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Organic Food is Good for Weight Loss?

sal10851
sal10851 Posts: 171 Member
in Debate Club
My friend argues that organic foods help with weight loss. I argue that a calorie is a calorie no matter where it comes from. A 50 calorie organic cookie is still 50 calories worth of food. If you eat too many organic cookies you still gain the same amount of weight! Am I missing something here?
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Replies

  • harper16
    harper16 Posts: 2,564 Member
    Nope. Weight loss is caused by being in a calorie deficit.
  • sal10851
    sal10851 Posts: 171 Member
    moonangel12 wrote: »
    The one logical argument I have seen for organic food aiding in weight loss is that it costs more so you can’t afford to eat as much :p

    I guess I would think twice about eating a 15 dollar steak versus a 10 dollar steak. Maybe I would split the 15 dollar steak and save it for another meal. Very interesting.
  • PAPYRUS3
    PAPYRUS3 Posts: 13,259 Member
    moonangel12 wrote: »
    The one logical argument I have seen for organic food aiding in weight loss is that it costs more so you can’t afford to eat as much :p

    Exactly what I was thinking too🤣🤣
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,197 Member
    And what is your friend's specific explanation for precisely how and why, nutritionally or physiologically, organic food is better for weight loss? It seems like that explanation would be pretty fascinating.

    Because no, there's no evidence for that. 😆
  • CipherZero
    CipherZero Posts: 1,418 Member
    100% does not matter. Organic food isn't less calorie dense or more nutrition than non-organically raised food.
  • AndreaTamira
    AndreaTamira Posts: 272 Member
    edited September 2020
    Organic does not matter. As you said, calorie is calorie

    That said, many already prepared organic foods try to hook the"health concious", so, for example use whole meal flour or oats, have less sugar or replace sugar with date puree, etc. That may have an effect either by leading to lower calorie snacks, or by at least having a few more nice nutrients in them (dates are high in calorie, but also have some minerals and vitamins that plain sugar is missing).

    That's not because the food is organic, though, but is only a side effect from shops trying to sell to a larger crowd.
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    Calories determine weight loss.

    The danger of organic food is that it can distract a person from really making their lifestyle healthier. You can't switch to organic food and dismiss things like:

    1)Eating a healthy number of calories
    2) Eating enough of a variety to cover nutritional needs including fiber
    3) Exercising
    4) Improving sleep habits
    5) Managing stress
    6) Minimizing negative or draining relationships


    The above is not exhaustive and not in order of importance. The priority changes based on individual needs and sometimes it is better to work on the easy-to-solve items first because it improves the handling of the others.
  • J72FIT
    J72FIT Posts: 6,002 Member
    Energy deficit is good for weight loss...
  • tbright1965
    tbright1965 Posts: 852 Member
    Only because it costs more and you cannot buy as much.

    But seriously, a calorie is a calorie...
  • age_is_just_a_number
    age_is_just_a_number Posts: 631 Member
    moonangel12 wrote: »
    The one logical argument I have seen for organic food aiding in weight loss is that it costs more so you can’t afford to eat as much :p

    lol

    Calories are calories.
  • tuckerrj
    tuckerrj Posts: 1,453 Member
    Yeah it's good for losing weight, , , , , , , IN YOUR WALLET!
  • MikePfirrman
    MikePfirrman Posts: 3,307 Member
    Maybe, but the science is hardly sound on that. The only issue that might affect it is the amount of Round-Up, which does have antibiotic properties to it, on the microbiome -- which does directly influence weight.

    I try to eat organic grains/beans and stay away from vegetable oils. I also don't eat a lot of ready processed foods. If you want to limit Round-Up, that will do it for the most part. Also stay away from mint if not organic.

    Monsanto did take a patent out on Round-Up as a possible antibiotic. Obviously, it's not an antibiotic docs use, but it does kill bacteria in our guts. And when they claim there's "no shikimake pathway", they are completely leaving out the notion that the bacteria in our microbiome aren't human cells and some can uptake the Round-Up. Now how much influence this can have on metabolism is questionable, but I certainly think it can limit the diversity of the microbiome over time, which can be very concerning for our health.

