Friday, June 11, 2010

The Dirty Dozen Revisited

Welcome back, guys :) I hope your week is finishing out well! I am keeping busy, busy, busy!

I have a lecture to give later this month that will touch on organics, and as I was researching all the fun pesticide information, I discovered that the Dirty Dozen list has been updated! With new farming practices and spray-resistant bugs, chemical use has altered some.

So step down, peaches - you are no longer the worst produce for us! (still number two... but hey, it ain't the gold!) The new dirty culprit? Well, if you're making my good ol' Fire Ants on A Log, let's just say - get organic celery!

These top twelve worst produce items can contain as many as 47 to 67 different pesticides per serving! Yikes! So, again - opt for organic versions of these items, and even then - rinse them off well! Different pesticides have been linked to a variety of health problems, including:
  • Nervous system toxicity
  • Cancer
  • Hormone system effects
  • Skin, eye and lung irritation
So, without further ado, here's the new list:

Dirty Dozen:
  1. Celery
  2. Peaches
  3. Strawberries
  4. Apples
  5. Blueberries
  6. Nectarines
  7. Bell Peppers
  8. Spinach
  9. Kale
  10. Cherries
  11. Potatoes
  12. Grapes (Imported)
Clean 15:
  1. Onions
  2. Avocado
  3. Sweet Corn
  4. Pineapple
  5. Mangos
  6. Sweet Peas
  7. Asparagus
  8. Kiwi
  9. Cabbage
  10. Eggplant
  11. Cantaloupe
  12. Watermelon
  13. Grapefruit
  14. Sweet Potato
  15. Honeydew Melon

The Environmental Working Group will send you a little clip-on list that you can attach to your purse or shopping bag here if you donate $10. I think they are a company worth supporting; but you can also just get the free download from that same link, print out a copy of the list, and put it in your wallet! It's a good resource!

And if you shop at a local Farmers' Market, just ask the farmer about their chemical practice. Remember, it is pricey to get official Organic certification - many small farms are organic and safe, they just didn't shell out the big bucks to go through certification.

Have a great evening!
~Katie

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