The dirty dozen are the most pesticide contaminated fruits and vegetables in the produce section.
Consuming them will expose you to about fifteen pesticides a day.
Elimination Challenge:
Eating the least contaminated will expose you to about two pesticides a day.
Eat organic fruits and vegetables and eliminate the danger. This is one reason why eating organic foods is so important.
Recent reports found that:
Peaches topped the list. Almost 97% of peaches tested positive for pesticides, and almost 87% had two or more pesticide residues.
About 92% of apples tested positive. 79% had two or more pesticides.
The rest of the dirty dozen include bell peppers, celery, nectarines, strawberries, cherries, pears, imported grapes, spinach, lettuce, and potatoes.
Onions, avocados, and sweet corn headed the list for consistently clean. 90% of the samples tested had no detectable pesticide residues.
Others on the clean list include pineapples, mango, asparagus, sweet peas, kiwi, bananas, cabbage, broccoli, and papaya.
While washing fresh produce can somewhat, reduce the risks, it does not eliminate them.
Peeling fruits and veggies also helps to reduce the exposure, but valuable nutrients often go into the trash (or hopefully the compost pile).
There is a growing consensus that small doses of pesticides do adversely affect us.
This is especially true for the vulnerable fetal development and childhood when exposure can have long term effects.
Many scientists now think that these hidden toxins account for the current soaring cancer rates among children.
In my humble opinion they're probably the reason cancer rates are skyrocketing, period.
The toxic effects of pesticides are not well understood, or in some cases completely unstudied.
Why eat organic food? I think the reasons are clear.
"Live Openly Organic and Share the Wealth of Good Health!"The dirty dozen is only one (or twelve) reason to go organic. Go back to organic faqs for more.
Openly Organic logo design by: Gwendelynn Brown (inspired by the work of Shel Silverstein)
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