Eating an Organic Diet Reduces Glyphosate in Humans, Study Says

Researchers have found changing to an organic diet drastically reduces the amount of glyphosate -- the main ingredient in Roundup -- in the human body.

Eating an entirely organic diet quickly reduces the human body’s levels of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup weed killer, researchers say.

A study funded by the environmental advocacy group Friends of the Earth was published in the August issue of Environmental Research, a peer-reviewed environmental science and engineering journal. Its findings showed that by switching from a traditional to a completely organic diet, the adults and children who participated in the study experienced a nearly 71% decrease in the amount of glyphosate in their urine in just five days.

An organic diet is one that does not include any foods grown with the use of synthetic herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers, antibiotics or hormones.

Glyphosate Controversy and Concern

Glyphosate is an organic compound and an extremely effective herbicide. It is the key ingredient in Roundup, the most widely used weedkiller in the world.

While it is popular among homeowners and hobby gardeners, Roundup’s biggest customers are the agriculture industry. It is typically sprayed on the soil as a pre-emergent – meaning it is used to treat the ground before the crops emerge – and, later, on top of the crops to control weeds that would compete with the crops for water and sunlight. Modern agriculture has genetically modified most crops to be resistant to glyphosate so the crops can survive the herbicide treatment.

Consumer safety advocates and scientists have speculated for years about possible links between glyphosate and certain types of cancer, specifically non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has long held that glyphosate is safe, restating the position in an April 2019 statement that declared, based on its research, the chemical compound poses no risk and “is not likely to be carcinogenic to humans.”

In contrast, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the cancer research division of the World Health Organization, determined in 2015 that glyphosate is “probably carcinogenic to humans.” The agency said it based its finding on “limited evidence” of cancer in humans and “sufficient evidence” of cancer in study animals, according to Scientific American.

Tens of thousands of lawsuits have been filed against Roundup’s manufacturers over claims the product caused cancer. Bayer, Roundup’s parent company, has been working on a settlement deal for about 95,000 of the cases, though even if successful, some 30,000 cases would remain.

Research Points to Organic Diet Benefits

The Friends of the Earth research involved four “racially and geographically diverse families in the United States” who were tested while spending five days eating a conventional, non-organic diet and then tested again while changing to a completely organic diet for five days. Investigators were looking at the levels of glyphosate in the test subjects’ urine and found that their mean glyphosate levels decreased by nearly 71%.

“The reduction in glyphosate … was rapid, dropping to baseline within three days,” the researchers reported. “This study demonstrates that diet is a primary source of glyphosate exposure and that shifting to an organic diet is an effective way to reduce body burden of glyphosate.”

According to the research team, the findings also show that eating organic foods might be an effective way to “reduce exposure to a range of pesticides in children and adults.” In fact, in 2019 the same group conducted a similar study, but in that review, measured levels of pesticides in the urine of test subjects. What the researchers found was that switching to an all-organic diet resulted in “significant reductions in urinary levels of 13 pesticide metabolites and parent compounds.”