Information
about contamination of produce
An EWG (Environmental
Working Group) simulation of thousands of consumers
eating high and low pesticide diets shows that people can lower
their pesticide exposure by 90 percent by avoiding the top twelve
most contaminated fruits and vegetables and eating the least
contaminated instead. Eating the 12 most contaminated fruits and
vegetables will expose a person to nearly 20 pesticides per day,
on average. Eating the 12 least contaminated will expose a person
to a fraction over 2 pesticides per day. Less dramatic comparisons
will produce less dramatic reductions, but without doubt using the
Guide provides people with a way to make choices that lower
pesticide exposure in the diet.
Should I stop eating certain foods?
It is recommend that you eat plenty of fruits and vegetables
because they're essential to a healthy diet. But you can and
should cut back on pesticides--just as you might cut back on fat,
calories or cholesterol.
Right now,
buying organic food is the best option to reduce your intake of
pesticides if you're skeptical about government and
chemical company claims that pesticides are "safe." If you want to
eat conventionally produced fruits and vegetables that usually
have fewer pesticides, you can change your eating habits to do so.
For
more information on the effects of pesticides on produce, please
click this link.
What about washing?
Washing will not change the rank of the fruits and vegetables
in the Guide. That's because nearly all of the data used to create
these lists comes from the USDA Pesticide Data Program (PDP) where
the foods are washed and prepared for normal consumption prior to
testing for pesticides (apples are washed and cored, bananas are
peeled, etc.).
While washing fresh produce may help
reduce pesticide residues, it clearly does not eliminate them.
Nonetheless, produce should be washed before it is eaten because
washing does reduce levels of some pesticides. However, other
pesticides are taken up internally into the plant, are in the
fruit, and cannot be washed off. Others are formulated to bind to
the surface of the crop and do not easily wash off. Peeling
reduces exposures, but valuable nutrients often go down the drain
with the peel.
The best option is to eat a varied diet,
wash all produce, and choose organic when possible to reduce
exposure to potentially harmful chemicals. |
