Digging Organic

Before I dive into my detailed article review, let me start with the conclusion.

In the Bicycling article, the paper Thermogenesis and weight loss in obese individuals: a primary association with organochlorine pollution, Tremblay et.al. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez) was used to support the notion that organochlorines (suggested from conventionally grown foods) are released from fat during exercise and decrease mitochondrial function. I think this particular paper falls short of this assertion. Other papers referenced in this article may have promise however, and I plan to look into them.

I am growing more fascinated in this subject. Vietnam War veterans are compensated for occupational exposure to Agent Orange. They get diabetes. They get cancer. So organochlorines are likely connected to metabolism and certainly cause cancer....... but this doesn't resolve my organic foods question..... stay tuned.


Data in the paper above, was part of a study where the drug fenfluramine was tested. This makes it a secondary study, where the outcomes reported are not what the study was designed to measure. The study was not directed to look at pollution and its effects on the body. Investigators used data from an unrelated study to look for a correlation between pollution and the body’s ability to burn fat. In medical research this is done all of the time. Such research is useful, but is unable to show a cause and effect relationship.

There were 15 obese subjects (average BMI 35.4) who after 12 weeks of dieting had an average BMI of 32. Measurements were taken in these patients before and after their weight loss. Although we know 11 patients received fenfluramine and 4 received placebo, results were lumped together. Incidentally fenfluramine is Fen-Phen, the drug you may have heard on the plaintiff attorney commercials. It was removed from the market in 1997 after patients developed serious irreversible heart disease while taking drug.

Measurements included a sleeping metabolic rate (SMR), reporting calories burned when resting. The expected SMR was determined by measuring it in 86 “normal” people (with BMI 28.7). These people were not obese, not on a diet and not on fenfluramine.

The SMR of patients was recorded before and after weight loss. A predicted SMR was generated for these patients (extrapolated from normal group). Measured SMR and predicted SMR both decreased after weight loss. Before weight loss the measured SMR was much higher than predicted. After weight loss the SMR was slightly higher than predicted. The change (before-after) in SMR was greater for measured results.

The authors wondered why the decrease in SMR was greater in measured than predicted. In my mind obvious reasons (which were not discussed) include #1 because these patients were obese, #2 these patients were on Fen-Phen, #3 these patients were on a diet. All factors were not true of patients used to create generate expected results.

Now for the part we are interested in…. the organochlorine (OC) measurements. The article reviews that OCs are bad, they are in chemicals are used in our home and yards….. but also feared to be present on our food from herbicides and pesticides used by farmers. OCs are stored in fat cells. When fat is lost during weight loss the OCs go into the bloodstream. This has been reported to affect the body’s ability to burn fat efficiently.

The authors measured patient OC levels before and after weight loss. It increased a significant amount. When performing a multivariate analysis they found that the increase in OC concentration predicted the differences in SMR described above.