A new study suggests that eating an organic diet may significantly lower cancer risk. Researchers compared French adults who frequently consumed organic foods to those who never consumed organic foods and found a 25% reduction in overall cancer risk. As stated by the study authors: “a higher frequency of organic food consumption was associated with a reduced risk of cancer.” They also looked at specific cancer types and found that eating an organic diet significantly decreases the risk of developing three cancer types: Non-Hodgkin lymphoma risk is reduced by 86%, all lymphomas risk is reduced by 76%, and postmenopausal breast cancer risk is reduced by 34%.
The research team hypothesized that this decrease in cancer risk is linked with a reduction in exposure to pesticide residues on food, because the organic standards ban the use of most synthetic pesticides, and “as a result, organic products are less likely to contain pesticide residues than conventional foods.”