I just wanted to alert everyone to the Environmental Working Group's list of 44 fruits and vegetables and their pesticide score. This is based on the results of 51,000 tests conducted by the FDA between 2001 and 2005. Not everyone can afford to buy organic all of the time, so if you have to pick and choose, they recommend that you always buy organic for the top 12 items on the list. You can also get a printable list of "The Cleanest 12" and "The Dirty Dozen" to take with you to the store.
Sadly, my very favorite fruit, the cherry, is one of the Dirty Dozen! And organic cherries are very expensive, so I can't eat as much of them as I would like to. This list does not indicate which fruits and vegetables tend contain pesticides within their flesh, and which ones tend to have surface residues that could be potentially washed off. When you buy fruit out-of-season, it is more likely to come from other countries with less restrictions on pesticides. This is especially true of strawberries and grapes.
Washing should certainly help to remove some residues. Even if the fruit or vegetable is organic, it should still be washed to remove bacteria. Always wash produce in cold water, as warm water opens up pores, enabling the residues to be absorbed. Scub with a soft brush. If you are eating non-organic apples, pears, or other fruits with a skin, it is best to skin them. Remove the outermost leaves of lettuce and spinach.
The EPA website says: Wash and scrub all fresh fruits and vegetables thoroughly under running water. Running water has an abrasive effect that soaking does not have. This will help remove bacteria and traces of chemicals from the surface of fruits vegetables and dirt from crevices. Not all pesticide residues can be removed by washing.
What is so weird about pesticides and bacteria is you can't see them. You have no idea when and how much you are eating them. If you think about it too much, it could ruin a perfectly good meal.
Friday, June 29, 2007
Some Vegetables have more Pesticides than Others
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4 comments:
I'm trying to guess what keeps certain ones low on the list. Onions because they're under the ground? Avocados because of that hard, armor-like casing? Do these features make them less susceptible to pests, or protect them more from pesticides, or both? At any rate it's disappointing to see how high up some favorites rank.
Has anyone done any independent studies on how pesticides are-- or aren't-- absorbed into fruits and vegetables? What about a plant's root system? Is it possible that pesticides can make their way into the flesh of a fruit via the plant's water distribution?
I'm more and more suspicious about claims that you can "wash off" pesticides. It seems like the chemical industry has a lot at stake in convincing people that chemicals can simply be washed away. (And I hardly trust the EPA to be giving me the unvarnished truth on the matter.)
I just have trouble accepting that growing plants can be doused heavily with all kinds of chemicals and NOT absorb them. Aren't the surfaces of leaves covered with tiny pores for absorbing water and CO2? I may be fuzzy on that, but I'd like to see some science that addresses the question rather than just being told by the EPA that I can "scrub it away."
Dirt, I hope to find more studies about pesticide residues too. Maybe the analytical equipment needed is too expensive? Or maybe there is no funding available for interested scientists?
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