Are Organic Foods Better for My Baby?

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Katie Ferraro (32s):

In those organic foods are not proven to be more nutritions then the conventionally grown ones. You do not need organic foods for your baby to get good nutrition. Now, organic may offer a benefit in lower pesticide residue. So for families who want to and can choose organic foods, especially for produce, go for it. But offering plenty of fruits and vegetables either way, using basic steps like washing produce to reduce residues. Those are important safety and health messages as well. Hey there, I'm Katie Ferraro, registered dietitian, college nutrition professor and mom of seven specializing in baby led weaning. Here on the baby led weaning Made Easy podcast.

Katie Ferraro (1m 13s):

I help you strip out all of the noise and nonsense about feeding, leaving you with the confidence and knowledge You need to give your baby a safe start to solid foods using baby led weaning. Have you ever stood in the produce aisle holding two cartons of a similar food, let's say strawberries, one's organic and one's not. And you feel that pang of guilt like, Ooh, if I don't buy the organic one, am I like already cutting corners for my kid? Because this word organic, it has such a powerful health halo and it can feel like organic equals I'm a good parent and conventional is like, I'm just not trying my best. But here's the twist.

Katie Ferraro (1m 54s):

When you zoom in on what actually matters for your baby, and we're talking nutrition, safety and what's gonna help your baby learn to love real foods, this whole organic versus conventional question, it's gonna get a lot less scary and actually a lot more practical. So today I wanna walk you through what the word organic really means, what it actually changes and what it doesn't, so that you can shop with confidence and feed your baby without the guilt. I like to start each of these mini training episodes with a baby led weaning tip of the day. And since today's episode is about organic foods, let's cut right to the chase because when it comes to nutrition content, and we're talking about nutrients like vitamin C or fiber or iron, organic foods are not more nutritious than are conventionally grown foods.

Katie Ferraro (2m 44s):

So back to the strawberries sample. Let's say If you're selecting strawberries to feed your baby, we know strawberries contain vitamin C, and vitamin C helps your baby's body absorb iron from the other foods you're offering. You don't go and choose organic strawberries 'cause you think they're gonna have more vitamin C and be more nutritious than conventionally grown ones because it doesn't work like that. And hang tight because we are gonna talk about some of the benefits of when it does make sense to offer your baby organic foods. And also why you can't just default to that dirty dozen list. If you've heard about that one from the environmental working group, it's a little more nuanced than like, oh, I'm just gonna buy these 12 foods organic and everything's gonna be good.

Katie Ferraro (3m 25s):

So let's dive in looking at organic foods. Are they really better for my baby? And I wanna start by sharing how incredibly large the entire world of organic food has gotten right. Organic is now a $71.6 billion market in the us. So according to the Organic Trade Association's 2025 organic market report, US sales of certified organic products hit a new record of $71.6 billion in 2024. That's growing at 5.2% in a single year. And that's more than double the growth rate of the overall marketplace. Okay? So organic foods are a big player. And If you wanna think about how wild the organic world has gotten, Costco is often cited as the largest organic foods retailer.

Katie Ferraro (4m 11s):

Whole Foods and Amazon are up there, but Walmart is pretty close behind. Okay? Think about that. A lot of people in the US are getting the organic foods at Walmart. So it feels like organic food is everywhere, but what doesn that mean? And do you absolutely have to buy organic to do the best? Buy your baby? Let's talk first about what Are organic foods. Okay? In the us the word organic on foods, it does have a specific legal meaning. Okay? It refers to foods produced under the USDA's National Organic Program. So for produce, that means farmers have to follow approved methods for things like soil and pest control. They can't use most synthetic fertilizers or pesticides on the land for at least three years before harvest for meat and eggs and dairy.

Katie Ferraro (4m 55s):

Organic animals have to be fed a hundred percent organic feed. They have to have outdoor access and living conditions that support natural behaviors. And they can't be given antibiotics or growth hormones for packaged foods. It gets a little bit dicier here, okay? But the label's gonna tell you how much is organic. So organic generally means that 95% of the ingredients are organic ingredients while something that says on the label that it's made with organic means that it's at least 70% organic ingredients. Now the big question is, parents are always asking, but Are organic foods healthier? Okay? And I know we have this tendency to get pulled toward the word organic because it feels automatically healthier.

