Did you ever wonder about healthy eating foods, and the level of added toxins? What about organically grown foods? The simple directive our doctors give to “eat more fruits and vegetables” has become more complicated in this day and age. Herbicides and pesticides are used widely, and on some crops more than others.
These poisons (to us AND the bugs) become incorporated into the crops themselves, and you must decide how much of this you are willing to put into your system. Would you drink a glass of insect killer? How about a shot of synthetic fertilizer? Perhaps not your conscious choice, but you may be doing just that.
Some conventionally grown foods are treated with more pesticides than others, and some of these crops grab and hold them more than others. And then there are the root crops – carrots, beets, parsnips and potatoes, which draw fertilizers, pesticides and other soil impurities to them through water absorption. If your goal is healthy eating, foods such as these must be avoided.
Thanks to a study by the Environmental Working Group’s controversial Dirty Dozen Foods, we have a practical list of foods that should only be eaten if organically grown. I say controversial because of course, the conventional farmers deny the harmful nature of toxic elements in foods. But they would have to, wouldn’t they?
The Dirty Dozen: These foods should only be eaten when grown organically. They are listed from worst toward better.
1. Peach (worst – highest pesticide load)
2. Apple (still pretty bad)
3. Sweet Bell Pepper (Who knew bugs love them so much?)
4. Celery (Just sucks up all that fertilizer!)
5. Nectarine (insecticides, insecticides, insecticides!)
6. Strawberries (Takes a lot o’ bug juice to get these babies grown)
7. Cherries (Bugs and birds love ‘em)
8. Kale (Must be fertilizers for this one.)
9. Lettuce (Yeah – fertilizers galore!)
10. Grapes – Imported (Uh-Oh! WHAT are they using for fertilizer?)
11. Carrot (Root crops are sweeter and safer organically grown)
12. Pear (Lots and lots of insecticide.)
These foods are some of the best healthy eating foods, but not with all the toxins added in, and the organic versions taste so much better, too.
On the other hand, some foods have a low pesticide use in conventional farming and are safer to eat. They generally have a skin or a peel protecting the edible portion. They are listed from best (onions) to the not quite as clean.
We can call this list The Clean Fifteen; fifteen foods that are still good even when grown conventionally.
1. Onion
2. Avocado
3. Sweet corn–frozen
4. Pineapple
5. Mango
6. Asparagus
7. Sweet peas–frozen
8. Kiwi
9. Cabbage
10. Eggplant
11. Papaya
12. Watermelon
13. Broccoli
14. Tomato
15. Sweet potato
Keeping this list in your wallet or blackberry is helpful when you are at the grocery store so you can better implement your plan to stick to healthy eating foods.