An Ounce of Prevention: Understanding the Dirty Dozen

According to EPA reports, the U.S. uses approximately 1.1 billion pounds of pesticides with agriculture accounting for nearly 90% of usage.  

Although the widespread use of pesticides have led to more reliable crops and scalability of factory farming, long term exposure to pesticides such as Glyphosate (active ingredient in Roundup) have shown to be associated with increased risk of cancers such as Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.  (see: $10 billion settlement from Monsanto (now owned by Bayer) for damages caused by Round Up)

Even though it seems that exposure to pesticides is unavoidable on many levels (70% of rainfall samples have shown traces), it’s helpful to understand which foods have higher concentrations of pesticides than others.

Certain fruits and vegetables are more susceptible to absorbing higher concentrations of pesticides.  These vegetables are part of the “dirty dozen list” created by the Environmental Working Group (strawberries, spinach, kale, nectarines, apples, grapes, cherries, peaches, pears, bell peppers, celery and tomatoes).  

Eating organic versions or buying from farms that minimize commercial pesticide use reduces your exposure to harmful pesticides especially for this particular list of produce.  

For more information, please visit the Environmental Working Group’s research on reducing contaminants in your diet. 

https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/dirty-dozen.php

Here’s to your health!