How is organic food better for bowel health?

We read an interesting article this week in The Australian regarding the link to organic food and better bowel health. If you didn’t catch it, please read below.

There is growing evidence for the benefit of organic food, according to a previously skeptical doctor who says many agricultural pesticides are lethal to good bacteria in the bowel.

“Scientists have always said eating organic food is senseless and makes no difference as pesticides don’t harm humans,” says Dr Mark Donohoe, a Sydney GP with a special interest in environmental medicine. “However, the pesticides kill certain species of gut bacteria, not us.”

This causes an imbalance that contributes to obesity and poor general health, says Dr Donohoe, who spoke at an AustralAsian Academy of Anti-Ageing Medicine Conference in Melbourne on August 24.

“This thinking is becoming mainstream, particularly among gastroenterologists. My wife and patients have told me for 20 years that they feel better on an organic diet, but I have said there is no reason why they should. It turns out they are protecting their gut flora”, he says.

“For the past 10 years doctors have been looking at gut bacteria as something that makes us healthy. If our gut bacteria is not healthy, we cannot be healthy,” says Dr Donohoe.

“A lot of what doctors see in their surgeries is just a consequence of altered bacteria playing up.”

He says entire families can become obese if something in their environment disrupts their gut. “It’s not what they eat or some type of moral corruption of the owner of those bugs.”

Interestingly, Dr Donohoe is particularly concerned about the high rate of elective caesarean sections, which may leave babies with inadequate gut flora for years after birth, affecting their weight.

“More research is needed for a solution, but breastfeeding appears to be a healthy and effective way to encourage a broader diversity of gut bacteria in the infant.”

As the baby grows, plenty of fresh organic fruit and vegetables in season and minimising grains is the key to a gut-healthy diet, he says.

We can’t vouch for the veracity of Dr Donohoe’s line of thinking, but that all seems to make sense to us here at Bellamy’s Organic. Organic foods do not contain pesticides and hormones, so healthy gut bacteria are not at risk.