This article was written and reprinted with persimmion by Dr. Bill Misner of Hammer Nutrition.

Pesticides kill insects and are implicated in carcinogenic cellular aberrations. Most pesticides induce a weak estrogen mimic in human metabolism. If an athlete is predisposed to genetic deterioration, cancer or cellular hormone imbalances may create a potential to be life threatening based on dose and frequency exposure. Pesticide-saturated foods stimulate erratic systemic
cellular responses, inhibiting the proper mechanisms involved in balancing estrogen metabolism. Free-floating estrogen becomes persistent and excessive when the estrogen carrier system is invaded by relatively minuscule amounts of pesticide residues. Pesticides end up in the fatty stores. Health experts long have warned of the dangers of high-fat foods that can lead to heart disease or cancer. New studies show that each fatty bite may also carry a dose of highly toxic chemical pesticides. Sixty percent of all herbicides, 90% of all fungicides and 30% of all insecticides are considered carcinogenic by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). A 1987 National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report estimated that 20,000 cases of cancer a year can be linked to US pesticide use. The biggest dietary offenders come from commercially grown meats, dairy byproducts, and/or mass produce. Of these offenders, commercial produce carry only a fraction of the pesticide residues which meat and dairy products
induce.

Commercial fruits and vegetables carry less pesticide residues than do animal, poultry, and dairy byproducts because living tissues high on the food chain accumulate produce-grown pesticide residue in adipose storage sites. A closer look at the heavyweight pesticide produce carriers is disappointing:

Most pesticides have ingredients that affect the nervous system of insects. Dimpylate, better known as diazinon, is extremely toxic. It impairs the central nervous system. Chlorinate hydrocarbons are suspected carcinogen and mutantagens. They accumulate in food and in fatty tissue. They will attack the nervous system. Organophosphates are toxic and poisonous. Many processed products on the supermarket shelf are flavored with cottonseed oil. Not only does cottonseed oil contain a high amount of pesticides, it also contains Gossypol, a major toxin that accounts for 1% of the cottonseed's dry weight. Gosssypol causes sterility and abnormal sperm in humans.

ORGANIC FOOD TASTES BETTER BUT IS IT MORE NUTRITIOUS?

Organic food, according to some scientists, does have nutritional advantages over the chemically grown kinds. If soils are depleted of nutrients such as nitrogen and potassium, plant health is affected. Healthy soil contains more vitamin B-12, which shows up in higher levels in organically grown food. The most reliable data indicates that organic fruits and vegetables may contain a little more vitamin C and have slightly lower levels of nitrates than conventionally grown foods. For other nutrients the data is insufficient or conflicting. Several of the health supplements magazines I read insist that organic grown produce may contain up to +75% more micronutrients, than does the same produce commercially grown without the herbicides and pesticides which may be genetically engineered(GE). Other mainline nutrition magazine articles reason that the organic-grown produce is merely equivalent to the commercial product's micronutrient profile. There's been a lot of research internationally on whether
organic food has a higher nutritional value. Some tests report that organic foods have higher levels of some nutrients, but others have found no difference or lower levels. A review of studies from over 50 years suggests organic foods may be more nutritious, but the sum of evidence is regarded as inconclusive. Ounce for ounce, organic fruits and vegetables are twice as rich in certain nutrients compared to non-organic produce, according to a recent study reported in the Journal of Applied Nutrition.

A summary nutritional analysis data outcome shows that a human being could survive much longer on 4-5 lbs of ORGANIC WILD RICE, while the survival outcome for the the same amount of commercial white rice fails to meet a number of micro- and macro- nutrient requirements.

Organic foods do present a nutritional advantage for human health outcome. The argument for athletes using organic foods is most convincing from the perspective of NOT consuming health-deteriorating estrogen-mimics which create hormone imbalances, cellular mutagens, carcinogens, micronutrient malnutrition resulting in disease and/or performance inhibition. A second consideration is that eating whole organic foods generates remarkable beneficial health outcome. Maximal muscle growth adaptations are achieved by extreme endurance training, hormone balance, free radical neutralization, and toxin-waste transition when an athlete regularly consumes 5-9 servings of organic vegetables and fruits. Other organic foods present similar nutritional advantages for meeting or exceeding the dietary requirements without imposing toxic inhibition to an athletes.

REFERENCES
[1]-PESTICIDES MONITORING JOURNAL, 2:140-152,
1969.
[2]-Environmental Working Group compiled from FDA and EPA
data.
[3]-FIRST DATA BANK NUTRITIONAL DIETARY ANALYSIS OF WILD RICE COMPARED
TO WHITE RICE, Misner, WD, 1-25-2002; Micronutrient content of any rice is influenced by the quality of soil it grows in and the seasonal weather patterns effecting the profile quality and quantity of each vitamin and mineral profiled.