What’s on your shopping list? Where do you source the ingredients that you serve on your table? These are just zome of the concerns that health-conscious and meticulous people could wonder about. People may ask questions about the foods being served and fed to them and be opinionated about their observations. If you are a cook or a culinary provider, do you get offended when questions or comments like these are being asked?
People who have certain conditions or have already learned from experience how food could influence their body or how their body would react to a certain food, hence they pay too much attention to the quality, safety, cleanliness, and nourishment of the food they consume.
While zome would rather be passive or just be silent about their food realizations, some want to be proactive and be involved and aware of the nourishment quality they provide to their body. They are eager to honestly and transparently talk about healthy eating options for their wellness and to also help people be aware of nutritious food, and unhealthy, and unsafe foods.
One of the topics that are worth discussing during your table talks is the pesticide on your food. Some vegetables and fruits could be more damaging to our health than beneficial due to the pesticides it has. To learn more about this, organizations like the Environmental Working Group analyzed the results and testing data obtained by the Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration about fruit and vegetable pesticide contamination. Learn the fresh produce that are unsafe to eat and which ones are still not fully contaminated by pesticides, herbicides, and insecticides by checking out the lists below.
Pesticide-contaminated fresh produce
Under this category are the most pesticide-contaminated fruits and vegetables or what other people call the Dirty Dozen.
- Strawberries
- Spinach
- Kale, collard & mustard greens
- Peaches
- Pears
- Nectarines
- Apples
- Grapes
- Bell & hot Peppers
- Cherries
- Blueberries
- Green Beans
Neat food
Fruits and vegetables that have the lowest amounts of pesticide residues are called Clean 15™. See the list provided below
- Carrots
- Watermelon
- Sweet Potatoes
- Mangoes
- Mushrooms
- Cabbage
- Kiwi
- Honeydew melon
- Asparagus
- Sweet peas (frozen)
- Avocados
- Onions
- Pineapple
- Sweet corn*
- Papaya*
It’s important to note that though some fruits and vegetables are organically grown, they might have been produced from genetically modified seeds. This can include sweet corn, papaya, and summer squash, which especially applies if they are grown from places that adopt genetically modified methods (GMO) to produce or propagate some fruits and vegetables.
In-between
Those who are in between are neither in the list of Dirty Dozen or Clean Fifteen. Vegetables and fruits in this category are:
- Tomatoes
- Winter squash
- Celery
- Potatoes
- Cherry Tomatoes
- Lettuce
- Tangerines
- Cucumbers
- Broccoli
- Summer squash*
- Plums
- Eggplant
- Raspberries
- Grapefruit
- Snap Peas
- Oranges
- Cantaloupe
- Bananas
- Cauliflower
Seeing things objectively aids us in ensuring that the foods we consume help us maintain good health and do not put our health at risk or cause negative effects. Different case studies have shown that ingesting pesticides could lead to adverse effects. For concerned and health-conscious individuals we wrote another article for you to read to learn more and be aware of the impact of pesticides on our body
Reference:
Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce™: Full List. Environmental Working Group. Retrieved on 2/13/2023 from https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/full-list.php
📝 February 13, 2024
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