Awards for Fruits & Veggies Highest in Pesticides!

The nonprofit organization Environmental Working Group studied over 90,000 pieces of non-organic fresh fruits and vegetables to come up with the new 2010 “Dirty Dozen” list of non-organic produce highest in pesticides! They found that “people who eat five fruits and vegetables a day from the Dirty Dozen list consume an average of 10 pesticides a day.” That is pretty disturbing and another reason to choose organic produce!! At the end I included the EWG’s previously created list of the “Best 15” non-organic fresh produce picks that are lowest in pesticide residue, averaging 2 pesticides per day…

WORST 12 (Dirty Dozen) Always buy these organic

Celery
Peaches
Strawberries
Apples
Blueberries
Nectarines
Bell Peppers
Spinach
Kale
Cherries
Potatoes
Grapes (Imported)

BEST 15 Non-Organic

Onions
Avocado
Sweet Corn
Pineapple
Mangos
Sweet Peas
Asparagus
Kiwi
Cabbage
Eggplant
Cantaloupe
Watermelon
Grapefruit
Sweet Potato
Honeydew Melon

My recommendation is to only buy organic whenever possible and if you are unable to buy organic or it is not available, only buy/consume from the “Best 15” list and avoid the “Dirty Dozen” foods 100% unless organic! And in case you are wondering if simply washing your non-organic produce is enough to eliminate the pesticides, it’s not. It does help but does not do the job.

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