Abstract
Objectives
Organic food consumption has been inversely associated with obesity in cross-sectional studies. Few have investigated this with prospective data. We examined whether organic food consumption was associated with the risk of obesity.
Methods
We used data from 37,706 eligible Sister Study (2003–2009) participants aged 35–74 years who provided information on frequency of organic food consumption. Participants reported their consumption of organic produce, meat, and dairy during the past 12 months as never, less than half the time, about half the time, or more than half the time. An organic diet score (ODS) was calculated by assigning scores of 0, 1, 2 and 3 for increasing consumption proportions and summing across food groups (maximum score 9). Prevalent obesity was based on measured general obesity (body mass index [BMI]≥30.0) and central obesity (waist circumference [WC] ≥88 cm, waist-to-height ratio [WHtR] ≥0.5). To evaluate incident overweight and obesity, self-reported BMI at enrollment was compared to self-reported BMI during follow-up (mean, 8.3 years). We used generalized log-linear models with robust error variance to estimate multivariable-adjusted prevalence ratios (PRs) and relative risks (RRs) for prevalent and incident obesity, respectively.
Results
At baseline, 62% of women reported eating organic food in the last 12 months. Compared with no consumption of organic food, higher ODS (≥3) was associated with a lower prevalence of obesity at baseline (PR for BMI = 0.98; 95% CI, 0.97–0.99; PR for WC = 0.94; 95% CI, 0.92–0.97; and PR for WtHR = 0.95; 95% CI, 0.93–0.98), after adjusting for socioeconomic, demographic, and lifestyle factors, including physical activity and other dietary measures. Higher ODS was inversely associated with gaining ≥5 kg (RR = 0.87; 95% CI, 0.82–0.92; P-trend < .001), a BMI increase ≥10% (RR = 0.88; 95% CI, 0.82–0.94; P-trend < .001). Among those who were not overweight or obese at enrollment, higher ODS was associated with becoming overweight (RR = 0.81; 95% CI, 0.73–0.91; P-trend < .001) or obese (RR, 0.84; 95% CI, 0.74–0.96; P-trend = .007). Associations did not differ by diet quality or socio-demographic factors.
Conclusions
Organic food consumption was associated with decreased risk of weight gain and decreased risk of becoming overweight or obese.
Funding Sources
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.