Originally published December 8 2005
More and more parents choosing organic foods for their children
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Annapolis-based newspaper The Capital reports on the growing number of parents who are turning to organic foods to protect the health of their children.
She is among the increasing number of parents who buy organic to keep their children's diets free of food grown with pesticides, hormones, antibiotics or genetic engineering.
"The pesticide issue just scares me - it wigs me out to think about the amount of chemicals that might be going into my kid," said Mrs. O'Neal, 36.
Sales of organic baby food have jumped nearly 18 percent since last year - double the overall growth of organic food sales, according to the marketing information company ACNielsen.
The concern about children is that they are more vulnerable to toxins in their diets, said Dr. Alan Greene, a pediatrician in northern California.
"Pound for pound, they get higher concentrations of pesticides than adults do," said Dr. Greene, who promotes organic food in his books and on his Web site, www.drgreene.com.
A study of children whose diets were changed from regular to organic found their pesticide levels plunged almost immediately.
Mr. Lu's findings will be published in February in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.Scientists are still trying to figure out how pesticides affect children, Mr. Lu said, but he notes that it took years to prove the health hazards of lead.
The uncertainty is driving parents, especially new or expecting mothers, to switch to organic food.
Green and Mr. Lu said parents have options if they can't afford the food or don't want to search for it or make it: Buy fruits and vegetables known to have lower pesticide residues.
The Environmental Working Group, a Washington-based advocacy group, has produced a guide to the pesticide levels in fruits and vegetables commonly sold in grocery stores, basing the findings on data from the Agriculture Department and Food and Drug Administration.
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