Super Baby Woo: Is Organic Baby Food Better?
Letters! We got letters!
I’m thrilled that anyone thinks we know the answers to these questions. After I answered an email a little while ago, we got another one:
Hello there. I am a soon-to-be skeptical Dad, and I have been reading
(and enjoying!) your site. (You can thank Phil Plait for that)I was wondering if any of you have done research about organic foods?
Are they healthier for you and your kids then their normal
counterparts? Have there been any studies done? I have heard that
organic tomatoes can have a naturally produced pesticide in them that
can be worse then the ones they spray on.It seems like organics would be better for you, but as you know, that
kind of thinking can get you in trouble.Thank You,
Derek Cramer
I thought this topic would take tons of research, but I really had to look no further than Robert T. Carroll’s thorough breakdown of the latest research on organic food and farming on Skepdic.
I read the whole thing, but if you don’t want to take the time, here’s the important part:
I have to say that I am underwhelmed by the studies I have reviewed that claim to have found organic foods are more nourishing or healthy than conventional fruits and vegetables.
The article was last updated on December 29, 2008, and there are tons of links and citations, so it seems pretty comprehensive.
So let’s talk about baby food, a subject of interest to me lately, since my son eats almost none of it. At eight months, he is still mostly a boobetarian. Not a fan of the solid food so much.
Because I tend to get overly ambitious at the outset of projects, I bought a book when Zack was four months old called Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron. This book is all about how to make your own baby food, which I thought would be fun and cost effective. I never made any baby food, and I’m glad, because it would have been a waste of time, as my baby doesn’t eat food.
I also gleaned after just a little reading that Ruth Yaron is just a little nuts. She starts off urging us to make only certified organic foods for our precious babies. Okay, we just learned that the whole organic thing is maybe not based on the soundest science, but at least it’s a popular delusion. It’s more her tone that sort of got to me. On page 38:
Pesticides kill living things. Let me repeat that. Pesticides kill living things. Who knows what long-term effects these supposedly safe levels of pesticides used on our nation’s crops will have on your baby….
A statement like this gets under my skin. For one thing, the repetition is symptomatic of the entire book, which is poorly organized and redundant, and full of helpful “tips” and “warnings” that often stray into crazyville. Here’s one:
WARNING: Your blender and food processor give off a lot of EMFs (electro magnetic fields), so don’t stand very close to it. Step back a good foot or two while it is grinding.
Are you freakin’ kidding me?
First of all, no, your blender is not dangerous, unless you stick your hand in it. Thanks again to Skepdic for this article on EMFs and how there’s no scientific evidence they can harm you.
Second, how can this sentence have made it into the second edition of this book with a mismatched pronoun? Blender and food processor, right? Maybe don’t stand so close to them.
Anyway, I’m sure that if I had ever actually decided to cook and mash up veggies for my son, this book would have been useful. It has a bunch of recipes in it. But I could not see the point. Babies don’t eat purees for too long anyway, before they move on to finger foods. So I could imagine myself making batches of peas and sweet potatoes, freezing them in ice cube trays…and then having little frozen blocks of peas and sweet potatoes getting in the way of the frozen pizza for weeks. The evil “commercial” stuff looked fine to me, based on the ingredients. What’s in sweet potato baby food? Sweet potatoes. And water. That’s it. (Well, plus the evil.)
But back to the pesticides thing, the other thing that annoys me is the fear mongering. “Who knows…” is such an evocative phrase for creating fear. Who knows what this stuff could do to your baby? Forget about it. No parent is feeding that stuff to her baby, even if the answer to “Who knows” is well, scientists who’ve done a bunch of studies and determined that the stuff isn’t so bad. There’s no proof it could hurt you. But that might mean they just haven’t found the proof yet, right? Better not eat it!
On the subject of pesticides, Ruth Yaron continues:
Another problem with pesticides and your baby is this: Your baby eats much more food per pound of body weight than we do, so pesticides get more concentrated in her little body. Babies are especially vulnerable to pesticides because their immune system, their organs, and their developing brains are so immature.
