In a September study conducted by Stanford researchers found that organic foods don't offer any additional nutritional value over conventionally farmed foods, according to The Atlantic,
While organic fruits and vegetables contain no added chemicals, it doesn't necessarily make the food any more nutritional than it already is, the study concluded.
However, that didn't stop researchers from asking if the added chemicals in traditionally farmed foods made the food less healthy. Organic foods may be better for the environment and our bodies, but scientists still don't really know the beneficial differences between foods grown with chemicals and foods grown organically.
Therefore, a team at Southern Methodist University decided to test out the theory on groups of fruit flies. With food bought from a Texas Whole Foods, researchers set out to test the difference between organic and conventional potatoes, soybeans, raisins and bananas.
They found that although fruit flies generally live short lives, the ones who fed on organic foods, "generally performed better on a number of health measures," according to the report. The fruit flies also proved to be "more fertile" and laid a higher number of eggs.
Researchers did notice that when it came to organic and conventional bananas and raisins, the fruit files displayed two different reactions. The bananas yielded no differences, but the organic raisins were in fact associated with "poorer outcomes in tests of stress and 'starvation resistance,'" the results said.
Though the results didn't reveal why some organic foods led to possible longer lives and a higher fertility rate, they do "suggest that on a food-by-food basis, some organic foods may be healthier."
