Pesticides in your Produce
When dealing with your own body, it is important to be aware of exactly what you are putting into it. This was made easier by the mandatory labeling of ingredients on packaged food, which takes away some of the mystery as to what exactly you're getting when you buy a box of Rice Krispies. But what about the produce section? No labels. No ingredients. If I am buying a pear, I'd like to assume that the imaginary sticker on the side would simply say:
Ingredients: Pear
Sounds tasty to me. But actually if the sticker was being completely truthful, it might say something like:
Ingredients: Pear May contain trace amounts of Azinphos methyl, o-Phenylphenol, Phosmet, or Thiabendazole.
Suddenly this pear doesn't sound quite as appealing.
If I look up these four( 1,2,3,4 ) chemicals in a Pesticide Database, I find that there is evidence that two are neurotoxins and the other two are both carcinogens and developmental toxins. Suddenly that pear doesn't sound appealing at all. It's true that your chances of getting cancer from eating this one pesticide covered pear are extremely low. But what if you eat a pear every day? Or a pear and an apple every day. I ask you this: What do you consider to be an acceptable level of a carcinogen that is to be applied to your food? I believe that my answer to that question would be: Zero.
So what can you do about this? Well the first step is to be aware of which foods are the main sources of pesticides in your diet. An organization called the Environmental Working Group ranks pesticide contamination in fruits and vegetables by using results of about 43,000 tests done by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration.
Next, make sure that you are removing as much of these pesticides as possible when you are preparing your food. This means rinsing all produce before you eat it. Vegetable wash solutions started popping up in stores in the past few years and are a good way to help remove surface chemicals. I've read that you can make your own version of a vegetable wash using 1 teaspoon of a mild dishwashing detergent added to 1 gallon of water. I also found recipes on the web requiring various combinations of cold water, lemon juice, white vinegar, salt and grapefruit seed extract. Peeling vegetables will also reduce the amount of pesticides that are ingested, although the lack of skin may reduce their nutritional content.
Buying organic fruits and vegetables is probably the best method of staying pesticide free, but it does tend to be more expensive and it may be difficult to find everything you'd like. Organic produce generally means no pesticides, fertilizers, additives or ionizing radiation were used on your food. I found one organic grocery that delivers and they seem to have a decent selection: Diamond Organics There are most likely others. The prices are currently higher than regular produce, but that gap has been narrowing for the past few years as more farms switch over to growing organic. Illinois currently has no state standards or certification for organic foods. I found a UIUC-written paper called What does it mean to be organic.
My recommendation is to use the list as a guide as to what priority your organic produce should be purchased. Nectarines, peaches, celery and apples have the highest percentage of samples with detectable pesticides, while potatoes, plums, spinach and peaches had the highest concentrations of pesticides found. Try to buy these as organics while not worrying as much about the ones at the low end of the list, like pineapples, sweet corn, avocados and onions. Rinse all your produce thoroughly in cold water before you eat it. Scrub or peel hearty vegetables such as potatoes.
The Full List: 43 Fruits & Veggies
|
RANK |
FRUIT OR VEGGIE |
SCORE |
|
1 (worst) |
Peaches |
100 (highest pesticide load) |
|
2 |
Apples |
89 |
|
3 |
Sweet Bell Peppers |
86 |
|
4 |
Celery |
85 |
|
5 |
Nectarines |
84 |
|
6 |
Strawberries |
82 |
|
7 |
Cherries |
75 |
|
8 |
Pears |
65 |
|
9 |
Grapes - Imported |
65 |
|
10 |
Spinach |
60 |
|
11 |
Lettuce |
59 |
|
12 |
Potatoes |
58 |
|
13 |
Carrots |
57 |
|
14 |
Green Beans |
53 |
|
15 |
Hot Peppers |
53 |
|
16 |
Cucumbers |
52 |
|
17 |
Raspberries |
47 |
|
18 |
Plums |
45 |
|
19 |
Grapes - Domestic |
43 |
|
20 |
Oranges |
42 |
|
21 |
Grapefruit |
40 |
|
22 |
Tangerine |
38 |
|
23 |
Mushrooms |
37 |
|
24 |
Cantaloupe |
34 |
|
25 |
Honeydew Melon |
31 |
|
26 |
Tomatoes |
30 |
|
27 |
Sweet Potatoes |
30 |
|
28 |
Watermelon |
28 |
|
29 |
Winter Squash |
27 |
|
30 |
Cauliflower |
27 |
|
31 |
Blueberries |
24 |
|
32 |
Papaya |
21 |
|
33 |
Broccoli |
18 |
|
34 |
Cabbage |
17 |
|
35 |
Bananas |
16 |
|
36 |
Kiwi |
14 |
|
37 |
Sweet peas - frozen |
11 |
|
38 |
Asparagus |
11 |
|
39 |
Mango |
9 |
|
40 |
Pineapples |
7 |
|
41 |
Sweet Corn - frozen |
2 |
|
42 |
Avocado |
1 |
|
43 (best) |
Onions |
1 (lowest pesticide load) |
Please don't let things like this discourage you from eating fruits and vegetables. I believe the advantages of getting enough fresh servings do generally outweigh the negative aspects such as possible pesticide contamination.
Aug 17, 2007 | /Nutrition/ | permanent link