Would you like a side of pesticide with your juicy apple? If you are consuming non-organic apples you might just be getting that. According to the Environmental Working Group, 92% of conventionally grown apples contained 2 or more pesticide residues.
That to me is an alarming amount. Not only are pesticides toxic to human health, but they are damaging to the environment. Pesticides were created to kill living organisms such as plants, insects and fungi that can be categorized as “pests.”
The U.S government has linked pesticides to nervous system toxicity, cancer, hormone system disruption and skin, eye and lung irritation! Scary stuff!
Every year the Environment Working Group analyses approximately 100,000 produce reports from the USDA and FDA. They rank them by the likelihood of being consistently contaminated with a significant amount of pesticides at the highest levels.
The great things is all this information is presented in a user-friendly guide on the EWG site. This helps consumers make educated decisions on which fruits and vegetables they want to purchase.
In a perfect world, everyone would be able to afford organic produce, but sadly not everyone can. By not purchasing fruits and vegetables form the “dirty dozen” list, you are significantly lowering your pesticide exposure.
- Apples: Of all the samples of apples tested 97.8 percent tested positive for pesticides; and they registered the second-highest number of pesticides containing combinations of up to 56 different chemicals
- Celery: 96 percent of the celery analyzed tested positive for pesticides where 90 percent of the celery samples contained multiple pesticides. A single celery sample was contaminated with 13 different chemicals.
- Strawberries: One single sample of strawberries,13 different pesticides were discovered. Gross- I love strawberries.
- Peaches: They were found to be the most treated produce containing up to 57 different chemicals; and it was discovered that 85.6 percent of peaches contain 2 or more pesticide residues.
- Spinach: One of the vegetables to retain pesticide combinations.
- Nectarines (imported): Every sample of imported nectarines tested positive for some kind of pesticide and 90.8 percent of them contained 2 or more pesticide residues.
- Grapes (imported): On a single sample of imported grapes, 14 different combinations of pesticides were discovered and on domestic grapes 13.
- Sweet Bell Peppers: Nearly 69.4 of the sweet bell peppers tested contained multiple pesticides and a single sample contained 11 different types of chemicals. Side note, hot bell peppers have been contaminated with 97 different pesticides
- Potatoes: 94 percent of potatoes have been sprayed with some form of pesticides.
- Blueberries (domestic): No information was reported
- Lettuce: I consider lettuce greens, so it was discovered lettuce was treated with 66 different pesticides
- Kale/Collard Greens: It was found that a single sample of greens contained 10 different chemicals and was treated with up to 66 different pesticides.
Noteworthy:
Raspberries contain 51 different chemicals; 97.2 percent of plums tested positive for pesticides; 92.9 percent of cilantro tested positive for pesticides as well as 70.1 percent of cilantro samples contained multiple pesticides; and cucumbers have been known to be treated with as many as 68 pesticides.
So there you have it: the most toxic fruits and vegetables. Consider buying organic when purchasing any produce on the dirty dozen list.
The EWG claims the following vegetables are least likely to test positive for pesticide residues:
- onions
- sweet corn
- asparagus
- sweet peas
- eggplant
- cabbage
- sweet potatoes
- mushrooms
The following fruits are least likely to test positive for pesticide residues:
- pineapples
- avocados
- mangoes
- domestic cantaloupe
- kiwi
- watermelon
- grapefruit
Fruit and veggies that have a non-edible skin can contain less pesticides. Just remember to wash the skin with soap and water before peeling or cutting into any fruit or veggie. Just water is not good enough anymore. When you cut into an unwashed fruit or vegetable, whatever was on the skin can contaminate the inside of the produce.
Next time you are out grocery shopping, bring both lists above which can be found on the EWG site, and see how you can reduce the amount of pesticides that you and your family ingest!
Source: Environmental Working Group
chemicals, fruit, local farms, organic food, pesticides, veggies
I am the Good Girl Gone Green. Seeing garbage cans overflowing with recyclables breaks my heart.
