A Richer Bite Health Article

Bug sprays may suppress more than plant pests in fruits and vegetables. In a provocative new study, researchers have found that pesticides appear to squelch the production of vital nutrients as well.

Food scientist Alyson E. Mitchell and colleagues at the University of California, Davis, compared blackberries, strawberries and corn from plots grown with and without synthetic pesticides. Sweet corn grown without such sprays was found to have up to 58 percent more beneficial antioxidants than the same variety of corn grown on nearby conventional fields. Organic marionberries (a blackberry variety) contained 33 percent more phenolic compounds or flavonoids, natural antioxidants believed to protect living tissues and to help prevent cancer, heart disease and blood clots.

Ascorbic acid (vitamin C) levels in strawberries grown without pesticides were 20 percent higher than conventionally produced berries, while sweet corn grown organically was 52 percent richer in ascorbic acid than nonorganic corn.

Plants grown without pesticides may pack more nutrient punch because they have to fight for their lives, suspects Mitchell, a pharmacologist and assistant professor of food science and technology. When bugs or diseases attack naturally developing fruit, they get the equivalent of a mouthful of bitter baking chocolate—also filled with astringent phenolics. Luckily, humans don't notice the slight bitterness of a powerful antioxidant when it's wrapped into a plump, sweet berry or ear of corn. Crops that have been sprayed with pesticides may simply have no need to develop their natural chemical defenses.

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