, but the panel members who joined in this report are Dr. LaSalle Leffall Jr., an oncologist and professor of surgery at Howard University, and Dr. Margaret Kripke, an immunologist at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Both were originally appointed to the panel by former President George W. Bush.

“We wanted to let people know that we’re concerned, and that they should be concerned,” Professor Leffall told me.

The report blames weak laws, lax enforcement and fragmented authority, as well as the existing regulatory presumption that chemicals are safe unless strong evidence emerges to the contrary.

“Only a few hundred of the more than 80,000 chemicals in use in the United States have been tested for safety,” the report says. It adds: “Many known or suspected carcinogens are completely unregulated.”

Industry may howl. The food industry has already been fighting legislation in the Senate backed by Dianne Feinstein of California that would ban bisphenol-A, commonly found in plastics and better known as BPA, from food and beverage containers.

Studies of BPA have raised alarm bells for decades, and the evidence is still complex and open to debate. That’s life: In the real world, regulatory decisions usually must be made with ambiguous and conflicting data. The panel’s point is that we should be prudent in such situations, rather than recklessly approving chemicals of uncertain effect.

The President’s Cancer Panel report will give a boost to Senator Feinstein’s efforts. It may also help the prospects of the Safe Chemicals Act, backed by Senator Frank Lautenberg and several colleagues, to improve the safety of chemicals on the market.

Some 41 percent of Americans will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives, and they include Democrats and Republicans alike. Protecting ourselves and our children from toxins should be an effort that both parties can get behind — if enough members of Congress are willing to put the public interest ahead of corporate interests.

One reason for concern is that some cancers are becoming more common, particularly in children. We don’t know why that is, but the proliferation of chemicals in water, foods, air and household products is widely suspected as a factor. I’m hoping the President’s Cancer Panel report will shine a stronger spotlight on environmental causes of health problems — not only cancer, but perhaps also diabetes, obesity and autism.

This is not to say that chemicals are evil, and in many cases the evidence against a particular substance is balanced by other studies that are exonerating. To help people manage the uncertainty prudently, the report has a section of recommendations for individuals:

Particularly when pregnant and when children are small, choose foods, toys and garden products with fewer endocrine disruptors or other toxins. (Information about products is at www.cosmeticsdatabase.com or www.healthystuff.org.)
For those whose jobs may expose them to chemicals, remove shoes when entering the house and wash work clothes separately from the rest of the laundry.
Filter drinking water.
Store water in glass or stainless steel containers, or in plastics that don’t contain BPA or phthalates (chemicals used to soften plastics). Microwave food in ceramic or glass containers. {my added note--caution: plastic lids in microwave}
Give preference to food grown without pesticides, chemical fertilizers and growth hormones. Avoid meats that are cooked well-done.
Check radon levels in your home. Radon is a natural source of radiation linked to cancer.

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L.M.

answers from Dallas on

We switched to buying organic after watching Food Inc. It's a very informative documentary and very worthwhile to watch. I highly, highly reccomend it to everyone I know. It really makes you think about the food we put into our bodies and how it's being produced.

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M.B.

answers from Lafayette on

I've found organic cleaning products to be ineffective. Shaklee is good, and I'll always love my Mary Kay products!

B.K.

answers from Chicago on

People who push organic sometimes don't realize what effect their buying decisions could possibly have on others. The organic cotton clothing line at Wal-Mart for example -- because of consumers demanding it, farmers won't spray chemicals for malaria-carrying mosquitos in Uganda and some say children are dying of malaria as a result. Time Magazine just featured an article on this a couple weeks ago.
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,2880...
However, there are folks who disagree with content in the article.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/06/is-our-love-for-o...

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V.B.

answers from Columbus on

The trouble with pesticides are their effect on endocrine system, which takes a while to happen, but can lead to conditions that are very hard to reverse.
Pesticide and cancer:
http://progressreport.cancer.gov/doc_detail.asp?pid=1&amp...
Pesticide and obesity:
http://www.news-medical.net/news/2007/02/18/21958.aspx
Another aspect of how non-organic foods effect human health is genetically modified foods, the long-term influence of those on human health has not been studied. As a matter of fact what FDA does deem to be safe is tested only for 28 days... If something doesn't cause explicit damage in 28 days it's considered safe...
http://books.google.com/books?id=NJUanyPkh0AC&pg=PA35...

And not to mention the effect of pesticides on ecosystems...
All that is enough motivation for me to spend half of my paycheck on organic foods.
PS Watch Food, Inc.

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S.S.

answers from Los Angeles on

i never really bought into it either until i got pregnant and then i did my research and it seems some things are worth getting organic (the "dirty dozen" which are the top 12 veggies/fruits that have pesticides soaked into them so you can't even peel it off). a non-organic celery for instance can give you trace amounts of 67 pesticides when you eat it. not good. so i definitely get organic for the dirty dozen, especially for my baby b/c kids are shown to be more susceptible to add, etc. from pesticides. however, other things like meat, milk, cosmetics that haven't really been proven to be better healthwise if they're organic, i don't bother. i need more scientific proof for that before i shell out the extra cash.

hope you get better soon! and google "dirty dozen" organics to get a list. it can't hurt!

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E.W.

answers from Cleveland on

Dr Mercola is on the web

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