How Organic Labels Trick Your Brain

by Slashfood Editor, Posted Apr 11th 2011 @ 3:00PM

organic oatmeal cookies Photo: greenlagirl, Flickr

The next time you're hosting company for dinner, here's the quickest, easiest way the garner raves from your guests about your cooking: tell 'em it's organic.

The power of the word "organic" has long been understood by the culinary scribes who write the mouthwatering descriptions for high-end restaurant menus, and a recent study by a graduate student at Cornell appears to confirm its strange magic, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Jenny Wan-chen Lee asked 144 shoppers at a local mall to sample three different processed foods: chocolate sandwich cookies, plain yogurt and potato chips. Some she labeled organic, others not. She then asked them to rate the products based on a number of criteria, from overall taste to how much fat they thought the product contained, as well as to estimate how much they would be willing to pay for each item in the store.

What the tasters didn't know, however, is that all the products were identical; there was no difference between the foods labeled "organic" and those labeled "regular."

Voila! Behold the magic power of "organic": The unsuspecting tasters typically rated the so-called organic products yummier and more healthy. The results appear to be pretty consistent across the board: Which has less fat? Organic. Which has more fiber? Organic. Participants even said that they'd been willing to pay more for the "organic" goods. (No surprise here to anyone who's shopped at Whole Foods lately.)

How far you take the findings of this study at your own next soiree is up to you. "Organic Cheese Whiz on saltines, anyone?"

Filed Under: Food News
Tags: organic, organic label

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

4-12-2011 @2:16PM Matt said... It's not about things tasting better because they're organic. It's more about people wanting to appear intelligent/superior/accepted by parroting off what they think folks want to here and what big names (hmmm, Oprah maybe?) tell us little people is tasty and good for us.

Sad.
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4-13-2011 @1:03PM OrganicTrade said... There are definite factors that have been linked to obesity, including a sedentary lifestyle, overconsumption of calories, and economic-driven factors. But, there is no proven correlation between the growth of Americans’ waistlines and the growth in U.S. organic sales.

It is important to recognize that there are real differences between organic packaged foods and their non-organic counterparts. By law, organic packaged foods must be made without the use of artificial colors, flavors and preservatives. This is particularly important given recent research illustrating the link between exposure synthetic food dyes and increased incidents of health problems, including ADHD (http://www.organicitsworthit.org/quick/chemical-additives).

Organic packaged foods also reflect the true cost of the food production. By contrast, there are hidden costs generated through the production of non-organic products for which everyone pays indirectly. As Dr. Sandra Steingraber has written (http://www.organicitsworthit.org/make/economic-sense-organic-food), “Among the costs not incorporated into the bar codes that beep their way through the check-out lane: fertilizer-contaminated groundwater, insecticide-contaminated fish, herbicide-contaminated rain, dead honeybees, poisoned wildlife, deformed frogs, eroded soil, toxic algal blooms, ozone depletion, and antibiotic resistance. These are what economists call "externalities"—the costs of an activity that are borne by others. The bad thing about externalities is that they lead to market outcomes that are costly to society even though privately profitable.”

At the same time, organic packaged products support a system of sustainable agricultural management that promotes soil health and fertility through the use of such methods as crop rotation and cover cropping, which nourish plants, foster species diversity, help combat climate change, prevent damage to valuable water resources, and protect farmers and farmers’ families from exposure to harmful chemicals.

It is also worth noting that mounting evidence (http://www.organicitsworthit.org/organic-food-article/nutritional-considerations) indicates that organically grown fruits, vegetables and grains may offer more of some nutrients, including vitamin C, iron, magnesium and phosphorus, than their counterparts grown using synthetic pesticides and fertilizers.

Given these and the many other benefits organic products have to offer, it is clear that organic is worth it for our health as well as the health of our planet.

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