From HealthDay News — An “organic” label on foods is enough to make people believe the food item are healthier and tastier, new research suggests.

The study included 144 volunteers who were asked to compare what they believed were conventionally and organically produced chocolate sandwich cookies, plain yogurt and potato chips. All of the products were actually organic, but they were labeled as either “regular” or “organic.”

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The participants used a scale of 1 to 9 to rate each of the products on 10 attributes, such as overall taste and perception of fat content. They were also asked to estimate the number of calories in each food item and how much they would be willing to pay for each product.

The investigators found that participants preferred almost all of the taste characteristics of the foods labeled as “organic,” even though they were identical to those labeled as “regular.”

The food items with “organic” labels were also perceived as being lower in fat, higher in fiber, significantly lower in calories and worth more money, according to study author Jenny Wan-chen Lee, a graduate student in Cornell University’s Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management.

In addition, chips and cookies labeled “organic” were judged to be more nutritious than those believed to be non-organic.

Read the rest at US News

FrugiVoice: Do you automatically equate organic products with an inherent superiority over other items? Is organic better?

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2 Comments

  1. Yes, I do think organic food is better. It’s proven to have much more nutritional value than regular food. I’m sorry but I’m going for the organic food now so I dont pay for it later in life. There is no question I’m 100% for paying extra now than being bankrupt later.

  2. I have to say yes, when I see organic I think BETTER. Not so much in terms of taste but in terms of health. When I see the the organic label I trust that the food I am eating is naturally grown, without the man made chemicals that are proving to be harmful to our bodies and to our environment. I don’t always buy organic over regular though… organic prices sometimes are way too high! For instance why does a bag of organic peanuts cost $2 more than a regular bag of peanuts? THAT, isn’t worth the extra money… in my opinion

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