Eating organic fruits and vegetables leads to a significant decline in the amount of pesticides and herbicides in children's bodies, a new study says.

It included 20 children in Oakland, Calif. and 20 children in the agricultural community of Salinas, about 100 miles south of Oakland. The youngsters ate conventional produce for four days, organic produce for seven days, and then conventional produce again for five days, The New York Times reported.

While the children were on the organic diet, their urine samples showed a nearly 50 percent decline in two of six of the most frequently detected pesticides, and a 25 percent drop in levels of a common herbicide.

The study was published in the October issue of the journal Environmental and Health Perspectives.

"There's evidence that diet is one route of exposure to pesticides, and you can reduce your exposure by choosing organic food," study lead author, Asa Bradman, associate director, Center for Environmental Research and Children's Health, University of California, Berkeley, told The Times.

"But I would never say that conventional fruits and vegetables are unsafe. They're all healthy," Bradman added.