The Dirty Dozen vs The Clean Fifteen

Apples, celery, strawberries, peaches, spinach, nectarines, grapes, sweet bell peppers, potatoes, blueberries, lettuce, and kale. 

Sounds like an extremely nutritious list, right?  But there is a common attribute that links the produce listed above.  So what do these twelve items all have in common?  They have been named the Dirty Dozen of 2011.

Every year the Environmental Working Group (EWG) comes out with a list of twelve fruits and vegetables that contain the highest levels of pesticide residue.  The list tends to change every year, and apples actually jumped from fourth on the list in 2010 to first on the list in 2011.  According to USDA, pesticides showed up on 98% of the more than 700 apple samples tested!  The EWG along with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) urge consumers to purchase the organic version of the items on the dirty dozen list to avoid the potential pesticide residue that could be contained on the produce.

Conventional farmers use an arsenal of pesticides to protect their crops from insects, bacteria, rodents, molds, and fungi. These substances can end up in the food supply. Washing and peeling fruit and vegetables can lower pesticide residues, but not necessarily. When the USDA tests for pesticides, samples are washed and peeled before the tests take place, so the rankings reflect the amounts of the chemicals likely present on the food when is it eaten.  Some of the aspects that are measured when scoring produce are:

• The average amount of pesticide on a single sample.
• The percentage of fruits and vegetables that contain more than two pesticides.
• The final amount of pesticides found on the fruit or vegetable samples.

So there's pesticides on my produce, so what?
Studies have linked pesticides to a number of different health conditions.  While they are designed specifically to kill certain organisms, they are also associated with a host of very serious health problems in people, including neurological deficits, ADHD, endocrine system disruption, and cancer.  Many health officials also worry about the effect of these chemicals on the developing brains and bodies of young children.

Picking five servings of fruit and vegetables EWG's dirty dozen list can cause an individual to consume an average of 14 different pesticides per day.  But for some consumers buying organic just isn't an option.

What's the alternative?  The Clean Fifteen!!

The EWG also comes out with a yearly list of produce that is lowest in pesticide residue.  Buying the conventional forms of these items (as opposed to organic) has a low risk of pesticide exposure.  The list for 2011 is: onion, sweet corn, pineapple, avocado, asparagus, sweet peas, mango, eggplant, domestic cantaloupe, kiwi, cabbage, watermelon, sweet potatoes, grapefruit, and mushroom.

Individuals who choose five servings of fruits and vegetables per day from the EWG's Clean Fifteen list rather than from the Dirty Dozen list can lower the volume of pesticides they consume by 92%, according to EWG’s calculations.  Also, individuals who choose five servings per day from the Clean Fifteen list consume fewer than two pesticides per day.

 

I know what you're all thinking: I've finally started to eat healthier and now there's more DO'S and DONT'S to worry about!!

Both the EWG and the USDA state that the health benefits of a diet rich in fruits and vegetables outweigh the risks of pesticide exposure.  They both strongly recommend that everyone follow USDA’s recommendation to eat five servings of fruits and vegetables every day and follow the USDA's new MyPlate food pyramid supplement.