Re: Organic Food and ' Dr. ' Worthington

[Guest guest]

>

> Hi folks:

>snip

>

> I wonder where she acquired that qualification and how much time it

> took her to get it.

snip

>Rodney

Just an FYI so you won't have to wonder!

" ...Eventually Dr. Worthington enrolled in graduate school at the

University of land in Nutrition, doing her thesis on trace

minerals. She then entered s Hopkins and earned her doctorate,

specializing in nutrition. Her Doctoral dissertation was on the

nutritional value of organically produced foods. "

Cheers!

Genesa

[Guest guest]

Virgnia Worthington has " no " papers published in

recognized medical/science journals.

Her only article, that seems to be quoted all over the

internet, was published in The Journal of alternative

and complementary medicine,

2001; 7: 161-173

Her " methods " and " analysis " have been criticized

Here is one, from Dr Walsh..

The most interesting part of the paper is Figure 1,

which shows a scatter graph of the percentage

differences between organic and non-organic crops

for the four nutrients for which significant

differences were found:

magnesium, phosphorous, iron and vitamin C. The data

shown generated as 100*(organic value - conventional

value)/conventional value with each data point being

the result of a separate study. The mean percentage

differs significantly from 0% for four nutrients:

magnesium (29%), vitamin C (27%), phosphorus (14%) and

iron (21%).

The observed mean percentage differences are

potentially exaggerated by the analysis method used,

with the degree of exaggeration being greatest if some

conventional values are much smaller than typical

values. A given difference in the nutrient content of

the organic and the conventional crop will give

rise to a larger percentage difference when the

content of the conventional crop is lower than when

the content of the organic crop is lower. To

illustrate the problems this causes I set up an Excel

spread sheet in which the organic nutrient value

varied uniformly from 0.2 to 0.7 and the

conventional nutrient value followed exactly the same

distribution. Using 200 points the

(organic-conventional)/conventional value showed a

mean

difference of about 12% and this was statistically

significant at p=.001 .

The correct transformation is

(organic-conventional)*2/(organic + conventional).

Using this transformation, no significant difference

was

observed between the " organic " and " conventional "

values in my test spreadsheet.

If the mean exceeds the median significantly, it is

likely that the mean difference is an artefact of the

percentage transformation used.

For magnesium, only 2 out of 17 comparisons are above

the reported mean difference. The median difference

appears to be about 5% compared to a mean difference

of 30%. This result should therefore be discounted.

For vit-C the median of 5% also differs substantially

from the mean of 27%, again suggesting that the result

is an artefact of the transformation used, and

should therefore be discounted.

For phosphorous, the median of +10% tallies reasonably

well with the mean of +14%. For iron, the median of

+15% tallies well with the mean of +21%.

Modest genuine differences of around 10-15% in these

two nutrients are consistent with the data, though

their statistical significance is debatable.

Therefore, the data does not support a noteworthy

difference in nutrient composition between organic and

conventional crops. None of the nutrients

studied showed a median advantage exceeding 15%. Even

if all the nutrients showed a 15% advantage this would

not justify the price premium on organic

products. For best nutrient content for a given amount

of money conventional foods are preferable.

Of course, there are other issues such as soil and

wildlife conservation and pesticide contamination that

may lead us to a different decision, but we

should not kid ourselves that organic foods have a

practically different nutrient content to conventional

foods. My own choice is to buy organic

whenever the price premium would not deter me from

buying as much as I otherwise would.

Once again the argument that by buying organic food

one can beat the quality of conventional food

significantly is contradicted by the available

evidence. Relying on nutrient content of organic foods

exceeding that indicated by standard nutrient

databases such as USDA or McCance and

Widdowson is unjustified.

Another lesson from this example is not to trust

statistics published in journals without a track

record in using statistics. There are more

opportunities to get statistics wrong than are

immediately apparent.

[Guest guest]

Hi Genesa:

Thank you for that. Do you mind if I ask you what your source was

for that information, please?

If the source is the following:

http://www.foodisyourbestmedicine.com/dr-worthington.html

........... and it appears to be, you should note that the name at

the top of that bio is GINGER Worthington, not Virginia Worthington.

Are we sure we are talking about the same person?

There certainly does seem to be a last name and an interest in

organic foods in common. Possibly Ginger and Virginia might be

sisters? Or mother and daughter?

Confusing.

Rodney.

--- In , " truthseeker741 " <genesa@...>

wrote:

>

> --- In , " Rodney " <perspect1111@>

wrote:

> >

> > Hi folks:

>

> >snip

>

> >

> > I wonder where she acquired that qualification and how much time

it

> > took her to get it.

> snip

>

> >Rodney

>

> Just an FYI so you won't have to wonder!

>

> " ...Eventually Dr. Worthington enrolled in graduate school at the

> University of land in Nutrition, doing her thesis on trace

> minerals. She then entered s Hopkins and earned her doctorate,

> specializing in nutrition. Her Doctoral dissertation was on the

> nutritional value of organically produced foods. "

>

> Cheers!

> Genesa

>

[Guest guest]

Rodney - actually I'd never heard of her but just doing a quick

search, after she was mentioned here, there were several different

results that alluded to her information being drawn from a thesis from

's Hopkins - Plus the second link below 'foodis...' refers to her

as Virginia; thus seems that Ginger may be a nick-name for Virginia

perhaps? (Main point being, I think she is one of those ND's who spent

more than 3 to 6 months getting a 'diploma' with no credibility - no

matter whether we agree with her 'research'or not)

Genesa

Effect of Agricultural Methods on Nutritional Quality: A Comparison of

Organic with Conventional Crops, Virginia Worthington MS, ScD, CNS,

s Hopkins University, Baltimore, 1998, Alternative Therapies,

Volume 4, 1998, pages 58-69 --

http://www.journeytoforever.org/garden_organiccase.html

Nutritional Quality of Organic Versus Conventional Fruits, Vegetables,

and Grains

Virginia Worthington. 2001. The Journal of Alternative and

Complementary Medicine. Volume 7, Number 2. p. 161–173.

http://www.foodisyourbestmedicine.com/organic.doc

> > >

> > > Hi folks:

> >

> > >snip

> >

> > >

> > > I wonder where she acquired that qualification and how much time

> it

> > > took her to get it.

> > snip

> >

> > >Rodney

> >

> > Just an FYI so you won't have to wonder!

> >

> > " ...Eventually Dr. Worthington enrolled in graduate school at the

> > University of land in Nutrition, doing her thesis on trace

> > minerals. She then entered s Hopkins and earned her doctorate,

> > specializing in nutrition. Her Doctoral dissertation was on the

> > nutritional value of organically produced foods. "

> >

> > Cheers!

> > Genesa

> >

>