Would you worry if you knew your food contained sucrose octanoate esters or tocopherols? They might sound frightening, but don’t fret. These substances in packaged foods are also known as sugar, fat and vitamin E.
 
But see what I did there? I used chemical names to evoke fear by telling you those items were in your food. For a moment, you were probably wary of ingesting tocopherols. Scare tactics like this are often used by marketers to make people buy one product over another — especially organic over conventionally grown foods, which consumers spend billions of dollars on annually.
 
The Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit organization that focuses on human health and environmentalism, contributes to this fear. In March, it released a report called “Organic: The Original Clean Food,” which asserted that organic packaged foods are safer than conventional packaged foods, because they don’t contain toxic pesticides or added chemicals. The report says “organic packaged foods are the only clean option for consumers.” That’s a scary thought considering the high cost of organic products — an organic 50-gram chocolate bar is $4.99 while a conventional one costs about $1.50.
 
(This is probably an opportune moment to point out that a small amount of the EWG’s funding comes from the organic food industry and that many of its reports and claims have been heavily criticized by members of the scientific community.)
 
As a dietitian, I encourage people to choose fresh food more often than processed foods, whether organic or not. Organic cookies, chips and soda are not healthier than conventional versions. But the EWG says conventional packaged foods are filled with “chemicals.”
 
This is where I remind you that “chemical” is not synonymous with “dangerous.”...........The dose makes the poison.............To Read More.....