Organic produce is better for your heart, suggests a 10-year US study.

Researchers believe that, because produce grown with the aid of fertilisers has a ready supply of nitrogen, it does not produce as much in the way of flavonoids. Flavonoids are produced as a defence mechanism in soil, which lacks nitrogen and other nutrients.

Flavonoids are compounds thought to be responsible for lower rates of heart disease and cancer in people. Naturally grown tomatoes are richer in two flavonoids; they contain 79 per cent more quercetin and 97 per cent more kaempferol than non-organic tomatoes.

Alyson Mitchell, a food chemist, who led the research at the University of California, will publish her findings in full in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

'People are not eating enough fruits and vegetables in the first place, so having higher levels of flavonoids is probably a good thing,' Mitchell told New Scientist.

The Soil Association is now pressing the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to review its guidance on the merits of organic as opposed to conventional fruit and vegetables. Peter Melchett, its policy director, said that there was now a rapidly growing body of evidence which showed significant differences between the nutritional composition of organic and nonorganic food.

Recent research in Europe found that organic tomatoes contained more vitamin C, B-carotene and flavonoids than conventionally grown tomatoes. Organic peaches and organic apple purée were also found to have more antioxidants. Lord Krebs, the former chairman of the FSA and now Master of Jesus College, Oxford, said that even if such benefits existed, higher flavonoid levels did not make organic food healthier. “This depends on the relevance of the differences to the human body,” he said. “Tomato ketchup has higher levels of lycopene [a strong antioxidant] than either organic or conventional tomatoes. So if you wanted lots of lycopene you should eat tomato ketchup.”

The FSA, however, has commissioned a three-year study into the benefits of flavonoids. It said: “There is accumulating evidence that dietary flavonoids. . . may in large part explain the cardiovascular disease benefits of increased fruit and vegetable intake.”

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