3 Major Benefits of Eating Organically

“Organic” has been a trendy buzzword for a while, but not everyone believes it should be. Many people are wary of claims that organic foods are healthier and are cautious of paying extra for foods they aren’t sure are worth the cost.

While it’s true that organic food costs more, it’s because farmers must invest more to produce them. Organic crop yields aren’t as big as GMO crops, and they’re more sensitive to adverse climate conditions like drought. Without synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides, organic yields can be as much as 25 percent less than conventional farming methods.

Additionally, livestock that eat a natural pasture diet (and are not administered artificial growth hormones) are substantially smaller than factory-farmed animals. They can also take up to a year longer to become fully grown, which means an extra year’s worth of food, care, and labor.

But the extra work and production costs of organic food production are worth it. Studies have shown that the antioxidant, vitamin, and mineral content of organic foods is significantly higher. For instance, meats from animals raised on natural diets show an ideal ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids, which promotes a healthy, well-regulated immune system for humans consuming them. People should be consuming an omega-6 to omega-3 ratio of no more than 4:1, making organic, grass-fed meat a much wiser choice.

By contrast, today’s modern diet of poor-quality meat, processed foods, and hydrogenated vegetable oils contributes to an omega-3 to omega-6 ratio of up to 20:1. This imbalance creates a highly inflammatory environment that can directly contribute to increased obesity, heart disease, and cancer.

But what’s not in organic foods is as important as its nutritional value. Pesticides, herbicides, artificial growth hormones, and estrogens are all linked to various cancers. By eating organically, you can avoid these compounds and their detrimental consequences to your well-being.

Organic Food, Immune Responses, and Weight Loss

Eating what nature intended gives your body the tools it needs to operate at its best, including fighting disease and maintaining a healthy weight. Unfortunately, modern food quality has steadily decreased, and foods no longer contain the same level of essential vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants they once did.

Your body needs these nutrients to detoxify and repair the immune system. The growing lack of these nutrients, coupled with steadily increasing exposure to harmful chemicals and food additives, makes it unsurprising that chronic disease is at an all-time high.

But a stronger immune system isn’t the only benefit to eating organically. It can also make weight loss and maintenance goals easier to achieve by supplying more of what your body needs and much less of what it doesn’t. Organic foods can boost your weight loss efforts in three important ways:

1. Better hormonal balance

By limiting your exposure to herbicides and pesticides, you can better maintain a proper hormonal balance, which is essential to regulating how your body absorbs and burns body fat. Such chemicals are considered endocrine-disrupting substances, meaning they cause drastic changes in hormone development (particularly increases in estrogen). This not only makes you more prone to gaining body fat, but it also makes you more susceptible to developing some forms of cancer.

2. Lower glycemic load

There are plenty of organic treats and desserts that don’t have this advantage, but sticking with an organic diet made up of meats, fruits, and vegetables has a far lower glycemic load than the processed alternatives. A lower glycemic index leads to greater insulin sensitivity and further contributes to a more balanced hormonal profile. When your hormones are balanced, it becomes significantly easier to lose excess body fat.

3. Higher levels of key nutrients

Organic foods have higher levels of the key nutrients your body needs to produce energy, such as zinc, magnesium, and omega-3 fats. These nutrients direct your body to burn body fat; processed meats and produce that are extremely lacking in these nutrients make it more difficult to maintain your body’s ideal weight.

Organic Foods That Actually Help

By helping people improve their food quality, I’ve seen many different types of success stories. From incredible weight loss to previously injured pro athletes realizing the best seasons of their careers, organic foods were a big piece of the puzzle.

I don’t mean eating organic chips and desserts here and there. The successes I’ve seen were accomplished through steady diets of grass-fed meats, plenty of organic vegetables, and carbohydrate levels that were specific to each individual’s goals.

For most people, meat quality is incredibly important. Animals raised on natural diets live much better lives and provide many health benefits compared to factory-farmed proteins.

The following are the most commonly contaminated produce options of the bunch and should be, without exception, consumed only as organic products:

Eating organically is the most efficient and effective way to realize your specific health and weight loss goals. Your body doesn’t need more exposure to toxins and contaminants; it needs the vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that nature intended it to utilize.