Health

The connection between personal health and organic food is an easy one to make. Logic tells me that if food isn’t treated with chemicals or injected with hormones, it is probably better for me. Of course, organic foods also provide wider reaching (and no less important) environmental health benefits that touch the lives of farm workers, food processors, as well as essential waterways, soil and air.

What is often overlooked is that health benefits exist, too, when people choose to purchase other products that are made with organic and sustainable materials and processes. Clothing and other household and personal items that are produced naturally can be as important as food products. The skin is the largest and most absorbent organ in a human body, and care should be exercised when deciding what to put up against it. Studies have shown that the pesticides and herbicides used to produce cotton, for example, contain carcinogens and allergy-causing agents. Roughly 1/3 pound of chemicals is used to produce the one pound of cotton needed to make a single tee shirt. Cancer rates are increasing, and allergies are more and more prevalent, especially in small children.

I can’t say for certain that there is a direct connection between allergies, cancer and my clothes, but I have to think that the 1/3 pound of chemicals used to make a tee shirt has to have some impact. At a minimum, those chemicals are in my air and water, and I know that isn’t good.

Consider, as well, that cotton crops (organic or not) are typically rotated to maintain soil quality, and peanuts that are grown for people to eat are commonly grown in place of cotton for that purpose. Of the 10 children under two that I see on a regular basis, three of them have severe peanut allergies. No scientist has made the connection for me yet, but it certainly seems to be there.

So I believe that choosing to purchase organic clothes is as least as important as buying organic food, and may actually be even more important for my health. After cotton is harvested, the seeds are used to produce food for livestock that are part of the food supply chain. In this regard, many of our clothing and food products are inextricably linked. So, be aware of what you wear. That soft, organic cotton shirt might be more important to your health and family than you thought.

Tags: organic clothes, organic cotton