Another link may have been found between eating organic food and having a lower risk of cancer.

A population-based study of nearly 69,000 French adults shows a significant reduction in the risk of cancer among people who say they eat a lot of spray-free food.

Author Julia Baudry from France's Centre of Research in Epidemiology and Statistics sums up the result:

"A decrease of 25 per cent of cancers among high organic consumers compared with low organic consumers."

The authors say if the findings can be confirmed with further research, promoting organic food consumption could be a promising preventive strategy against cancer.

Dr Jorge Chavarro from the Harvard School of Public Health has analysed the results.

He says the findings are consistent with previous studies which have linked pesticides commonly used on fruit and veges with cancer, particularly non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

He says he thinks "a main point of the study is that we should probably be paying more attention to this and we should probably study more."