Are Organic Products beneficial?

As I have stated in my previous blog, I just became a Crossfit Certified Trainer. This is very exciting for me because I will now be able to teach Crossfit movements to others. The benefits of Crossfit are amazing and some are referring to it as one of the most effective ways to get fit. After doing Crossfit workouts for over a year, I have become very in tune to the fitness culture and the different topics that come up from day to day. Along with Newsweek and Sports Illustrated, the Crossfit website and Muscle & Fitness are regular reads for me. It seems that with the growing trend of obesity in America, all four of these magazines have either begun or have been focusing on diet. In fact, at my certification I learned that nutrition and diet accounts for 80% of body composition while exercise will make up for the remaining 20%. So while I’ve been working out for over 6 years, I’ve been doing it all wrong by focusing on the small 20% and ignoring the 80%.
I stated in the past blog that I have started reading up on organic foods and their possible benefits. My first experience with an article about organic foods was a small article that discussed the possible side effects of some pesticides used on fruits and vegetables. They said these chemicals could possibly cause the body to overstore fat. At the time, I didn’t care about organic foods, because they were pricey and because I was on the “bodybuilder” diet. I would eat as much tuna, chicken, meat, and bread as I could. As organic products became more popular my curiosity of their benefits grew. Then I began talking to my brother who had switched to a diet consisting more of organic foods. He would send me links to articles, references, studies, and all different sorts of media that explained and proved their benefits. However, my HEB was still selling non-organic products.
Due to the fact that I wanted to become a trainer, I began reexamining my diet. I wondered if a meal consisting of burgers and fries was really beneficial. I was still exercising like a nut, but if I wanted to maximize my power output, I would have to start changing the fuel I was using. This led me to Whole Foods. I began browsing the store, and I was faced with the paradox of choice, organic products for more money or regular products for what fit my budget. Was the added value of organic products actually realized when eaten? Was it all a scam in order to grasp this niche market by tricking them into thinking that organic products had added health benefits? Were people buying these products for social or actual health benefits? All these questions began to come to mind and I began my research by looking into the benefits of organic beef, chicken, pork and grass fed beef. The results of much of my research led me to begin to feed into the organic craze. I was buying food purely from Whole Foods, and eating at restaurants that served cage free chickens and organic vegetables.
The study or research I want to conduct will look into organic products. I want to find out who their customer base is. I want to see if these customers fit into some sort of demographic or lifestyle segment. I also want to see what kind of marketing is done by the retailers and wholesalers of organic products. I also think it would be interesting to see how Crossfit views organic products and whether fitness enthusiasts realize the health benefits of organic products. Due to the fact that I am a certified trainer, I want to know if the recommendation of organic products to my clients, or customers would be a reasonable recommendation and whether these clients would find the benefits that I list and research are enough to get them to pay the extra money. Is the price of organic products reflective of their perceived benefit, social benefit, or actual health benefit?

Here's an article I found on the abc News website: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Diet/story?id=3353401&page=1

I also found this article courtesy of Google Scholar. It discusses who consumes organic foods in the UK: http://www.emeraldinsight.com.ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu/Insight/ViewContentServlet?Filename=/published/emeraldfulltextarticle/pdf/0701040314.pdf