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Pesticides and Your Health
Should You Go Organic While Pregnant?
By Jenn Director Knudsen
Dr. Boyd would say Bisconti's choices are right on and should apply to anyone, whether a cancer victim or one never plagued with the disease. "I don't want to make people neurotic about this, but if you have the opportunity, you should think about it [going organic]," says Dr. Boyd, whose wife and four children, ages 3 to 19, eat organic at home.
Generally speaking, he says there are 80,000 synthetic chemical compounds in use, many of which are used on and in foods and pesticides that have never been tested. Of pregnant women, Dr. Boyd says eating organic produce is not only in their best interest, but also in that of their unborn baby.
A pregnant woman eats more food daily – for an average of 300 additional calories – than before she conceived. And she's eating to fuel her developing fetus, whose inchoate systems are particularly vulnerable.
Boyd says the culprits are organophosphorus compounds. They have been shown to have a deleterious effect on kids, so it's reasonable to infer they'd also have a negative effect on a baby in utero.
Dr. Boyd is careful to say there is no definitive link yet between exposure to organophosphorus compounds and neurological problems in kids, such as ADHD, learning disabilities and even autism. But he says there must be a reason these and other conditions are on the rise.
Dr. Boyd points to one study that concludes organic foods are just plain better for kids' overall health. Conducted at the University of Washington by one of his colleagues and published in Environmental Health Perspectives
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