Pesticides Residues in our Food

[Health and Medicine]

Whether you are on a budget and need to prioritize your organic purchases, or you would simply like to know which type of produce has the highest pesticide residues—and which do not—the following list from the EWG (Environmental Working Group) will help.

You may have seen similar lists in the past, such as The Dirty Dozen and the Clean Fifteen, however these are the latest (2015) findings. This list is sorted from top to bottom starting in the first column (far left) and then moving to the second and third (far right).  Some of the items towards the bottom of the list were previously on the Clean Fifteen list, but it is all relative isn’t it?

Apples Peaches Nectarines Strawberries Grapes Celery Spinach Sweet bell peppers Cucumbers         Cherry tomatoes Snap peas (imported) Potatoes Hot peppers Blueberries (domestic) Lettuce Kale / Collard greens Cherries

Plums Pears Green beans Raspberries Winter squash Tangerines Blueberries (imported) Carrots Summer Squash Broccoli Snap peas (domestic) Green onions Bananas Oranges Tomatoes Watermelon Honeydew melon

Mushrooms Sweet potatoes Cauliflower Cantaloupe Grapefruit Eggplant Kiwi Papayas Mangos Asparagus Onions Sweet peas, frozen Cabbage Pineapple Sweet corn Avocados

  

If reducing the levels of pesticides that enter your diet is part of your health and wellness strategy, then there are a few ways to go about that.

• Buy only organic produce is one option
• Avoid all of this produce is another option
• A more moderate approach might be to buy organic when possible, or otherwise avoid produce towards the top half of the list
• Additionally, you could do your best to properly wash and clean your produce in an effort to remove the pesticide residue (See How to Better Ensure Your Produce is Clean and Safe for more info) 

In addition to pesticide, there are many other toxic chemicals used in modern high production farming practices such as herbicides, fungicides and even fertilizers with an array of implication to the environment and our health.

In particular, genetically engineered crops are typically grown with a strict protocol of all  sorts of these chemicals.  RoundUp in particular has been highly controversial, and just recently, testing the toxicity of RoundUp in the context of the complete formula including those chemicals listed as inert, it has been determined that their adjuvant function profoundly raises the toxicity beyond what has been measured when testing Glyphosate (RoundUp’s active ingredient) in isolation.  This is a topic unto itself, but something to consider when looking to fulfill your personal lifestyle and dietary needs, in addition to your ethics and sensibilities regarding general health and wellness, diet, health costs, ecology and sustainability.