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Friday, June 06, 2014

Checking sources

Couple of interesting pieces that demonstrate the importance of looking at original sources. I'm no fanboy of organic food so this article caught my attention:

http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2014/06/the_biggest_myth_about_organic_farming.html  It makes the point and cites a couple of studies that show that there is no evidence that organically grown food is better for you, tastes better, or is safer.  Now, if you look at the abstract of one of the studies cited by the author from the Annals of Internal Medicine (unfortunately most is behind a paywall) you'll note two sentences not emphasized by Pomeroy:

 "The published literature lacks strong evidence that organic foods are significantly more nutritious than conventional foods. Consumption of organic foods may reduce exposure to pesticide residues and antibiotic-resistant bacteria."  Now avoidance of pesticide residues and antibiotic-resistant bacteria some people might consider a good thing.  Be skeptical and double-check your sources.  (It's the librarian in me.)

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