Blog Nine: Dirty Dozen and Clean 15

Non-organic produce is filled with pesticides that may harm human hormone systems and cause cancers. EWG looks at all detectable pesticides and found four of the five pesticides most frequently found on the Dirty Dozen are fungicides: fludioxonil, pyraclostrobin, boscalid and pyrimethanil. Fungicides are coated on fruits and vegetables to prevent or kill fungal diseases. They’re often coated after harvest to keep produce mold-free on its way to the grocery stores. That’s likely why fungicide concentrations can be so high on some samples – higher than other pesticides applied earlier in the growing season. Fungicides have been shown to be endocrine and hormone disrupters.

EWG looks at 46 different fruits and vegetables in an analysis every year. They test different detectable pesticide contamination of each item and ranks them as “dirty” or “clean”.

DIRTY:

Of these twelve items, more than 95% of them had at least one contaminant

A total of 209 pesticides were found on these items

1. Strawberries

2. Spinach

3. Kale, collar and mustard greens

4. Grapes

5. Peaches

6. Pears

7. Nectarines

8. Apples

9. Bell peppers and hot peppers

10. Cherries

11. Blueberries

12. Green beans

CLEAN:

65% of these items had ZERO detecable pesticides

Only 10% contained 2 or more pesticides

1. Avocados

2. Sweet corn

3. Pineapple

4. Onions

5. Papaya

6. Sweet peas

7. Asparagus

8. Honeydew

9. Kiwi

10. Cabbage

11. Watermelon

12. Mushrooms

13. Mangoes

14. Sweet potatoes

15. Carrots

I usually eat most of the “dirty dozen” however, now I want to try to incorporate different fruits and vegetables into my meals! If you do choose to eat some of the “dirty dozen”, please make sure to wash your fruit properly (with a couple tablespoons of baking soda and lots of water!) and know the risk of upsetting your hormones and potentially ingesting cancerous particles.

Xoxo, Hads

https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary.php