Avoid the Most Pesticide-prone Produce

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Heard of the “Dirty Dozen”?

(Hint: I’m not referring to the 1967 film.)

Reality check: Organic produce can be pricey! In an ideal world, we would buy all of our fruits and vegetables from farmer’s markets or the “organic” displays at Whole Foods, but our budgets do not always allow for this. (However, since Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods, their organic produce is now noticeably cheaper! So, whenever possible, buy organic!)

Enter: The Environmental Working Group (EWG), which has identified the 12 most pesticide-prone fruits and vegetables:

1. Strawberries
2. Spinach
3. Nectarines
4. Apples
5. Peaches
6. Pears
7. Cherries
8. Grapes
9. Celery
10. Tomatoes
11. Sweet bell peppers
12. Potatoes

If you can’t afford to buy everything organic, prioritize the 12 fruits and vegetables above because those are likely to contain the most pesticides in their non-organic forms.

On the flip side, rest easy when you need to buy non-organic varieties of the produce on the EWG’s “Clean Fifteen“ list:

1. Sweet corn
2. Avocados
3. Pineapples
4. Cabbage
5. Onions
6. Sweet peas (frozen)
7. Papayas
8. Asparagus
9. Mangos
10. Eggplant
11. Honeydew melon
12. Kiwi
13. Cantaloupe
14. Cauliflower
15. Grapefruit

Every so often, the EWG changes the lists (based on new research), so be sure to consult the links above for their newest “Dirty Dozen” and “Clean Fifteen” recommendations!

Happy grocery shopping 🙂

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In each blog post, I aim to bring you food for thought (pun intended. Note: my day job is teaching English), but don’t take my word for it! Click on and read all of the links above to become your own expert on this topic; knowledge is power. The more you know and understand the “why” behind each biohack, the easier it will be to stick to it and realize you can’t live without it!

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