ORGANIC FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Scared by tales of vitamin-depleted vegetables and the lack of nutrition in organic foods? Don't swallow all the bad news, says food activist DEBBIE FIELD

Friday, July 19, 2002 – Globe & Mail - Page A15

Eat this. Don't eat that. Fat. Fruits. Soy. Green tea. Fibre. Vegetables. Vitamins. Genetically modified. Organic. Imported. Fast food.

Pretty complicated, isn't it? What can we do, when the experts are confused and contradict each other? May as well give up. Eat whatever junk food is around.

This seems to be a common refrain these days. How can all the confusing information out there guide personal behaviour or inform government policy? Just look at the pessimism in the headlines: Healthy Diet Eludes Canadians; Today's Fruits, Vegetables Lack Yesterday's Nutrition; Multivitamin Supplements A Fix For Food's Shortcomings, Experts Say; Organic Crops No More Nutritional; Can Fast Food Be Part Of A Healthy Diet?

But it isn't as confusing some experts make it out to be. We all -- consumers, children, scientists, reporters -- know the basics of healthy eating.

First: Eat more vegetables, fruits, grains and beans. Don't worry about fad diets, or even about fat, because when you eat more of these four building blocks of a healthy diet, decreasing fat, sugar, and processed foods comes naturally. Don't let the fear that vegetables are not as nutrient-dense as they used to be stop you from eating them: A serving of broccoli, even if grown in depleted soil and stored too long, is better for you than a serving of fries.

Eat low on the food chain. Eat whole foods. Any vegetable is better than any processed food. Don't bother with vitamin supplements.

The Journal of the American Medical Association reported in June that diets rich in vitamin C and E delay the onset of Alzheimer's -- but only when they ware eaten as foods, not if they were taken as vitamins. For every scientist recommending supplements, many more argue there is less nutrient uptake from pills. It is the eating, digesting, moving the waste fibre through your system that produces massive health improvements. The action of many micronutrients is still not understood well enough to package in pills.

More home cooking, healthy meals at workplaces and schools can make a difference for even the pickiest eaters. In a recently piloted "salad bar" program in Toronto, students eagerly gobbled up platefuls of the healthiest imaginable food because it was tastily prepared and readily available at eye level. At last, the kids were being offered alternatives to the fatty, salty, additive-loaded snacks they usually confront at supermarkets, convenience stores and, increasingly, in their own schools.

Choosing the source of your food doesn't have to be complicated, either. Organic farmers rotate crops and replenish soil with 21 nutrients that humans need, while conventional agriculture uses three basic commercial fertilizers -- nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium.

As for the "news" that organic foods are no healthier than commercially grown foods: Common sense tells us that if a food system based on industrial production, monocropping and cosmetic standards is producing foods with low nutritional value, then organic farming, based on age-old principles of mixed farming is likely to be better. A recent University of Guelph study looked at 20 types of organic produce and found them no better than commercial -- but a larger study by Washington-based food consultant Virginia Worthington made 1,200 comparisons to conclude that organic food has substantially more nutritional value. And we haven't started to talk about the health and environmental damage done by millions of tonnes of pesticides and chemical fertilizers.

Buying local food is usually healthier. The less time food sits around, the less the nutrients break down. What do you prefer -- eating locally grown strawberries picked the day before, or several-week-old golf balls from Southern California treated with megadoses of fungicides to keep them from rotting on their long journey to Canada? Can you smell the local berries? Trust your nose.

Consumers are changing the way we eat. Increased demand for organic food, and produce in general, has resulted in supermarkets carrying more of each. From community gardens, to buying clubs, to Europe's "slow food" movement, there's a groundswell to regain control over what we eat.

The fact is, we are confronted with a food system that has no interest in supporting the principles of healthy eating. Soda pop and takeout burgers are cheaper than juice and fresh, home-cooked meals; billions of dollars are spent advertising sweetened cereal, and precious little to promote kale. Our food system is quite prepared to employ science, communications and advertising to confuse and obfuscate where and how you can get a good meal these days.

What we don't need to do is to throw our hands up in mock astonishment that kids eat nothing but junk food, or that our daughters are hospitalized for anorexia while we battle weight problems.

What we do need is government help. We need national funding for unbiased food research, free from universities depending on financial support from the very chemical companies they're expected to evaluate. We need Health Canada and Agriculture Canada to establish rules for soil replenishment. We need guarantees for the nutrient quality of food. We need a universal student nutrition program, so that all kids can have a salad bar every day at school. We need a societal commitment to ensure that not only the rich can afford safe, healthy, nutritious food.

The answer is not vitamins: not for humans, and not for the soil. Chemical fertilizers -- "soil vitamins" -- degraded the land in the first place. More additives, vitamins, pesticides, herbicides and genetically altered seeds will simply accelerate the food crisis already upon us.

Laying the basis for good health through diet isn't that difficult or complex. Just make a commitment to expose yourself to a wide variety of healthy food, eat what you like -- and most of all, let smell, texture and all the sensual delights of eating guide you.

Debbie Field is executive director of FoodShare Toronto