Pesticide Levels: The Dirty Dozen & the Clean Fifteen

While preparing my upcoming talk on organic vs. nonorganic fruits and vegetables for Dr Roizen’s Preventive & Integrative Medicine Conference in Las Vegas, I came upon an interesting couple of lists called the Dirty Dozen and the Clean Fifteen. [Don’t bother to count; the lists I found contained sixteen “dirty” entries and seventeen “clean” entries. Crazy, huh? Don’t worry; as far as this story is concerned, the more the merrier.]

These lists (found below) refer to levels of pesticides in various types of fruits and vegetables according to a study sponsored by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). In case you were wondering, the researchers measured pesticide levels after the produce was cleaned with a high-power washer, which I do not happen to own. And that kinda makes me wonder exactly how much pesticide is left after I rinse produce at my own kitchen sink.

When the results were in, fruits and veggies with higher levels of pesticides (up to 10 in some cases) were declared DIRTY, while those with lower levels were considered CLEAN. So now what? Well, let’s suppose you’ve decided that you want to see what happens when you decrease the amount of pesticide your kids are eating. Maybe you read about those research studies that showed a fairly rapid drop in urine pesticide levels of up to 80%, within just five days, in children fed organic produce. Of course, price is going to be a factor in your decision.

It won’t surprise you to read that organic produce usually costs more, which is a significant deterrent for the majority of consumers. So let’s think smart. We can use these research results to lower pesticide intake AND make grocery dollars stretch further. If you have concerns about pesticides in your food, you don’t have to switch to organic for everything. You can markedly decrease the amount of pesticide you ingest by using your hard-earned cash to purchase organic versions of only the fruits and veggies in the DIRTY list. You may even be able to find in-season organic produce that is cheaper than the non-organic version.

You can continue buying non-organic versions of produce in the CLEAN list. Many of these, it should be noted, contain a peel that is removed prior to eating. Lots of pesticide is contained in, and thus removed with, the peel.

So if you decide you would like to purchase organic, or even grow some of your own, I recommend starting with the Dirty Dozen.

Dirty “Dozen”

  • apples
  • strawberries
  • grapes
  • blueberries
  • celery
  • tomatoes
  • cucumbers
  • hot peppers
  • peaches/nectarines
  • potatoes
  • bell peppers
  • spinach/kale/collard greens
  • summer squash (zucchini)

Clean “Fifteen”

  • sweet potatoes
  • sweet peas
  • pineapple
  • papaya
  • onions
  • mushrooms
  • mangoes
  • kiwi
  • grapefruit
  • eggplant
  • sweet corn
  • watermelon
  • cantaloupe

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