Vegetables and Fruits are healthy foods we live on daily while please be aware of pesticides, those harmful chemicals. With the advance of science, nowadays, more and more vegetables and fruits we can get all year round while we could not in the old time. However it is also raising our consensus that small doses of pesticides and other chemicals can adversely affect our health, especially during vulnerable periods such as during fetal development and childhood, the impact can have long lasting effects. Because the lack of study on toxic effects of pesticides, it is wise to minimize exposure to pesticides whenever possible.
Wash veggies and fruits thoroughly or peel them accordingly in order to remove the harmful chemicals, which is a must for our health. However, washing and rinsing fresh produce may reduce levels of some pesticides, it does not eliminate them. Peeling also reduces exposures, but in the same time valuable nutrients are gone as well. The best option is to eat a varied diet, wash all produce thoroughly, and choose locally-grown, organic produce when possible to reduce exposure to potentially harmful chemicals.
To choose organic produce is good for our health, while for some reason such as not availability, high cost we can not buy organic foods. The following list was compiled by the Environmental Working Group(EWG)(http://www.foodnews.org/fulldataset.php) for your reference. We should especially be aware of the top 12, which grows while being used with most pesticides. The scores given are a composite of numbers and amounts of pesticides found in the EWG studies. The “worst”, peaches, was given a score of 100, and the others were calibrated from that. EWG studies based on thousands of consumers who eating high and low pesticide diets show that people can lower their pesticide exposure by almost 90 percent by avoiding the top twelve most contaminated vegetables and fruits and eating the least contaminated ones instead.
This information will give us some ideas on pesticides on some of the vegetables and fruits and help us in deciding what we want to choose and how we eat them. Please keep in mind that this list only lists some of the vegetables and fruits we are eating, not all of them, and if you live in other countries than U.S.A, you should refer to the studies’ results in the country you live. In addition, all the data are location and time sensitive, because science is advancing, the way we grow vegetables and fruits may change accordingly. Therefore, keep learning and getting the update information on this issue is necessary for keeping our healthy diet.
Pesticides on Popular Vegetables and Fruits
1. Peaches – 100
2. Apples – 96
3. Sweet Bell Peppers – 86
4. Celery - 85
5. Nectarines – 84
6. Strawberries – 83
7. Cherries – 75
8. Lettuce – 69
9. Grapes – Imported from outside U.S. – 68
10. Pears – 65
11. Spinach – 60
12. Potatoes – 58
13. Carrots – 57
14. Green Beans – 55
15. Hot Peppers – 53
16. Cucumbers – 52
17. Raspberries – 47
18. Plums – 46
19. Oranges – 46
20. Grapes –Domestic 46
21. Cauliflower – 39
22. Tangerines – 38
23. Mushrooms - 37
24. Cantaloupe – 34
25. Lemon – 31
26. Honeydew Melon – 31
27. Grapefruit – 31
28. Winter Squash – 31
29. Tomatoes – 30
30. Sweet Potatoes – 30
31. Watermelon – 25
32. Blueberries – 24
33. Papaya – 21
34. Eggplant – 19
35. Broccoli – 18
36. Cabbage – 17
37. Bananas – 16
38. Kiwi – 14
39. Asparagus – 11
40. Sweet Peas-Frozen – 11
41. Mango – 9
42. Pineapples – 7
43. Sweet Corn-Frozen – 2
44. Avocado – 1
45. Onions – 1
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