GAH…ick. we’ve been growing a few veggies in our garden…but many of our faves and fruits are still on that list! thanks for the info.
[oomph.]
And fruit and veggies taste so much better when you grown your own!
Wow… I never realized how bad the problem was with pesitcides and toxins on our food. It really makes me more motivated to find a way to start my own garden.
Start off slowly! There is so much info on the internet on how to start a small garden. It’s so worth it! Or buy from your local famers market. Just map sure they do not spray their fruits and veggies! Good luck!
Same here! This information is kind of scary… you think you’re eating healthy by favoring foods, but you’re actually poisoning your body with pesticides :-/
I definitely know about this subject well, but your post is a great reminder. Thanks!
Glad I could be that reminder!
Oooh, this is not what I want to hear. I have been trying to buy only organic over the past couple of years. It just gets pricey sometimes, but I suppose I’d rather pay a bit more than eat poison!
If you can’t buy all organic, just try buying organic or from a local farm that doesn’t use sprays when buying fruit and veggies on the dirty dozen list!
Hello! I definitely want to go green even more after reading your post. Thanks for follow. Following back.
Thanks! Its not as hard as you think to add some green to your life….
It’s no longer, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away!”
Seriously!!! I like that!
It scares me what goes into the food we eat every day. I suppose washing fruits with all those so-called pesticide removal wash doesn’t really help or do they?
It probably helps to some degree. If there is any residue on the outside it can help get rid of it, but the pesticide does get absorbed into the fruit or veggie!
Growing up, my family always grew our own foods or went to the local orchards for our fruits. I can remember my parents always buying fertilizer and joking that “this stuff cannot be good for us”…yet they continued to use the chemicals. Now that I am a mom, I made it my mission to ONLY feed my son organic fruits and vegetables and purchase meats that have no added hormones. My parents think I’m nuts, I hear “it never hurt you growing up” or “you turned out just fine”. They are entitled to their own opinion of course, but there are too many facts out there about how harmful these pesticides and chemicals are and I want to give my child a healthy lifestyle as much as possible.
You are no alone Jessica. I too only buy organic fruits and veggies and my husband only eats antibiotic, horome free meat. Everyone thinks we are weird sometimes too but I we are doing what we think is best! I agree, why take the chance? Thanks for sharing!
Ewww. I am so wishing I hadn’t eaten that peach a few hours ago…
LOL! Maybe try farm fresh/organic next time!
Scary stuff! Notifications of food recalls are coming at us at an alarming rate. We are organic gardeners and try to grow as much of our vegetables as possible!
Thanks for following my blog LaBelladiva . . . I’m following you back as well!
Hey! I’m stopping by from the stumble hop and I just wanted to let you know that I stumbled and reviewed this post for you! What a wonderful, informative post. I’m so glad I happened upon it! We eat SOOOO many strawberries during the summer… and we haven’t been buying organic… eek!!!
We do, however, use that fruit and vegetable wash religiously that they sell in the stores. Supposedly it gets rid of 99% of all toxins left on the outsides of fruit. Not sure how true that is, but we try REALLLY hard to get our fruit and veggies as clean as possible. But still, reading stuff like this just scares the heck out of me and makes me want to buy only stuff that I can find at my local farmers market!
Lovely website! Oh, and I’m supposed to leave a link back to the post I wanted stumbled, so here it is: Misadventures in Motherhood – Sucker Punch
Thanks! Have a wonderful week! Smiles, Jenn @ Misadventures in Motherhood
Thank you Jenn! Getting the toxins off the outside is the first step. Now to get rid of the toxins on the inside; eating organic/pesticide free
thanks for the info….
You are so welcome!
That is alarming!! I”ll try to choose more carefully. Btw, I stumbled back!!
Thanks!
I’ve seen this kind of list before and I cringe each time I read it and want to go scrub the skin off of every single piece of fruit in my house!
~Mimi, stumbled you http://wovenbywords.blogspot.com/2011/08/finding-my-sexy-again-past.html
Try organic!