Feel Like You Can’t Afford to Buy Organic? Tell That to a Fruit Fly

“My husband says we can’t afford it,” my friend Denice said to me last week. “Organic food costs way too much.”

That was the debate a middle school student from Texas overheard her mom and dad having several years ago.

Ria Chhabra’s parents could not agree about whether it was “worth” it to buy organic food.

Her parents’ argument piqued her curiosity.

So Ria Chhabra decided to design a scientific experiment to figure out who was right.

Three years later, that research was published in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE, with Ria Chhabra, who was in high school by then, as lead author.

Fruit flies fare better on organic food

For the experiment Ria Chhabra tracked how the health of fruit flies was affected by eating organic food versus eating conventionally grown food.

I know you’ll be shocked, just shocked, when I tell you what she uncovered. (Not.)

On practically every rubric—fertility, longevity, and stress reduction—the fruit flies nourished with organic bananas, potatoes, raisins, and soybeans did better than the flies fed conventionally raised produce.

You can read the study, which was published in 2013, here: “Organically Grown Food Provides Health Benefits to Drosophila melanogaster.”

Why use flies?

Scientists often use fruit flies in their research because the flies’ short life span—they live on average of 40 to 50 days, or about a month and a half—makes it easier to chart biological effects over a brief period of time.

In addition, something like 60 percent of a fruit fly’s genes can be found in humans in a similar form.

Plus, around 75 percent of genes that cause illnesses in human are also found in fruit flies, and fruit flies also have more than 90 percent of the genes that are believed to trigger cancer in humans in their genomes, according to the Max Planck Society, which conducts scientific research in a variety of fields.

Organic food leads to more fertility, better health, longer lives

Although it’s much more difficult to measure health outcomes in humans who eat organic versus conventional food, one 2019 systematic review found that studies have shown that people who ate organic had better fertility, fewer allergies, and more optimal body weight.

“Significant positive outcomes were seen in longitudinal studies where increased organic intake was associated with reduced incidence of infertility, birth defects, allergic sensitisation, otitis media, pre-eclampsia, metabolic syndrome, high BMI, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma,” the team of Australian researchers explain.  

They continue: “The current evidence base does not allow a definitive statement on the health benefits of organic dietary intake. However, a growing number of important findings are being reported from observational research linking demonstrable health benefits with organic food consumption.”

Polluted food

There are many possible explanations for why the flies eating organic food had better health outcomes than the flies that were feasting on conventional produce, though speculating to the reasons why the organically fed flies fared better was out of the scope of Ria Chhabra’s PLOS ONE study.

When plants are treated with pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and other chemicals, toxic residues enter the food chain.

My friend and colleague, Dr. Stephanie Seneff, Ph.D., details the harms to health of the herbicide glyphosatein her 2022 book, Toxic Legacy.

Of particular note, glyphosate can be devastating to fertility and to brain health.

Organic food is more nutrient-dense

Organic produce is often fresher and more nutrient-dense than conventionally farmed produce, so that may be why the organically-fed fruit flies’ health was better.

Another theory is that plants that are cultivated organically have to produce natural compounds to combat fungal infections and pests and these compounds make the plants healthier to animals and humans who eat them.

This is one reason why holistic-health-minded journalists, foodies, and healthcare practitioners often urge their patients to eat wild-harvested plants as well.

Buying fresh, delicious, whole foods grown without pesticides and herbicides should not be only for the wealthy.

Still, the sticker shock at the grocery store is real.

Depending where you live, you can befriend an organic farmer and buy local produce directly from their farm, often for a lot less than the anemic conventional vegetables you find at the grocery store.

So yesterday I took Denice to the farmers’ market.

She’s a people person and she loves meeting and talking to the vendors.

She’s so enthusiastic and curious that one farmer gives her a free purple cabbage and a handful of shallots at no extra charge, and the good folks who grow Carolina gold rice offer her some locally grown grits, urging her to come back to report on how she liked them.

Denice walks away with two cloth bags full of locally grown mushrooms, lima beans, freshly caught shrimp, pecans, carrots, onions, tomatoes, oregano, basil, scallions, lettuce, and muscadine grapes.

It’s not all certified organic but it’s all fresh and local and delicious. Best of all, she hasn’t exceeded her budget. So even her husband can’t complain.

Readers, I’d love to hear from you: Is it “worth” it to you and your family to buy organic food? Please share your thoughts about organic food in the comment section below.

About the author: Jennifer Margulis, Ph.D., is an award-winning science journalist and book author. Her articles have been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and on the cover of Smithsonian magazine. Enjoy exclusive benefits and support healthy eating, medical freedom, and vibrant life by becoming a paid subscriber to Vibrant Life today!

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