STUDY: Bug Attacks Make Organic Fruits and Veggies Healthier

Leaf wounds from insects make organic fruits and vegetables healthier for us to eat, researchers report. When bugs eat holes in the leaves of our crops, the plants produce more antioxidants! The plants’ stress responses initiates an increase in antioxidant compounds prior to harvest, the study shows.

"This observation was key when we designed the strategies to be used in the study, that simple wounding stress on leaf surfaces elicited this systemic response with the unique observation of higher accumulation of phenolic antioxidants in fruit," Ibanez says. "Our team has elucidated a controversy that was an open question for many years," Cisneros-Zevallos says. "Understanding how these antioxidants are produced by a simple stress like wounding can certainly transform the way the fresh produce industry operates, including both organic and conventional. And it may allow the industry to adopt novel tools based on pre-harvest stress to favor the accumulation of healthier antioxidants in fresh produce and processed foods."