Have you ever wondered if there are more natural ways to lower your high blood pressure,

guard against Alzheimer's, loose weight, feel better? Well, it turns out there is. Welcome to

the Nutrition Facts podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Michael Greger. Today, we look at the body of evidence

that links pesticides to serious health problems. And we look at the body of evidence that links pesticides to serious health problems.

And we start with an episode guest hosted by Dr. Christine Dennis, our new senior research scientist,

who's been researching and scripting new video topics.

In this video, Christine delves into the association of vegetarian diets and hypospadious

birth defects to see if it holds up in the light of new research.

In 2000, a study found that a vegetarian diet during pregnancy was associated with hypospadius,

a specific birth defect of the penis. The author suggested that it may be

due to the greater exposure to phytoestrogens, which are found in soy foods. But if you look

globally, while there is an extraordinarily high prevalence in North America and Europe,

it's extremely low in a country like Japan, which has the highest per capita soy intake in the world.

In fact, in Japan, a low maternal intake of soy phytoestrogens has been associated with elevated risk of hypospatias.

So if anything, soy may be protective.

If soy foods aren't the hormone disruptors, what in a vegetarian diet might be? Well, occupational exposure to pesticides is associated with higher risk. So might low-level pesticide exposure among those eating more fruits and vegetables, like vegetarians, help explain it? If you randomize people to a more plant-based Mediterranean diet, you see a large increase

in the amount of pesticides flowing through their body.

Though, of course, if you put them on a Mediterranean diet with organic fruits and vegetables, you

see a 90% drop in pesticide exposure.

So does organic food consumption during pregnancy reduce hypospatius risk?

Apparently so, cutting the odds about in half, particularly when it comes to choosing organic

vegetables and dairy.

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