Welcome to Paging Dr. Gupta. I am back again to answer your health questions and more. Today, Jennifer is going to be joining us with some new questions from all of you. Jennifer, who do we have first?

Okay, so our first question is from Meg. She's calling in from New Jersey and she has a great question about organic food.

How do we determine or ascertain that the food that comes from other countries is in fact organic? I assume in the United States there are inspectors and those kind of things, but I'm curious about things that come from other country. Thank you.

Alright, I love this question. Meg, thank you very much. Truth is, look, more than ever people are interested in where their food comes from. They're interested in exactly how it's grown and then how it gets to their table. And many of us are interested choosing organic foods. But the question becomes then, how do you know if it's really organic, especially if it comes from abroad? I'm going to tell you what you need to know right after the break.

All right, welcome back to Paging Dr. Gupta. How do you know if something that is labeled as organic is really organic? Well, in the United States, we have inspectors and a certification process to make sure food labeled organic meets strict standards. Now that's enforced by the USDA, the US Department of Agriculture. They have a national organic program which develops and enforces the standards for organic crops, livestock, and agricultural products. Let me take a step back for a second and explain these standards. We've talked about them before, but basically organic food is considered organic because of the way it is farmed, handled, and processed. I'm going to repeat that. Organic food is labeled that way because of the ways that it is farm, handled and processed. So for fruits and vegetables, for example, to be certified organic by the USDA, farmers Growers and growers need to avoid the use of prohibited substances. Basically, it's anything synthetic to manage pests, weeds, disease, and soil. The requirements for animal products are a little different. Livestock have to consume an organic diet, plus vitamin and mineral supplements as needed. Both poultry and livestock must have access to outdoor spaces throughout the year. And for packaged foods, it is all about the ingredients. So for a food item with multiple ingredients to be considered organic by the USDA, at at least 95% of those ingredients. Have to be certified organic. So what about organic food that is grown in other countries? Well it turns out the USDA also has a pretty robust system in place to make sure imported organic food is held to the same standards as food grown in the United States, and that it is, indeed, what they say it is. And here's how that works. First of all, farms and food producers in other countries must adopt USDA organic practices and be certified by USDA accredited agents. These agents are trained to inspect and verify that the operation follows the same organic rules we use in the United States, even if that farm is thousands of miles away. Second of all, the U.S. Does have formal arrangements with some countries, like Canada, the European Union, Japan, among others, and these agreements basically say, hey look, your organic standards, they are just as strict as ours. So if a product is certified organic in those countries, it can be sold as organic here as well. And then there's something fairly new. Since 2024, every shipment of organic food coming into the United States must include a special import certificate. That certificate is sort of like a passport for organic products. It tells custom officials exactly where the food came from, how much of it there is, and confirms that it has been certified organic, along with a paper trail to show it. Finally, the USDA doesn't really just take people's word for it. It does conduct audits and inspections from time to time, and anyone that falsely represents products as organic gets an expensive fine. Now, I wanna be clear. What I've just described is not a perfect system. Fraud does happen sometimes. It can happen, and it does happen. And sometimes products which claim to be organic are not. That goes for food from the United States as well, by the way, as well as food from abroad. You know, we talked to Dr. Peter Laufer, a journalist and professor at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication. He's done a lot of digging into this, including writing a book called Organic, A Journalist's Quest to Discover the Truth Behind Food Labeling, and he pointed out something to us that's really important.

When you think about where we get all of our food and how much food we all have on this planet, every single piece of broccoli can't be looked at.

So again, it's not a perfect system. When it comes to products that come from both inside and outside the country, it can get tricky. There's a lot of food there to be inspected, but Dr. Loeffler had some advice.

Logic is important to inject into the question. If you really are trying to figure out what's what, and where it came from, and can you trust it? And one of the things that I look out for is when products come, such as the honey that I had for breakfast on a nice piece of sourdough bread. If it's coming from multiple places far away, even if it's labeled organic, that means it had to go through three inspection processes and perhaps something slipped in one of them or maybe something devious occurred, who knows? But it's a whole lot different than if your neighbor across the back fence has bees in her backyard and she says, do you want a jar of honey?

And even showed us a jar of honey that raised some serious questions about its origins.

So this particular one, I have to get out a magnifying glass because that's another thing that's intriguing. If it's hard to find this information on the label, that doesn't necessarily mean that the retailer or the producer is trying to be devious, but that's a little weird. Wouldn't you be proud to say where your stuff's from? So let me put on the the fine glass here, and yes, selected honey. From the USA. Okay. We like the USA, right? Ukraine. Okay, and Are you ready to go to Ukraine in India and check out where the producer is? Probably not before you have your honey on your sourdough bread for breakfast. So yeah, a good dose of skepticism combined with some pragmatism and some just heartfelt belief in the goodness of the human spirit that most people are not trying to mess with you.

