100% Organic Fruit and Vegetables Are Better – But You Can’t Always Buy These Organic!
In an ideal world, we’d all be buying fresh fruit and vegetables from local farmers who farm organically (i.e. they don’t use chemical pesticides or herbicides). But – we don’t live in an ideal world.
It’s often cheaper and easier to spray chemicals on food crops to protect them. And even though produce is rinsed in the field, and even though you wash fresh produce at home, there’s STILL pesticide residue on some fruits and vegetables!
So, what should you do?
Get Clever
You want to protect your family’s health by eating lots of fresh produce, but you don’t want to eat chemical residues too.
But organic fruit and vegetables are often more expensive, and they may not be available everywhere all the time.
The answer is to get smart, and use the EWG’s list of the cleanest – and the dirtiest – fresh produce.
How Do You Use This List Effectively?
It’s simple!
- For produce that has a lot of pesticide residue, like strawberries, always try to buy organic.
- For produce that has very little pesticide residue, you don’t need to worry about buying organic (unless you want to). So you could buy conventional avocados for example, as you’ll see in the lists below.
Which Produce Should I Try to Buy Organic?
The EWG lists the Dirty Dozen – fruit and vegetables that do have residue. Look out for these and try to buy organic, or grow your own.
What Produce Is “Cleaner”?
EWG also list the Clean 15, which are fruits and vegetables which don’t have much pesticide residue. You can save money by NOT buying these organic, unless you want to.
Other Important Things You Need to Know
The EWG produce their lists in late Summer or early Fall / Autumn, so this list is current for 2020 and most of 2021.
You should NOT stop eating fresh produce even if you can’t get organic versions of the Dirty Dozen. It’s still better to eat fresh produce, even conventionally grown, than to leave fresh fruit and vegetables out of your diet.
If you worry that you are not eating enough fresh produce each day (I find it difficult to eat as much as I should), remember that fresh smoothies are a fun way of getting your 10-a-day without having to munch through whole produce. Homemade smoothies are always best, because you know exactly what goes into them, and there are no nasty additives. (Check out my yummy smoothies that also help you to lose weight!).
Not many of us can remember all of the items on the “clean” and “dirty” lists, but a quick guide is that if something has a thick skin that you don’t eat, it’s normally safe from pesticide residue. So pineapples, canteloupe (melon) and avocados are on the safe list.
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Warm regards,
P.S. Don’t forget to download your FREE recipes for yummy smoothies that will keep you feeling full! Click here.
