INFLUENCE OF BIODYNAMIC NUTRITION ON IMMUNOLOGICAL PARAMETERS AND WELL-BEING OF POSTMENOPAUSAL WOMEN (“CONVENT-STUDY”)
Fuchs, N. , Huber, K. , Hennig, J. and Dlugosch, G.
The effect that organic and biodynamic foodstuffs have on the health and well-being of humans is an
important consideration when evaluating organic and biodynamic farming. Numerous advantages have
been shown for individual components, particularly antioxidants, vitamins, functional fatty acids and
trace elements (Carbonaro et al., 2002; Kraft et al., 2003). Very few studies have been done on the
overall effect of an organic diet on humans (Woese et al., 1997; Biao et al., 2003). One of the reasons
for this is that it is difficult to carry out blind intervention studies on humans that investigate not one
nutrient, but an entire diet. The findings of animal studies have been clear. Food selection studies have
shown that rats prefer organic food when they are offered both organic and conventional food
(Velimirov, 2001). Furthermore, doe rabbits fed biodynamic food (Staiger, 1991) and rats fed organic
food (Velimirov et al., 1992) had markedly better fertility rates compared to control groups fed
conventional food. The present study was conducted in a convent with volunteer subject nuns. This
was done to achieve a small variance in lifestyle and environmental conditions, which otherwise, given
a relatively small sample size, would have been nearly impossible, and to have the most control over
what was eaten.
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