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The debate about organic food is in the news again today as a long-term Californian study suggests that organically grown tomatoes contain more of two types of flavonoids, quercetin and kaempferol. The leader of the research, Alyson Mitchell, suggests that this is because non-organic tomatoes are grown with fertiliser that makes nitrogen easily available to the plants. Flavonoids are produced by the plants as a defence mechanism against nutrient deficiency so, she concludes, less are generated when tomatoes are grown in this nitrogen rich soil.
Flavonoids are antioxidants. It has been proposed that they are one of the components present in fruit and vegetables that may be responsible for the relatively low rate of cardiovascular disease that has been associated with high levels of fruit and vegetable consumption. There is, however, not enough evidence to show that increasing intakes of flavonoid rich foods will reduce heart disease, because other factors associated with high fruit and vegetable intakes may be responsible for their cardiovascular protection.
In order to help clarify the situation the Agency has commissioned a large study at the University of Reading that will assess the effect increasing consumption of flavonoid-rich and flavonoid-poor fruit and vegetables has on cardiovascular disease risk factors.
As I’ve said in an earlier blog, the Agency isn’t for or against organic food. We're guided very much by what the science says, and so we’ll be looking closely at this study, as we do many others.
But even if our experts agree with the study’s conclusions, the results may not be that useful in the real world. In today’s papers, the British Tomato Growers’ Association technical expert is reported as saying that there is little difference between traditionally and organically grown tomatoes in Britain so he couldn’t see the opportunity for much difference in their nutritional value. On top of that, others have suggested that the evidence for the health benefits of flavonoids isn’t cut and dried either.
But we recognise the important role organic food plays in providing choice for consumers, and we will need to consider this new study in the light of all the other scientific evidence which, on balance, doesn’t support the view that organic food is more nutritious or safer than conventional foods.
I wonder though if sometimes we can worry too much about things like the flavonoid content of tomatoes when most people in the UK don’t even manage to eat three portions of fruit and vegetables a day. Simply getting us all to eat more fruit and vegetables should be the main message.
