Another epidemiological study that breathlessly reports an association between two measured factors, organic food intake and mental performance. They used the shotgun approach and examined all the data they could get hold of about ~1200 children in Europe. It would be amazing if the did not find some associations.
I will get excited when we move past associations. Eating organic food might well provide better nutrition. Also more intelligent and better educated parents may have brighter kids and be inclined to feed them better including organic food. Who know what the cause is.
There is an association between mental ability and shoe size too.
So a bait headline. The lead author states…
The explanation for this association may be that "healthy diets, including organic diets, are richer than fast food diets in nutrients necessary for the brain, such as fatty acids, vitamins and antioxidants, which together may enhance cognitive function in childhood
So it is a healthy diet which is already well documented, rather than an organic food diet per say. The lead author then assumes that organic food diets are healthy.
Organic certification criteria does not require organic food to be heathy (organic sugar, vegetable oils or salt are some good examples), so the association may be speculation or opinion that those that eat organic foods have a healthy diet. I wonder if this belief includes those organic foods which are unhealthy and would fall into the fast or junk food category?
