Pesticide exposure in adults can be reduced by almost 90 per cent by eating a mainly organic diet for just seven days, according to a study from the Australian RMIT University’s School of Health Sciences.

Supervised by Professor Marc Cohen, professor of complementary medicine at RMIT, the research is the first to compare the differences in pesticide residues in adults who consume organic and conventional food.

Published in the journal Environmental Research, the study found that organophosphate pesticide levels in urine were reduced by 89 per cent after eating a diet of mostly organic food for one week.

“Conventional food production commonly uses organophosphate pesticides, which are neurotoxins that affect the human nervous system by blocking an important enzyme,” said Dr Liza Oates, the project’s lead investigator.

“Pesticide exposure in Australian adults is mainly through their diets, but there are other sources of exposure. We wanted to find out the difference going organic could make,” Dr Oates continued.

“Our results demonstrate that an organic diet has a key role to play in a precautionary approach to reducing pesticide exposure,” Dr Oates said.

13 randomly-selected participants consumed a diet of at least 80 per cent organic food for seven days and then they switched to conventional food for a further week.

Urinary levels were analysed on the eighth day of each phase.

“While the clinical relevance of reducing pesticide exposure requires further studies – conducted on a larger scale – this study is an important first step in expanding our understanding about the impact of an organic diet,” Dr Oates concluded.

Professor Marc Cohen told Spa Business, that the spa industry has a leadership role to play in reducing toxicity and educating consumers about the benefits of detox. This study is one of more than 20 that Cohen is involved in, aimed to tackle the lack of evidence supporting the effectiveness of detox.