According to a study in Epidemiology published in January of this year, the number of newly diagnosed cases of autism in California children rose over six-fold, from 205 new cases in 1990 to 3,000 in 2006.1 Food allergies among children
are becoming much more common and serious, as is asthma. Newly diagnosed eczema cases in the U.S. increased 6.7-fold from 1977 to 20062 and rose 42 percent from 2001 to 2005 in the U.K.3 One in four children is now overweight or obese, and the number of children and teenagers with diabetes is rising sharply.
What is driving these trends? Many scientists are beginning to suspect some causes are linked to what we eat and are exposed to very early in life through food, water and air—with pesticides posing more and more of a proven risk. In fact, the list of health problems for which pesticide exposure has emerged as a risk factor overlaps almost perfectly with the list of health problems that have risen most sharply in the last decade. Given our medical advances and record-high health care expenditures, coupled with decades of progress in cleaning up the air and water, why does it seem to be getting harder to raise a healthy kid in America? There are three plausible answers. First, maybe it really isn’t. Perhaps epidemiologists have gotten better at collecting health statistics, and in fact, kids today are no more or less healthy than those 20 years ago. A number of studies in the last few years have explored this possibility in trying to explain steeply rising rates of autism, asthma, eczema, and childhood allergies. Virtually all conclude that the increases are, for the most part, real.
Story by Dr. Charles Benbrook, www.organiccenter.org
Click here to read more (PDF)
Serious Science, Serious Benefits
Resveratrol, a polyphenolic activator of the silent information regulation 2 homolog 1 (SIRT1), has been shown to extend the lifespan and improve metabolic disease. Other research has found that resveratrol inhibits ethanol-induced steatohepatitis in rats, due to its antioxidant properties. Steatohepatitis is liver disease characterized by inflammation with concurrent fat accumulation. Two of the negative consequences associated with the current obesity epidemic are development of hepatic steatosis and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). With this information in mind, Korean researchers investigated the possible beneficial effects of resveratrol on hepatic gene expression, lipid content, lipid profiles, and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) on mice fed an atherogenic (Ath) diet (Ahn et al, 2008).
Thanks to “Organic Processing Magazine” for offering the Center’s Chief Scientist, Dr. Chuck Benbrook, an opportunity to discuss new science pointing to six ways in which organic food can help assure healthy development and graceful aging.
Organic food was once seen as a niche market but now major multinationals are offering organic products. In fact it has been one of the biggest trends in the food sector in recent years but do organics have staying power, or will consumers lose interest over time?
Why Should I care if a Food is Organic?
It’s the stories about overcoming obstacles that are the ones worth telling. Ecover’s first factory was one enormous obstacle, which is why it still receives thousands of visitors from all over the world year after year! It’s getting more and more difficult to decipher one company from the next these days. At Ecover, we let our factories do the talking.
Consuming more organic food certainly isn’t the only way to improve one’s nutrient intake, but it may be the safest. It’s regularly claimed by the mainstream food industry that pesticide residues in foods are known to be safe on the basis of total diet surveys that supposedly find the levels of pesticide residues in our food to be very low and within acceptable safety limits. 
Popular raw food author and speaker, David Wolf, speaks about gardening, juicing, raw food nutrition and the importance of consuming fresh, organic vegetables. Awesome clip! He is also on Twitter! 
