We know we’re supposed to consume copious amounts of fruits and vegetables every day for good health.
But what happens when those staples of good eating are covered with pesticide residues?
Though switching to organically grown produce has been shown to minimize exposure to chemicals, that’s not always realistic.
Organic alternatives are not available everywhere, and sometimes they are budget breakers.
Fortunately, help is available.
The Environmental Working Group, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, recently updated its popular Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides, including the Dirty Dozen, a list of the 12 fruits and vegetables with the highest pesticide residues, and the Clean 15, a list of the least contaminated foods.
You can print out the free, wallet-size guide to buying conventionally grown produce by visiting www.foodnews.org. They also have an iPhone app to help you navigate the produce section.
If that seems like too much, here’s a rule of thumb: If you’re planning to eat the skin of something, go organic.
Every food on the Dirty Dozen list is usually eaten unpeeled, including apples, peaches, strawberries, nectarines and, for the first time since the list started in 1995, blueberries, a toddler favorite.
Many of the items in the Clean 15, meanwhile, are foods people peel before eating, such as melons, pineapple and sweet potatoes. Notable exceptions include asparagus and eggplant.
The group’s research has found that people who eat five fruits and vegetables a day from the Dirty Dozen consume an average of 10 pesticides a day. Those who eat from the Clean 15 ingest fewer than two pesticides daily.
Wait: Can’t you just wash off pesticides?
No, apparently not. The environmental group’s lists are based on residues found on foods as they are typically eaten, meaning washed, rinsed or peeled.
Also, it wasn’t just a few bad conventionally grown apples that landed the worst offenders in the Dirty Dozen.
More than 96 percent of peaches tested positive for pesticides, followed by nectarines and celery (the dirtiest vegetable of all) at 95 percent, apples at 94 percent and imported cucumbers and potatoes at 84 percent.
The group built its lists using data from 96,000 tests conducted between 2000 and 2008 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Many of the Dirty Dozen items were contaminated with multiple pesticides.
Strawberries and domestic blueberries were the worst, with 13 pesticides detected on a single sample. Peaches and apples were next, with nine pesticides on one sample.
Peaches had been treated with more pesticides than any other type of produce, with combinations of up to 67 different chemicals. Strawberries were next, with 53 pesticides and apples with 47.
Two well-known nutritional powerhouses — kale and spinach — also made the Dirty Dozen.
If all this is enough to make you give up produce altogether, don’t, said local nutritionist Karen Lamphere.
“In general, I would say that eating nonorganic produce is better than forgoing it altogether just because it’s not organic,” said Lamphere, who owns Whole Health Nutrition, a private practice in Edmonds.
“But I would eat the Clean 15 more often than the Dirty Dozen, and I would avoid feeding the Dirty Dozen to children, who are more vulnerable to toxins,” she said.
Pesticides have been associated with nervous system and hormone problems, cancer, and skin, eye and lung irritation, according to the environmental group.
Lamphere, citing a recently released report by the President’s Cancer Panel, said Americans are exposed to numerous toxic chemicals that can potentially cause cancer.
“Our food choices are something we have control over,” she said. She suggests freezing cheap, local food when it’s in season.
Though not all local farms are certified organic, many offer produce not treated with pesticides.
Such produce is usually labeled “unsprayed” at farmers markets and farm stands, or you can ask the farmers and grocers exactly how their food is grown.
“I tell my clients to eat seasonally as much as possible,” Lamphere said. “In the case of blueberries, they are plentiful at farmers markets in July. They don’t need to be certified organic, and they are not expensive.”
Lamphere practices what she preaches and grows some of her own food at home, too.
“Purchasing a small chest freezer is one of the best investments I have made, allowing me to store all kinds of things from the garden to use throughout the winter,” she said.
Sarah Jackson: 425-339-3037, sjackson@heraldnet.com.
Dirty Dozen
1. Celery (WORST)
2. Peaches
3. Strawberries
4. Apples
5. Blueberries (domestic)
6. Nectarines
7. Bell peppers
8. Spinach
9. Kale / collard greens
10. Cherries
11. Potatoes
12. Grapes (imported)
Clean 15
1. Onions (BEST)
2. Avocado
3. Sweet corn (frozen)
4. Pineapple
5. Mangos
6. Sweet peas (frozen)
7. Asparagus
8. Kiwi
9. Cabbage
10. Eggplant
11. Cantaloupe (domestic)
12. Watermelon
13. Grapefruit
14 Sweet potato
15. Honeydew melon
What’s in the middle?
This is the sixth edition of the Shopper’s Guide to Pesticide, first published in 1995 by the Environmental Working Group.
Some items listed on the 2009 Dirty Dozen fell off the 2010 list, including carrots and pears. Lettuce nearly made the Dirty Dozen at No. 13. Imported blueberries snuck by, too, at No. 14. Some of the 2009 Clean 15 moved to the middle, including broccoli and tomatoes.
See a full list of 49 produce items, including bananas, rated from best to worst at www.foodnews.org/fulllist.php.
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