Katie Ferraro (5m 35s):

You're not imagining that. If you think that there was a national Pew Research Center survey that found that about 45% of US adults said that organic fruits and vegetables are better for your health than conventional produce. Okay? And younger adults are even more likely to believe that. Now we'll get to some of the benefits of organic foods in a second, but what's interesting is like this health halo effect, it shows up in experiments too. If researchers label the exact same foods as organic people actually assume that the organic one has fewer calories. And they actually even became more forgiving about how much exercise would be needed afterwards. So one study like used cookies as an example. Now that gets me to my next point, which is like if something looks like a cookie and it tastes like a cookie, just because it's labeled organic, it's still a cookie, okay?

Katie Ferraro (6m 21s):

Organic junk food is still junk food. So just because something is a highly processed organic food does not mean it's more nutritious, okay? And we don't wanna be offering junk foods or sugar sweetened foods, even if it's with organic sugar to our babies. I wanna talk next about the environmental benefits of organic foods. 'cause we are not here to disor organic foods. There certainly are benefits. And one of the reasons that lots of families choose to go organic doesn't have to do with nutrition in as much as like vitamin C and fiber and iron. It has to do more with that environmental concept because organic farming generally relies more on things like crop rotation and compost and natural pest control instead of those synthetic pesticides and fertilizers.

Katie Ferraro (7m 3s):

So the idea here is to take better care of the soil and help protect water from chemical runoff and be gentle or on wildlife and the people who live and work near farms. And if we think about the animal foods like meat and eggs and dairy, those organic standards, they also include things like organic feed and limits on the antibiotics and the growth hormones, which a lot of families feel better supporting. I know personally for me, the primary reason why I choose to buy some foods organic is because they just taste better. Like I live in California where tomatoes taste like garbage. Okay? I, ugh, conventionally grown tomatoes, they look nice. They're not even cheap anymore.

Katie Ferraro (7m 43s):

They used to be, they were cheaper And they looked nice if they were conventional, but like they tasted gross organic tomatoes taste better. Okay? Research shows that a lot of people do perceive a taste edge, okay? Plenty of shoppers out there might not notice a difference in that. Pew National Survey, about one third of adults said that organic produce tastes better, 59% said it tastes about the same. And then there was 5% that said they thought the organic produce tasted worse, which I thought was interesting. There was a newer, more nationally representative online survey from February, 2023 where 40% of respondents agreed with the statement that organic food tastes better. The key thing for you as a parent is like the real life messy, right?

Katie Ferraro (8m 24s):

You gotta be, you're influenced by the variety, right? How ripe the food was when it was picked. How far did it travel? Are you purchasing it when it, it's in season. So organic doesn't always guarantee a taste better stamp. But for some families it definitely can be one of the reasons why they choose organic foods. So You know, you let your taste buds lead the way and you make decisions for yourself and your family based on that.

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Katie Ferraro (11m 4s):

Now, what are some of the drawbacks of organic foods? Okay, definitely we, we can't not talk about costs. Okay? Organic simply does cost more. There's a price premium at the store. They're noticeably more expensive than conventional foods, okay? Also, there's issues about availability and convenience depending upon where you shop. Organic options can be limited. The quality can be hit and miss. It's not always realistic to track down every item being organic and organic doesn't always mean better in every way. 'cause organic farming often has lower yields. It can require more land to produce the same amount of food, which matters if land expansion leads to habitat loss or higher carbon impacts.

Katie Ferraro (11m 44s):

There's also just some parents out there like, listen, I'm not gonna buy organic 'cause I don't wanna pay for that extra organic halo. And a lot of times we're talking about the organic junk foods, right? Organic cookies and crackers. And sometimes there's sweetened organic yogurts out there. At the end of the day, you really do want zero grams of added sugar for your baby. We don't do organic junk foods for babies, period. 'cause we don't do junk foods or sugar sweetened foods for babies. So when it comes to nutrition, organic and conventional foods are way more similar than most people think. So if you're there in that aisle and you're standing between the strawberries and you're choosing between nutritious and not nutrition, you are choosing between two strawberries that basically have the same job.

Katie Ferraro (12m 25s):

Okay? If you're looking for fiber and vitamin C, those naturally occurring plant compounds are gonna come along with that fruit, whether you buy organic or whether you buy conventional. Okay? When researchers look across lots of studies comparing organic and conventional foods, they don't find a consistent, oh, organic is more nutritious winner, okay? Most of the time the differences are very small. They're inconsistent in some studies are just not there. Okay? And there's other things that matter, like ripeness and variety, how long that food sat in transit, whether it's in season, how far it had to travel, those things lead to differences in taste and nutrient levels more so than just whether it was grown organic or conventional. So from a nutrition standpoint, I want parents to hear this clearly that feeding your baby and offering your baby fruits and vegetables, regardless of whether they're organic or conventional, that's a win for you.

