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Does Organic Food Enhance Learning Abilities in Kids? Exploring the Science
The Good Men Project reported:
When it comes to raising healthy, happy, and smart kids, every choice matters, especially what we feed them. Many parents are increasingly drawn to organic food options, hoping to give their children a developmental edge. But does choosing organic food enhance learning abilities in infants and toddlers? Or is it just a health trend with little scientific weight?
Organic food refers to produce and other agricultural products that are grown without synthetic pesticides, fertilizers, genetically modified organisms, or antibiotics. For parents, the appeal is clear: fewer chemicals, more natural nutrition. The question is, do these benefits translate into cognitive advantages for children?
That’s where things get interesting. Research has found that prenatal and early childhood exposure to certain pesticides (often used in conventional farming) was associated with lower IQ scores and delayed cognitive development. While this doesn’t directly prove that organic food boosts intelligence, it does suggest that avoiding pesticide exposure might protect brain development in critical early years.
MAHA-Minded Farmers Are Giving RFK Jr. The Benefit of the Doubt
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s long-held belief that the use of pesticides in farming is making American children sick was again pushed to the wayside this week, even as the health secretary helped kick off what the administration is calling The Great American Farmers Market.
Kennedy didn’t argue when Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said there was no way American agriculture could sustain heightened restrictions on pesticide use Monday.
“There is no chance that our current system of agriculture can survive without those crop protection tools, including the fertilizers that you mentioned,” Rollins said in response to a reporter’s question about whether the MAHA report would recommend removing such crop treatments from the market.
A Red Meat Allergy From Tick Bites Is Spreading — and the Lone Star Tick Isn’t the Only Alpha-Gal Carrier to Worry About
Hours after savoring that perfectly grilled steak on a beautiful summer evening, your body turns traitor, declaring war on the very meal you just enjoyed. You begin to feel excruciating itchiness, pain or even swelling that can escalate to the point of requiring emergency care.
The culprit isn’t food poisoning — it’s the fallout from a tick bite you may have gotten months earlier and didn’t even notice. This delayed allergic reaction is called alpha-gal syndrome. While it’s commonly called the “red meat allergy,” that nickname is misleading, because alpha-gal syndrome can cause strong reactions to many products, beyond just red meat.
The syndrome is also rapidly spreading in the U.S. and around the globe. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates as many as 450,000 people in the U.S. may have it. And it’s carried by many more tick species than most people realize.
Bird Flu May Be Airborne on Dairy Farms, Scientists Report
The bird flu virus that has beset dairy farms since early last year may be spreading through the air in so-called milking parlors and through contaminated wastewater, as well as from milking equipment, scientists have found.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has said that the virus spreads primarily from milking equipment or is carried by dairy workers and vehicles traveling between farms. But in the new study, scientists found live virus in the air of milking facilities, suggesting that cows and farmworkers might have become infected by inhaling the pathogen. The virus may also spread by water used to clean cattle barns or contaminated with discarded milk.
The study was posted online last week and has not been peer reviewed for publication. But the results are consistent with those from other teams who found that contaminated milking equipment might not explain all cases of bird flu observed on farms.
Scientists Develop Smartphone Test to Detect Pesticides and Antibiotics in Food
In an advance for food safety testing, scientists from Southeast University, Shenyang University of Chemical Technology, and Zhejiang University of Technology have unveiled a highly sensitive and smartphone-compatible method for detecting hazardous pesticides and antibiotics in food.
Published in Food Chemistry, the study showcases a new two-step dynamic ratiometric sensing test using heterometallic uranium-organic frameworks, offering a detection time as fast as 10 seconds.
The research team — Kaiyang Yang, Yaqian Jiang, Hongyuan Wu, Xiaoyu Jin, Hao Yang, Jun Zhou, and Wenhua Xu — developed the novel sensing platform to tackle the urgent need for fast and selective screening methods in the face of widespread chemical contamination in global food supplies.
