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Organic tomatoes really are better for you…

05/08/2012 //  by Michelle Berridale Johnson//  7 Comments

Is it just wishful thinking that organic vegetables really are better for you than vegetables  nurtured on chemical fertilisers and drenched in lethal insecticides? No, apparently not.

A study published recently in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry suggests that drenching plants in nitrogenous fertilisers and pesticides encourages them, effectively, to be lazy…

A plant (a tomato in this instance) which has to protect itself against pests and diseases needs to produce a higher level of polyphenols to combat their onslaughts than a plant that is protected by insecticides and nitrogeous fertilisers. And, if we eat that plant we get the benefit of its increased activity and its resulting higher levels of antioxidants – just what we need to maintain good health and protect ourselves from conditions such as cancer….

Knew it…….

Category: Chemicals, Food, NutritionTag: antioxidants, chemical insecticides, fertilisers, nitrogenous fertilisers, nutritional value of organic food, organic agriculture, organic farming, polyphenols, tomatoes

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Janet

    06/08/2012 at 09:30

    And here was me thinking that you enjoyed your own home grown tomatoes because you raised them from being tiny plantlets…and know exactly what they have been fed and watered, you have worried over the lack of sun, too much or too little sun, the shade or lack of it… (if they are outside), the humidity….etc

    They are at minimal food miles….more like food feet for me…(all of 35 foot between the plant and my plate..and thats via the sink….)..and they taste oh so good…..
    With a nice chunck of cheese…its half past nine..and I am peckish…
    J

  2. Michelle

    06/08/2012 at 10:50

    And warmed by the sun….. With a little mozzarella and that basil you have growing in a pot……. I am salivating!!

  3. Michelle

    07/08/2012 at 11:10

    We have just had a call from Jacquie B. to ask whether we knew of anyone who could eat fresh tomatoes without a problem, but had an allergic reaction to tinned tomatoes – even to tinned organic tomatoes? She had a violent reaction (digestive) even though the ingredients list included nothing apart from tomatoes and she had previously eaten tomatoes from her garden and has done so again subsequently without any problems.

  4. Nathalie

    17/08/2012 at 12:01

    To Michelle, re- allergic reaction to tinned tomatoes.
    I wonder if it might have anything to do with the “plastic” stuff they use now to line the inside of the tins to protect against the corrosion from the acidity o the tomato?

  5. Michelle

    17/08/2012 at 14:45

    Good thinking, Nathalie – I suspect that it might well be. I’ll pass your thought on to Jacquie. I wonder if the coating has some sort of sugar or corn base as I know that Jacquie is extremely allergic to both.

  6. jacquie broadway

    21/08/2012 at 14:16

    Thank you for your comments Nathalie, but I am sorry to say that I have opened the tin of tomatos and decanted them into a glass bowl. Muscle testing tells me it is the tomatos and not the tin. My reaction was very rapid and as though I had eaten sugar. I wonder if even organic is cheating as I have had a similar experience with Suma tomatos. These were Biona. I will give Sainsbury’s a test when I can get some

    Jacquie

  7. Michelle

    24/08/2012 at 15:28

    It is possible that, if the inside of the tin had been coated with some sort of sucrose containing substance that it could have migrated into the tomatoes…..

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