3 Reasons You Should Care About Soil (For Your Health!)

At mindbodygreen, we're champions of adding more plants to your plate. We consider it a major win any time you eat more fruits or vegetables. However, if it fits within your budget and lifestyle, shopping organic can provide higher value not only for the planet but for your overall health since organic foods are typically grown in healthy, nutrient-rich soil. 

Just take it from geologist David R. Montgomery, Ph.D., and biologist Anne Biklé, husband-and-wife duo and co-authors of What Your Food Ate: How To Heal Our Land and Reclaim Our Health: "Farming practices affect the health of the soil; the health of the soil affects the health of crops; the health of crops affects the health of livestock; and all of the above translates into human health," Montgomery says on this episode of the mindbodygreen podcast.

Healthier, more nutrient-rich soil begets more phytochemicals (or compounds produced by plants), which come with a load of health benefits. Traditionally grown crops have the essential macronutrients you need to survive (carbs, fat, protein), but according to Montgomery, "Those are things we need to live, not to thrive." He continues: "The things that we need to thrive are micronutrients and phytochemicals, things that help our bodies run well, things that promote our health." 

Yes, soil can affect the flavor of your food. Biklé says that your taste buds are naturally drawn to more nutrient-dense items. She references a study in the journal Science1 where researchers were trying to assess the best-tasting tomato. "They gathered people together and fed them two different kinds of tomatoes," she recounts. "One was called the 'Floradade,' a cultivar created back in the '70s [that was] bred for shipping and convenience." They compared that tomato to another small, cherry-type option that closely resembled a wild tomato. 

"Everybody rejected the Floradade, and they liked the other one," Biklé notes. And when researchers took a peek at the cherry tomato's flavor profile, they noticed that it had an abundance of phytochemicals and amino acids (whereas the floradade didn't), which likely explains why people were drawn to this type of tomato. 

We've waxed poetic on the importance of omega-3s for your overall health—they're crucial for immunity, brain health, heart health, eye health, and more. While their levels vary a lot, grass-fed beef2 is a non-vegetarian option to consume these omega-3s, including ALA, EPA, and DHA. How so? Well, according to Biklé, you are what your food eats; so if a cow is grazing on a plant-based diet, "their diet is really rich in omega-3s because omega-3s are in leafy, living kinds of plants," she notes. (They're a fundamental part of photosynthesis, Biklé explains. "[They] help the plant capture light energy and turn it into energy that's growing the plant.")