The Dirty Dozen Fruits,Vegetables That Contain Pesticide Residue

Posted by Pile (17328 views) Add this story to MyYahoo Add this article to del.icio.us Submit article to Reddit Add story to Furl Add story to StumbleUpon [E-Mail link]


A report by Consumers Union has some important information on which fruits and vegetables you should seek out from organic sources because their conventional counterparts, even after being washed, may still contain significant pesticide residue, and which vegetables and fruits aren't as critical to be acquired from organic sources.

Consumer Reports says you should buy these fruits/vegetables from organic sources as often as possible: Apples, bell peppers, celery, cherries, imported grapes, nectarines, peaches, pears, potatoes, red raspberries, spinach, and strawberries.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s own lab testing reveals that even after washing, some fruits and vegetables consistently carry much higher levels of pesticide residue than others. Based on an analysis of more than 100,000 U.S. government pesticide test results, researchers at the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a research and advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C., have developed the “dirty dozen” fruits and vegetables, above, that they say you should always buy organic if possible because their conventionally grown counterparts tend to be laden with pesticides. Among fruits, nectarines had the highest percentage testing positive for pesticide residue. Peaches and red raspberries had the most pesticides (nine) on a single sample. Among vegetables, celery and spinach most often carried pesticides, with spinach having the highest number (10) on a single sample.

Also these products are best sourced from organic farms: Meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy.

Doing so will greatly reduce the risk of exposure to the agent believed to cause mad cow disease and minimize exposure to other potential toxins in nonorganic feed. You also avoid the results of production methods that use daily supplemental hormones and antibiotics, which have been linked to increased antibacterial resistance in humans.

Items that aren't as critical organically sourced: Asparagus, avocados, bananas, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet corn, kiwi, mangos, onions, papaya, pineapples, and sweet peas, as well as processed foods like breads, seafood and material items like cosmetics.

Details

 

any peer-reviewed articles
Posted by Paul D on 2010-02-17 13:29:47
These claims need to be backed up by science. Any articles in peer-reviewed journals to read? Also, we need to know the levels of these pesticide residues. I couldn't read the article referenced in Consumers Reports to see their results.
 

Comments

 
Name: (change name for anonymous posting)
Title:
Comments:
   

1 Article displayed.

Pursuant to Section 230 of Title 47 of the United States Code (47 USC § 230), BSAlert is a user-contributed editorial web site and does not endorse any specific content, but merely acts as a "sounding board" for the online community. Any and all quoted material is referenced pursuant to "Fair Use" (17 U.S.C. § 107). Like any information resource, use your own judgement and seek out the facts and research and make informed choices.

Powered by Percleus (c) 2005-2047 - Content Management System

[Percleus 0.9.5] (c) 2005, PCS