Do Organic Fruits and Vegetables Protect Against Cancer Better Than Industrially Farmed Products?

We try to choose the right foods out of concern for our health, whether to prevent cancer or during cancer treatment. Fruits and vegetables are essential to healthy eating, but many people wonder about the effects of organic fruits and vegetables on cancer. Do organic foods really protect against cancer as claimed? In other words, do industrially farmed products, also called conventional products, carry a greater cancer risk?

What Is Organic Food? Should You Buy Organic Foods to Prevent Cancer?

Organic food is produced without artificial fertilizers, insecticides, weed killers and similar pesticides, growth hormones, antibiotics, chemical packaging materials, additives or processing methods at any stage of cultivation and processing, from seed to the end user. The idea that no additives are used in organic production is incorrect.

Organically produced food additives permitted under the Organic Food Communiqué may be used (such as animal and plant fertilizers and pure nitrogen obtained from them). Organic farmland accounts for a very small proportion compared with industrial farmland (for example, %2.6 in our country). Despite this, we see increasing numbers of products marketed as organic every day.

After this brief overview of organic agriculture, let us turn to studies comparing the nutritional content of organic foods with fruits or vegetables grown using industrial methods. Some studies suggest that organic foods have higher nutrient content, while others show no difference. It is currently unknown whether the reported nutritional differences can produce health benefits such as reduced cancer risk.

Price Differences and Accessibility

Organic products are not always available everywhere. They are also more expensive than nonorganic products. This may therefore be a factor worth considering, particularly if you shop on a limited budget.

We would like to remind you again that the most important factors in cancer prevention are avoiding smoking and alcohol, having an active lifestyle, maintaining a healthy weight and eating mainly fruits and vegetables, whether organically or industrially produced.