    If you're concerned, stay away from non-organic beans and grains and fried foods. But to buy all organic gets very pricy. IMHO, not worth it.
  • MikePfirrman
    MikePfirrman Posts: 3,307 Member
    But what your friend is saying is ludicrous.
  • J72FIT
    J72FIT Posts: 6,002 Member
    sal10851 wrote: »
    My friend argues that organic foods help with weight loss. I argue that a calorie is a calorie no matter where it comes from. A 50 calorie organic cookie is still 50 calories worth of food. If you eat too many organic cookies you still gain the same amount of weight! Am I missing something here?

    Curious what mechanism your friend has identified for this...
  • Fuzzipeg
    Fuzzipeg Posts: 2,301 Member
    Organic food production methods are better for the soils than the intensive farming methods to which we have become accustomed.

  • 4Phoenix
    4Phoenix Posts: 236 Member
    I eat organic....energy burned has nothing to do with organic. I do that because I want the highest nutritional value from my food. I eat nutritionally dense food and maintain a caloric deficit for weight loss.
  • Fuzzipeg
    Fuzzipeg Posts: 2,301 Member
    I broke of purposely to provoke. So you bit.

    The nutritional benefits of a calorie make one calorie more beneficial than another. Balanced nutrition is all, which one usually finds out when a body becomes malnourished and ill.

    When foods are produced organically the outcome is the food is of higher nutritional quality and freshness compared to foods produced on tired, lifeless soils in "factory style" systems which degrade the soils even more than they were and promotes erosion, all that when our soils are precious. Without good soils there will be less foods for everyone everywhere. The British Soil Association is a cornerstone of our food production.

    Thank you above for the post about Roundup and Monsanto. One more reason not to visit, sorry.
  • Fuzzipeg
    Fuzzipeg Posts: 2,301 Member
    The quality or lack of quality in our foods adds to deficiencies in nutrition, consider iodine, a key requirement for thyroid health. The books day there should be x amount in this or that food be it a green vegetable or whatever but it the soil is deficient the foods are likely to become deficient too. Organic soils achie a better balance.

    Nutritional deficiencies can reduce how well a body is able to function, lack of function will dependant on the degree of deficiency will cause "byproducts of life" and other substances not to be eliminated as they should. they have to be stored somewhere as inflammation. Eliminating the inflammation is more likely to happen when one is not subjecting oneself to weedkilling residues and the like. I read the other day that English potatoes unlike Scottish, Irish and Welsh ones, could be sprayed with a concoction containing copper Copper is toxic and some like me react poorly to it.

    Actually the phone rang....................... thought I would see what was flushed out.

    Wishing you well. Please take care and keep safe.
  • nooshi713
    nooshi713 Posts: 4,877 Member
    Honestly, no. Weight loss is about calories. I do feel organic farming is better for the environment and probably healthier. I try to minimize chemicals in my diet. I have noticed the organic produce tends to taste better too.
  • spyro88
    spyro88 Posts: 472 Member
    Whilst I agree with everyone saying that weight loss is about calories, I think there could be some psychological effect that could contribute.

    For example, if you say one day "I am going to commit to a healthier lifestyle and I want to lose some weight", then you might start buying organic food as part of that. It might be part of your plan that you want to cut out the pesticides (or whatever it is that makes people buy organic food), and that might go along with a whole host of other things you are doing to live a healthier lifestyle, such as exercise and generally eating less.

    So I could imagine a scenario where people eating organic foods might lose more weight... but not purely because they are organic foods. Maybe it's because people buying organic foods tend to be quite health-conscious to begin with... so there could be more around it to do with the mentality and psychology that accompanies weight loss.
  • Fuzzipeg
    Fuzzipeg Posts: 2,301 Member
    Less chemical contamination.

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