Organic products: meat and milk contain 50% more omega-3 than other foods!

Organic products, both animal and plant-based, contain more healthful substances, such as polyunsaturated fatty acids and antioxidants, than conventional products. In particular, organic meat and dairy products have a higher concentration of total polyunsaturated fatty acids and omega-3s. However, the differences in fatty acid content, mainly due to the choice of feed used to feed the animals, would be too small to have any real impact on people's diet and health.

This was reported in a study published in the British Journal of Nutrition, and led by researchers at Newcastle University (UK).

Organic food: consumption on the rise in recent years

The demand for organic meat, and organic products in general, has been steadily increasing in recent years. One of the main reasons for this consumer demand is the perception that livestock products from organic farms contain healthy nutrients making them "healthier." In Western European diets, meat is an important source of protein, fatty acids, minerals such as iron, zinc, selenium, and copper, and vitamins such as vitamin A, vitamins B1, B6, B12, riboflavin, folic acid, niacin, and pantothenic acid. 

Over the past 20 years, an increasing number of scientific studies have compared the concentrations of nutrient compounds in meat from organic and conventional production systems. Most of these comparative studies have investigated the composition of fats in meat. Indeed, it is well known that saturated fatty acids, if consumed in excess, can have adverse effects on human health, increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease. 

In contrast, polyunsaturated fatty acids particularly the omega-3 EPA and DHA, act positively on the cardiovascular system. Despite studies in recent years, there is still considerable scientific uncertainty about whether, and to what extent, organic production standards result in nutritionally and qualitatively relevant changes in food.

Organic milk and meat: more omega-3s and less saturated fat

In order to shed light on this point, British researchers conducted a meta-analysis, which is a statistical study that analyzes data from scientific research conducted on the same topic, selecting 196 studies and comparing organic and conventional products. The results showed differences in composition between the two types of foods. With regard to milk, the data showed a higher concentration in organic of both total polyunsaturated fatty acids and omega-3 fatty acids, by 7 percent and 56 percent, respectively; revealing a better fatty acid composition than in conventional milk.

However, the results of the meta-analysis also showed that organic milk contains less iodine: daily consumption of half a liter of conventional milk provides about 88% of the UK recommended amount of iodine, which is equivalent to 140 micrograms. The same amount of organic milk provides only 53%. The results inherent in meat, were again in favor of the organic food: organic meat had similar or slightly lower amounts of saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids than conventional meat. The most important differences, however, were found in the concentrations of total polyunsaturated fatty acids and omega-3 fatty acids, which were 23% and 47% higher in organic than in non-organic, respectively.

But what are the health benefits?

These data, as Ian Givens, professor at the University of Reading (UK), explained, show that there are nutritional differences between organic and conventional products, but the implications on humans should be evaluated in the total diet, as these differences are very small. The results of the study should therefore be well interpreted; in fact, according to Givens, the 56 percent higher omega-3 content in organic milk relates to the milk fat fraction, not to the milk as a whole. Considering that on average we consume about 2.2 grams of omega-3 per day, switching from conventional to organic milk would increase omega-3 consumption by about 33 milligrams per day, a 1.5 percent increase in our total diet. Such small changes are unlikely to have large nutritional or health effects "However small, however, the nutritional benefits are there and are attributable to the feed used to feed farm animals, rather than organic methods per se," Givens explained. 

Differences in fatty acid or iodine content occur mainly because organically raised animals are fed much more grass, compared to animals raised by conventional techniques. In fact, the same kind of changes in food composition occur when animals from conventional farms are fed plant-rich diets. Organic standards require that the feed of farm animals must contain 60 percent fresh grass, hay and clover, the latter of which is thought to be primarily responsible for the increase in omega-3 in meat and milk.

Organic products: more antioxidants and more omega-3s

According to the researchers who conducted the study, choosing organic fruits, vegetables, meat and dairy products means consuming higher amounts of antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids. The higher concentrations of EPA and DHA in organic meat and dairy products, however, affect only a small part of the total intake of omega-3 consumed in the diet. Further studies will be needed to allow a meta-analysis to be conducted that looks at a wide range of parameters, such as vitamin and mineral concentrations, and to estimate the type of fatty acids in all farmed species, while also assessing the impact of differences in composition on human health.

Source: Dominika Średnicka-Tober, Marcin Barański, Chris Seal et al "Composition differences b etween organic and conventional meat: a systematic literature review and meta-analysis." BritishJournal ofNutrition 2016 Mar;115(6):994-1011