Once again, Ruth seems to have trouble with plurals. I really doubt all babies share one giant “immune system.” I’m pretty sure that should be “systems.” Was her editor just blissed out on organic pot or what? But moving on to the content, more food per pound of body weight? More concentrated poison in my baby? This is some scary math!
But wait, there’s no citation or reference here. I can understand that my baby eats more food per pound of body weight (well, not my baby, who hates food, but say, the average baby), but it doesn’t necessarily follow that pesticides get concentrated in his little body. Where are your numbers? How much more pesticide are we talking about? Do pesticides even accumulate like this? All pesticides? Why are you trying to terrify me about my baby’s brain and organs? If you’re going to say something like this–that I’m going to load up my baby’s little vulnerable organs with pesticide–you gotta show me some proof. Otherwise you’re just making up stuff to frighten me. (I admit, I’m slightly frightened, but mostly of ever running into Ruth Yaron and having to have a conversation with her. She sounds preachy and annoying.)
So, in conclusion, stay away from your blender, and only eat organic.
I hope that answers your question, Derek, and thanks for writing!
molly Said,
February 22, 2009 @ 11:45 am
i thought that book was nutty too. her chapter on meat was like “meat is bad and evil. here are some recipes.” that was weird!
Cindy Said,
February 22, 2009 @ 2:42 pm
I have always wondered about the science behind using strained baby food at all. Total anecdote time: Our first kid grew really fast and was begging for solid foods by 3.5 months. We just started giving her little bits of what ever we were eating whether is was chicken piccata, vegetable soup, or spinach salad. We would just mash it with a fork or our fingers and make sure she never had pieces that she could choke on. She was breast fed, healthy and growing, so I never worried about the exact calories or nutrition (other than making sure she got enough iron and vit. D). Everyone we knew with babies were introducing one food at a time and giving that for a week to see if there were any allergies and they all ended up with a long list of unacceptable foods. We didn’t. We had two more kids later and did basically the same thing, but started solids a little later since the babies weren’t as interested as soon. A varied diet with everything in moderation made more sense to me than cans of mashed peas. End result with my three was three healthy kids with no food sensitivities who like vegetables and enjoy trying new foods. As babies they also never put things in their mouths and gagged on them. They knew that things that get into their mouths might not be liquid mush from the age they could get things into their mouths. I was always a little shocked to see six month olds gagging on cheerios.
Sure my anecdotes are as good as the paper they are written on, but I can’t help but feel that the whole baby food thing came along with the 50s era baby formula train of thought that everything the babies eat must be made in a fancy factory by experts to make healthy kids. One food at a time makes no sense to me. I bet if I ate only sweet potatoes for a week I would have digestion problems. Sure, if you are having issues, try eliminating ingredients. We had to do that with my second kid while he was breastfeeding. Turned out he was sensitive to me eating too much tomato, but he grew out of it when he started solids.
Anyway, that is my “why baby food at all?” rant.
Stacy Said,
February 22, 2009 @ 3:49 pm
The only organic food my kid gets is YoBaby yogurt… because finding a whole milk yogurt other than that one is a pain in the keister, and he needs the calories.
I back titrate with Chicken McNuggets, one of the other dozen foods he’ll actually EAT.
Nancy Said,
February 22, 2009 @ 5:02 pm
I recently looked at a paper about the nutritional content of organic versus non-organic foods from Rutgers University. The results were really interesting. It really seems to be a ‘crap” shoot. They looked at a number of fruits and vegetables over several years and the nutritional value seemed more influenced by things like the growing season and the local soil than the method of farming. Interestingly I learned that organic farmers spray crops like tomatoes with a substance made from the ground up ectoskeletons of insects. This stimulates the plant’s natural defences causing it to, say grow a thicker skin and at a chemical level to produce more antioxidents thus boosting the nutritional content of the fruit or vegetable. The problem, with tomatoes in any case, is that there comes a point where the tomato is very nutritious but as tough as tennis ball and completely inedible.
All very intersting stuff.
Personally the pesticides do not scare me and the nutritonal content doesn’t vary enough for me to go out of my way to buy organic products especially when they are often twice the price.
I wonder if there’s actually any evidence what-so-ever that children who eat organic develop any fifferently than their non-organically fed counterparts. This is one of many things on my list to investigate.
