In a rare example of near instantaneous results, kids who switched to an all-organic diet had almost no trace of pesticides in their bodies after just five days.

If you were looking for another excuse to pay an extra dollar for organic spinach, you’ve got it.

Chenheng Lu of Emory University led the study, which involved changing the diets of 23 elementary school students in the Seattle area. All the kids had pesticides in their bodies when the study began, but as soon as they integrated organic foods into their meals, their pesticide levels (a.k.a. metabolites) dropped almost to zero.

Once the kids resumed eating non-organic foods their metabolites shot back up again. “An organic diet does provide protective measures for pesticide exposure in kids,” said Lu in a UPI interview.

[via The Washington Times]

Image: ucdavis.edu