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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@gilanet.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] The Top 12 Most Contaminated Fruits & Vegetables
  • Date: Mon, 04 Jul 2005 19:40:03 -0600

The Top 12 Most Contaminated Fruits & Vegetables
by Frederick Patenaude

We know that pesticides are definitely dangerous to human
health. We also know that one of the best things we can do
to avoid pesticides is to consume organic food. However,
this isn’t always possible due to several restraints:
availability, price, etc.

There’s another thing we can do, however, to reduce our
pesticide exposure: avoid the fruits and vegetables that are
the most contaminated.

When organic is not available, eat fruits and vegetables
with consistently low pesticide loads.

It’s been shown that you can lower your pesticide exposure
simply by avoiding the top 12 most contaminated types of
fruit 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.

-----------------------------------------------------------

The Black List
-----------------------------------------------------------

So, what are the most contaminated fruits and vegetables?
Here’s the black list, according to the most recent data
analysed:

---> The top 4 are fruits, in the following order:

#1 (Most Contaminated): Peach
#2: Strawberry
#3: Apple
#4: Nectarine

---> The other highly contaminated fruits in the top 12 are:


#5 Pears
#6 Cherrie
#7 Red raspberries
#8 Imported grapes (Chile, Mexico, etc.)

Some of these fruits, such as peaches and nectarines and
raspberries, can contain up to 45 different pesticides!
Overall, studies show that those fruits have a high chance
of being contaminated with a good number of different
pesticide residues.

As for the vegetables, those that are the most likely to
expose you to pesticide residues are:

#1 Celery
#2 Spinach
#3 Potatoes
#4 Sweet Bell Pepper

Those vegetables have a high chance of containing pesticide
residues, some of them containing several!

-----------------------------------------------------------
The Least Contaminated Produce
-----------------------------------------------------------


---> Now, for the “good” vegetables, here’s the top, least
contaminated, in order of purity:

- Sweet corn
- Avocado
- Cauliflower
- Asparagus
- Onions
- Peas
- Broccoli

---> The least contaminated fruits are:

- Pineapples
- Mangoes
- Bananas
- Kiwi
- Papaya


Very few mangoes and pineapple have pesticide residues on
them, and when they do they usually contain only one type.
Bananas do often contain pesticide residues, but rarely
multiple ones.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Conclusion
-----------------------------------------------------------

To avoid pesticides, the best thing is to consume organic
foods. When that is not possible, select the foods that have
the least pesticides on them, and avoid those on the “black
list.”

---> Other importance tricks to help reduce our pesticide
exposure:

* Peel non-organic fruits, whenever possible*: That means
pears, apples, etc. I know many nutritionists say that the
peel contains the most vitamins, but it isn’t quite true.
The peel of fruits is indigestible, so even though it may
contain many vitamins, they are not assimilated as well as
the vitamins in the flesh of the fruits.

*Wash your produce with a non-toxic soap*. You can buy a
non-toxic soap for washing produce in most health food
stores. Use this soap to wash your non-organic peaches, or
other fruits if you happen to buy them.

Remember however that eating non-organic fruits and
vegetables is still better than drinking organic beer or
eating organic pizza!











  • [Livingontheland] The Top 12 Most Contaminated Fruits & Vegetables, Tradingpost, 07/04/2005

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