Organic rats in rude good health
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/st...418074,00.html

David Adam, science correspondent
Saturday February 19, 2005
The Guardian

Organic food can help you sleep, keep you slim and boost your immune system
- if you are a rat.

Scientists at the Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences experimented
with 36 rats, feeding one group organic food, another group food grown
conventionally with high levels of fertiliser and some pesticide, and a
third group minimally fertilised food. They say the rats fed organic food
were measurably healthier, in that they slept better, had stronger immune
systems and were less obese.

Dr Kirsten Brandt of Newcastle University's school of agriculture, who
helped to design the study, said: "This study doesn't prove anything about
which food is better than the other, but it does show that it can make a
difference."

The results have been submitted to a scientific journal but have not yet
been published. They were released yesterday by the Danish Research Centre
for Organic Farming, which funded the study. It said: "In all cases where
differences were observed there was a beneficial effect of the organically
grown diet. This indicates a positive effect of organically grown foods as
compared to conventionally grown food."