by Brandi Fleeks

Created on: July 30, 2009   Last Updated: July 31, 2009

Organic food is neither healthier nor more nutritious that regular or non-organic food.

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition recently published the results of an extensive study composed of 52,471 articles that debunks the belief that organic food is better for you than non-organic food.

The 50 year study, from 1958 to 2008, commissioned by the British Food Standards Agency found that in the case studies they performed of 137 crops and 25 livestock products, there is no significant difference in the nutritional value of food produced organically.

Through a wide variety of crops and livestock grown and raised by organic standards produced results that showed traditionally produced crops contain more nitrogen while organically produced crops contain more phosphorus and were higher in acidity. These differences were due to the type of fertilizers used in cultivating the crops.

Though the element levels in organic foods were different, the report determined that consumption of such levels is unlikely to be more beneficial nutritionally.

The study may dishearten consumers who spend more on organic food because they believe it is healthier than non-organic foods .

Organic food industry has increased in popularity over the last 20 years, amounting to $23 billion in 2008.

The argument over the health benefits of organic foods are even fodder for the likes of Penn & Teller, who on their cable television debunk the claim that organically grown foods are healthier of consumption than those produced conventionally.

Advocates of the organic food movement argue that the study does not take into account the amount of pesticides, herbicides, environmental factors as well as pollution and animal welfare.

While the study shows that organic and conventionally produced foods are relatively equal in nutritional content, the Food Standards Agency is not discouraging people from eating organically grown foods.

There is simply no scientific proof that organic are better for you or that they taste better than conventionally produced foods.

Even Penn and Teller took to challenging the difference between organic and non-organic foods. Taste testers on the show were given the choice of organic and non-organic fruits and vegetables to taste and much to their surprise, they liked the non-organic food more than the organic. 71 percent of the population chose non-organic tomatoes over organic, 80 percent of the testers chose non-organic apples over organic apples.

They duo even went as far as cutting a non-organic banana in half and testing it against itself to find out whether organic food proponents could tell the difference. All of the taste tester believed that one half of the same banana was organic.

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