Katie Ferraro (13m 17s):

Now, what do other bodies say? The American Academy of Pediatrics, for example, their guidance for families is that organic foods are not proven to be more nutritious than conventionally grown foods. So you don't need organic foods for your baby in order to get good nutrition. They do say that where organic may offer a benefit is in that lower pesticide residue. So the American Academy of Pediatrics says families who want to and can choose organic, yeah, consider doing so especially for produce. But they also wanna emphasize the bigger priority is simply offering plenty of fruits and vegetables either way and use basic steps like washing produce in order to reduce residues.

Katie Ferraro (13m 58s):

I do also wanna address in this episode, 'cause there's not really, I don't think a good place to do it elsewhere, but the idea of the Dirty dozen. So the dirty dozen is this list that comes out every year from a group called the Environmental Working Group. And they rank 12 fruits and vegetables that they say have the highest pesticide residues. And that's based on government pesticide testing data. And a lot of parents will kind of use it as a shortcut to decide, okay, if I'm gonna spend a little bit extra on organic produce, then maybe I'm just gonna start with these 12 foods, 'cause they're the quote unquote Dirty Dozen. But there's a bit of a controversy there. And critics would argue that the Dirty Dozen list, it can kind of sound like a health risk warning, but it's really just more of a residue ranking.

Katie Ferraro (14m 39s):

Okay? And those things are not the same thing because a peer reviewed analysis pointed out that the dirty doesn't method, it doesn't actually measure what matters most. That's real life exposure and actual risk from eating those foods. And they concluded that, You know, swapping conventional versions of those produce items for organic versions, it's very unlikely to lead to any measurable health benefit for consumers. The other concern, and the big one for me as a dietician, is that the list can accidentally make families feel like, oh my gosh, if I can't buy organic, then I just should not buy these fruits and vegetables at all. And I never want fear to get in the way of your baby eating fruits and vegetables and produce. So my take is, if the Dirty Dozen list helps you prioritize your budget, then fine use it as a shopping preference list.

Katie Ferraro (15m 25s):

But don't let it scare you away from offering fruits and vegetables because organic or conventional foods, regardless of how you shake it down, your baby is gonna benefit from eating a greater variety of real foods. And we know that If you look at, You know, the traditional jarred or canned or pouch baby foods, there's such a small variety of different types of foods your baby gets. The whole reason why I put the 100 FIRST FOODS list together is to show parents all the foods that babies can eat. And so If you look at my 100 First Foods list, there are 20 fruits on there. There are 20 vegetables on there, there's 20 starchy foods, 20 proteins, and 20 allergenic foods.

Katie Ferraro (16m 4s):

But since when we're talking about organic produce, we'll stick to the fruits and the vegetables. You could buy all 20 fruits and all 20 vegetables from the hundred First Foods list, organic or conventional. And regardless of what approach you choose, your baby would be receiving so many more benefits than If you were just force feeding them pureed foods by spoon. So If you don't yet have a copy of that 100 First Foods list, I give it away to everybody for free on my online masterclass called BABY LED WEANING FOR BEGINNERS. This is a free one hour video training where I show you exactly how to make the foods safe for your baby. Everybody on that free masterclass gets a copy of that hundred First Foods list.

Katie Ferraro (16m 46s):

Head to baby led weaning.co/masterclass to get signed up. You can take it right now, later today, tomorrow, when your baby naps, whatever works for your schedule. And If you already have the list or you're ready to get started making all these foods safe for your baby's age and stage. My comprehensive online program, baby led weaning with Katie Ferraro has all the recipes, all the videos, all the instructions. I've got 20 weeks of done for you menus and meal plans, and my 100 FIRST FOODS Daily Meal Plan. That's all inside of the baby led weaning with Katie Ferraro program. You can get a discount code to get signed up and get started. If you grab that code, it's wherever you're listening to or watching this episode, you can head to baby led weaning.co/program.

Katie Ferraro (17m 28s):

A special thank you to our partners at Airwave Media. If you guys like podcasts that feature food and science and using your brain, check out some of the podcasts from AirWave. We're online@blwpodcast.com. I'll put all of the resources and references from today's episode on the show notes@blwpodcast.com/99. Thank you so much for listening, and I'll see you next time. Bye.

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