While it's not perfect, there are safeguards in place to help ensure that organic food is in fact organic. One thing I should point out is that Dr. Loeffler doesn't really worry that much. He does stress that there is absolutely no way to know for certain whether something is organic unless you've grown it yourself. But at the same time, that doesn't mean we should write off organic entirely. We do the best we can with the information we are given, and it's always worth trying to get more information. So Meg, again, thank you for the question. I know it's not a simple or straightforward answer, but hopefully you learned something about the ins and outs of organic food today. Let's take a quick break, when we come back, there are these sheets out there that claim to help with better sleep, joint pain, even with cancer. Maybe you've heard of them, grounding sheets. What are they, and is there any real science behind them? Stick with us. All right, welcome back to Paging Dr. Gupta. Jennifer, hit me with the next question.

All right, Sanjay, I think you're gonna like this one. This is a question from Cleo. She's calling from Atlanta and she's wondering about grounding sheets.

My question is about grounding sheets. Is there any validity that they help with insomnia, joint pain, and other kinds of ailments because they're being sold in many places online? And before purchasing, I want to know, is there any truth to them helping with these things? So hopefully you can address this question on one of your shows.

'Thank you. Okay, Cleo, I'm so glad you asked this question. In part because I really didn't know much about grounding sheets until I read your question. So thank you. You took us on a deep dive over at CNN Medical. If you're not familiar with these grounding sheets, let's start with some basics. First of all, grounding sheets are, yeah, they're sheets. They look the same as the regular sheets you put on your bed, but they have one main difference. Grounding sheets are said to be woven with a conductive material like carbon or silver, and then they are conducted to a power outlet or directly onto the ground outside, the idea being that they will conduct the Earth's energy while you sleep. Okay, you get that? It's got the carbon or silver sort of woven into the material, you're sleeping, and now that conduction is happening. But one might reasonably ask, why conduct the Earth's energy at all? And what exactly is grounding? So grounding is the idea that your body can connect with the electric charge of the earth, and that being connected is the natural state of how humans should be. It's also called earthing, by the way, grounding or earthing. The theory is that people were naturally grounded in the past just by living. They walked barefoot, they sat on the ground, they slept close to the earth. Now, contrast that with today, where we're mostly indoors. We sleep in beds, we wear shoes, we live in buildings that keep us separated from the ground. Again, the idea is that somewhere along the way, we lost that connection with Mother Earth. And people claim that this disconnection can cause health issues. Everything from arthritis to fibromyalgia, restless sleep. Now, proponents of grounding say that making an effort to reconnect with the Earth the way we once did can solve a lot of those issues. And if you don't have time to sit outside on the grass all day, These products are designed to simulate that connection. Grounding sheets, which you can sleep on in bed, in addition to things like mats and shoes and blankets and more. The claims are pretty audacious. They claim to reduce inflammation and pain, reduce stress, enhance mood, help with chronic illnesses, including autoimmune disorders, cancer, cardiovascular, diabetes and more, again, those are big claims. So let's break it down a little bit. What exactly does the science say about grounding? Now if you look this up, you'll find that there are studies that have been done on the effects of grounding, but a lot of the studies out there have been by folks who have a stake in selling these grounding products, and they've disclosed as much. But because of those conflicts of interest, you would be wise to be cautious of the study. There's a real possibility of bias when it comes to these grounding sheet studies, And that's something to keep in mind. You should look up the studies yourself. You should scroll down to the conflict of interest section. Now, in terms of other studies that are not as conflicted, they are pretty limited and inconclusive. There was a 2023 review which pointed out that a lot of the studies on grounding are not at all gold standard science. They haven't used placebo control trials or blinded trials. The same review pointed out there are a ton of variables that can affect or even distort the results. Soil moisture, soil composition. So when it comes to grounding sheets, there are people who swear by them, but it's really hard to say for sure if they're effective at all. What about safety? Right now, again, there's no independent data about the safety of grounding sheets. Some manufacturers suggest making sure to never use them during a thunderstorm or if there's lightning. But as a general rule, they're probably gonna be about as safe as other sheets. The benefits? Not totally clear. If you are curious, Cleo, I can't see anything wrong with practicing a bit of grounding, maybe? Maybe that's what you're going for? Getting outside, taking off your shoes and socks, and sort of grounding yourself, or earthing yourself, like our ancestors did on a daily basis. It is funny how little time we spend just walking around without any shoes or socks on. It can be really, really wonderful to do that from time to time. Cleo, thank you so much for your question. That's all the time we have for today. Thanks to everyone. Keep those questions coming. If you have a question, send it our way. Don't keep it to yourself. Record a voice memo, email it to asksanjayatcnn.com, or give us a call, 470-396-0832, and leave a message. Thanks so much.