In the meantime we will eating my non-organic food, wearing non-organic clothes and probably washing windows with Windex. Oh the humanity.
Michelle Said,
February 22, 2009 @ 7:21 pm
I never thought it was a health issue, I thought it was an environmental one. Isn’t it better for the environment to eat organic or local (depending on where you live)?
Julie Said,
February 22, 2009 @ 9:31 pm
Michelle, I didn’t get into that in this post, but I thought that organic was better for the environment as well. But I’m learning now that it may actually not be as sustainable as regular farming for various reasons. For one thing, it takes more land to grow crops organically. But I didn’t get into all that in this post for the sake of brevity. I want to do some research on it for another post.
nonplus Said,
February 23, 2009 @ 9:50 am
I haven’t read the book but does sound a bit nutty to me – I love people freaking out about EMFs like this. Though I must admit that my blender has a food processor attachment (which is more hassle than worth, IMO) so there isn’t necessarily a singular/plural mismatch in that quote.
We just started solid foods with our 2nd child (at 6 months) and my wife does do the mashed up veggies in the ice cube tray thing (not sure if we use organic produce, though). It’s not much work and I suspect it won’t last very long since, unlike our first one, this girl will probably be munching on hamburgers within a month, they she’s attacking solid food. It does save quite a bit of money for us, and packaging for the environment. And we’ll still use baby jars on the go.
Diane Said,
February 23, 2009 @ 10:31 am
One thing I’m wondering about is if organic is really pesticide-free. I thought that rotenone and pyrethrin are acceptable for organic use because they are “naturally derived” and not made by evil chemical companies. I have never been motivated enough to look that up (which is pathetic, I know), but I stopped buying organic anyway. Oh, and as for my own anecdotes: firstborn got jarred (organic) baby food. Second got homemade. Both went through a picky eating phase that lasted a long time, but now, with both much older (”tweens”), eat just about everything. Finally.
Laurie T. Said,
February 23, 2009 @ 1:00 pm
Love this post! So funny. I, too, lose respect for an author once I spot a few grammatical errors.
I bought jar food, as well. I had a baby food grinder, but only used it three times. It was impossible to clean!
One thing that bothered me about jar food was that the step 1 foods were all single ingredients, as they should be, but the step 3 ones seemed to be dominated by the desserts. Dessert?? What baby needs dessert? Applesauce IS dessert to a baby, yet they sell baby food desserts, with added sugar. I even sent a letter to complain about this to Gerber, and they sent me coupons. Lol!
BTW- Did you see Domestic Father’s post about jar-vs.-home ground? http://domesticfather.com/2009/02/our-yankee-food-paranoia/
daverytech Said,
February 23, 2009 @ 1:07 pm
The other way to fix the grammar in that sentence would be to say ” WARNING: Your blender orfood processor give off a lot of EMFs (electro magnetic fields), so don’t stand very close to it. Step back a good foot or two while it is grinding.”
Or “I don’t know the first thing about science, so you shouldn’t take any advice about mechanical things from me.”
That would be a much more accurate sentence.
Shen-Li Said,
February 24, 2009 @ 10:46 am
Personally, I think the whole organic food thing is just a marketing exercise. At least where we live it is…
I bought “organic” broccoli one day and chucked it into the fridge when we got home. Completely forgot about it for a month when I discovered it again while I was looking for food. Now look at this picture and tell me what’s wrong with it?
http://figur8.net/baby/2008/03/03/is-it-really-organic-or-just-a-designer-label/
It’s one month old organic broccoli, supposedly free from pesticides and preservatives, so why the heck does it still look so green?
A friend of mine who happens to be pretty close to his local fruit and veggie grocer once told me that when the regular fruits and veggies start “going off”, they just get dumped into the “organic” bin.
Makes you a bit skeptical about buying organic, doesn’t it?
Estherar Said,
February 24, 2009 @ 12:59 pm
Nancy:”They looked at a number of fruits and vegetables over several years and the nutritional value seemed more influenced by things like the growing season and the local soil than the method of farming.”
