Johansson, E.; Hussain, A.; Kuktaite, R.; Andersson, S.C.; Olsson, M.E. Contribution of Organically Grown Crops to Human Health. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2014, 11, 3870-3893.
Abstract
An increasing interest in organic agriculture for food production is seen throughout the world and one key reason for this interest is the assumption that organic food consumption is beneficial to public health. The present paper focuses on the background of organic agriculture, important public health related compounds from crop food and variations in the amount of health related compounds in crops. In addition, influence of organic farming on health related compounds, on pesticide residues and heavy metals in crops, and relations between organic food and health biomarkers as well as in vitro studies are also the focus of the present paper. Nutritionally beneficial compounds of highest relevance for public health were micronutrients, especially Fe and Zn, and bioactive compounds such as carotenoids (including pro-vitamin A compounds), tocopherols (including vitamin E) and phenolic compounds. Extremely large variations in the contents of these compounds were seen, depending on genotype, climate, environment, farming conditions, harvest time, and part of the crop. Highest amounts seen were related to the choice of genotype and were also increased by genetic modification of the crop. Organic cultivation did not influence the content of most of the nutritional beneficial compounds, except the phenolic compounds that were increased with the amounts of pathogens. However, higher amounts of pesticide residues and in many cases also of heavy metals were seen in the conventionally produced crops compared to the organic ones. Animal studies as well as in vitro studies showed a clear indication of a beneficial effect of organic food/extracts as compared to conventional ones. Thus, consumption of organic food seems to be positive from a public health point of view, although the reasons are unclear, and synergistic effects between various constituents within the food are likely.
Conclusions—Do Organically Produced Crops Contribute to Human Health?
Both animal studies and in vitro studies clearly indicate the benefits of consumption of organically produced food instead of that conventionally produced. Investigations on humans are scarce and only few of those performed can confirm positive public health benefits while consuming organic food. However, animal experiments are today routinely used to assess impact on humans in various other aspects and thus, the positive effects on animal from consumption of organically produced food can be regarded as an indication of positive effects also on humans. The reasons why organically produced food contributes to public health are unclear, as specific high amounts of nutritionally high value compounds with high antioxidant capacity does not seem to be the key for improved public health from organic food consumption. Instead synergistic effects of several constituents might be the back-ground for the possible positive effects of organic food, as well as absence of pesticide residues. The present review also did not find higher contents of nutritional beneficial compounds, with the exception of phenolic compounds, as an answer to increased amounts of pathogens, in organically cultivated crops than in conventionally cultivated ones. Some previous studies have indicated a higher vitamin C content in organically produced crops as compared to conventionally ones [107], as a response to increased amounts of pathogens [107]. Vitamin C might be part of the synergistic constituents contributing to prevention against oxidation of other compounds although vitamin C in itself was not found to protect against proliferation of cancer cells [149]. Extremely large variation of nutritional beneficial compounds was found in crops due to various reasons, and parameters contributing to the variation were: genotypes, farming conditions, environment, harvest time, crop part and genetic modifications of the crop. The highest values of specific nutritional compound were seen in specific genotypes and high increases were seen for genetically modified crops. These crops with very high values of certain compounds could be of relevance for cultivation and production of food in areas with a large deficit in that specific compound in the diet. For a general improvement in public health, it however, seems more relevant to focus on combining a “right” genotype with a “right” farming system, were organic farming could be an alternative. From this “right” system, a crop based food should then be obtained with the “right” cocktail of constituents to obtain the synergistic effect that was reported from organically produced fruits and berries as related to cancer cell proliferation. The low amounts of pesticide residues and heavy metals reported in organically produced crops might be one part of the reported bases for an anticancer effect of organic food. The reasons for an eventual positive effect of consumption of organic crop-based foods on public health are summarized in Figure 1. Besides the impact on public health through possible positive effects of consumption of organic food, public health might also be influenced through organic cultivation due to its environmental effects, which are not discussed in the present review.
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