Indeed. I took this picture of two pieces of pumpkin, one of which I bought in the supermarket and once which was given to me by my organic-faithful neighbor:
http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg239/mainstreamparenting/116_1643.jpg
Given the marked difference in color, I think it stands to reason that there’s more beta-carotene in the non-organic piece.
Estherar Said,
February 24, 2009 @ 1:02 pm
I might add that the (mostly organic, because I can’t really be bothered to use industrial pesticides other than Roundup) huge pumpkin I personally grew in my garden and shared with all the neighbors a couple of years back looked just like the conventionally grown one…
Rational Moms » Blog Archive » Skeptical Parent Crossing! Said,
February 25, 2009 @ 10:22 am
[...] our favorite topic (vaccines and autism), a cliff-hanger on baby-food safety, our own Rational Moms article on organic baby food, and much [...]
Jennie M Said,
February 25, 2009 @ 4:40 pm
I definitely think Yaron is a crazed zealot. Most of the book reads like Hints from Heloise on Crack (grow your own flaxseeds! culture yogurt in your own breast milk! make your own tinfoil hat from recyled candy wrappers! go, go, go!). But I have found that making my own baby food is cheap and easy, actually. There’s no overhead cost — I already own a blender and ice cube trays — and you can make interesting things that they don’t make in jarred baby food — beets, kale, broccoli, etc. Also it was liberating to realize I didn’t have to buy processed cereals; I could just stick some oatmeal or brown rice in a blender for 2 minutes and cook it. I don’t know if it’s better, but it’s definitely cheaper. And I’m all about cheap, these days!
Martin Baby Blog » Diaper Daily News - 2/25/09 Said,
February 25, 2009 @ 6:47 pm
[...] Super Baby Woo: Is Organic Baby Food Better? (Rational Moms) [...]
Julie Said,
February 26, 2009 @ 10:26 am
Jennie, the problem is that while you’re off making your own baby food, you are not writing brilliant posts here.
Mkay?
Zack is almost at the point where he can eat cheerios and little finger foods, but maybe I’ll try blending up some broccoli. I did notice the selection among the jarred foods wasn’t too hot. But since we had to wait between introductions anyway, we never really wanted for variety.
By the way, just to spite me, his favorite cereal is Earth’s Best Organic multi-grain. He will eat that fast, whereas Gerber rice is just bleh. We found this out right after I wrote my post. So maybe even if Organic isn’t “better,” that brand is tastier? Or maybe it’s that it’s whole grain. It looks more substantial.
Charon Said,
March 1, 2009 @ 8:34 pm
As a scientist, it really irritates me when people champion reasonable and loony causes at the same time. For example, people who are pro-organic and pro-local also tend to be pro-homeopathy and other mumbo jumbo. As a result people tend to dismiss all such stuff together.
I don’t see any reason why organic would have more nutrients (although it wasn’t that long ago that most organic food was from local small farms, that perhaps grew heirloom varieties and let things ripen – still, nothing about this in the USDA organic standard). But about safety, the case is exactly opposite. A priori I’d be worried about putting toxins on food. The onus is on proving that it’s safe, not the other way around.
And I really doubt organic is worse for the environment.
Marion Said,
March 3, 2009 @ 8:36 pm
This is a great post! At Target I can get organic baby food for the same price as traditional so that is what I buy. If was a farmer I would rather not be exposed to pesticides everyday so perhaps in some small way my organic baby food helps improve some farmers life. Who knows!
Rational Moms » Blog Archive » More on Organic Foods Said,
March 4, 2009 @ 6:37 pm
[...] organic baby food has been discussed here lately, I thought I’d post a link to an interesting article that [...]
Organic Gluten Free Baby Food Said,
March 10, 2009 @ 12:33 pm
[...] Rational Moms » Blog Archive » Super Baby Woo: Is Organic Baby … [...]
detoxdietlady Said,
October 3, 2009 @ 7:56 am
every food that we eat should come from Organic Farming. i really get scared about those toxins coming from chemical fertilizers and chemical pesticides. I only eat foods which are certified that they are organically grown
Shelby Esera Said,
May 1, 2010 @ 12:44 pm
it is still better to adhere on organic farming because the fruits and vegetables does not contain those harmful chemicals.”.