The Dirty Dozen: Most Contaminated

[Gifted Gourmet]

article here

An EWG simulation of thousands of consumers eating high and low pesticide diets shows that people can lower their pesticide exposure by 90 percent by avoiding the top twelve most contaminated fruits and vegetables and eating the least contaminated instead. Eating the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables will expose a person to nearly 20 pesticides per day, on average. Eating the 12 least contaminated will expose a person to a fraction over 2 pesticides per day.

Read this before you eat any fruits and vegetables again!

full data set ... now I am really beginning to feel nauseous ...

[Pam R]

but I like my fruits and veggies

[Busboy]

article here

An EWG simulation of thousands of consumers eating high and low pesticide diets shows that people can lower their pesticide exposure by 90 percent by avoiding the top twelve most contaminated fruits and vegetables and eating the least contaminated instead. Eating the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables will expose a person to nearly 20 pesticides per day, on average. Eating the 12 least contaminated will expose a person to a fraction over 2 pesticides per day.

Read this before you eat any fruits and vegetables again!

full data set ... now I am really beginning to feel nauseous ...

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Or, simply get down to your farmers market in search of low- and no-pesticide produce.

[slkinsey]

I, of course, agree with Charles about going to a farmer's market to buy produce. There are many reasons to do this, and pesticides may be one of them. Of course, people in many areas of the US don't have access to a wide variety of fruits and vegetables from farmer's markets, but that is another subject.

Here's the thing that I immediately noted upon reading the report: It doesn't really give us any useful information as to the nature and amount of the pesticides found on these various fruits and vegetables. Somehow they arrive at a composite score that supposedly accounts for these factors, but given that the EWG is rabidly anti-pesticide, I think their presentation is somewhat suspect. This isn't the first time the EWG and similar groups have come out with alarmist public releases about pesticides. Here is an interesting article addressing a similar release by the Consumers Union several years ago:

Dr. Bruce Ames, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a biochemist who directs the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Center at the University of California at Berkeley, told the Associated Press that the findings of the report are "nonsense" and that focusing on "minuscule" levels of pesticide residues "is a distraction from something far more important — feeding kids fruits and vegetables that prevent cancer and other diseases."

This is not to say that we shouldn't strive for ways to use lower levels of pesticides and to develop more targeted and friendly pesticides as well as aggressively exploring non-pesticide methods of pest control in agriculture.

[JohnL]

At last! Some sanity!

Thanks for your post --kinsey!

Unfortunately, a lot of these issues have become politicized. Even more unfortunately

we have a situation where in order to get the attention of the press/media, groups have to sensationalize their messages.

The press/media then simply pass along the alarmist message without any scrutiny or fact checking so we often get two sides screaming at each other and us.

I believe that we are exposed to all sorts of chemicals good bad etc.

I also believe that things are never that simple.

For example:

Just buying from a farmer's market in no guarantee of anything. For eg--I once stopped at a lovely roaddside farmer's market in a very rural area of NJ and remarked that the tomatoes looked nice--the person at the stand informed me they were purchased in Brooklyn and had been grown in Florida!

I also believe that many farmers use organic pesticides these are often chemicals (it is near impossible to escape chemicals altogether in this world).

A lot of farmers use manure as fertilizer--people die from salmonella from these fertilizers.

It just isn't a perfect world.

so--I try to be as informed (not alarmed) as possible and I try to eat things in moderation. I buy things at supermarkets and I also buy things at farmer's markets and farm stands--I also try to buy things in season that are grown locally--and I wash everything I buy before I eat it!!!

[Gifted Gourmet]

While this article won't alter my eating habits drastically, I just made a fruit cup for lunch and looked with great apprehension at the peaches and peeled them to fit in with my newly raised consciousness ...

This certainly puts me in mind of Mae West's famous decadent request from the 1933 movie I'm No Angel: "Beulah, peel me a grape."

[CaliPoutine]

While this article won't alter my eating habits drastically, I just made a fruit cup for lunch and looked with great apprehension at the peaches and peeled them to fit in with my newly raised consciousness ...

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I know they say you're not supposed to wash rasberries and mushrooms, but I always do. I just spin the berries in my oxo salad spinner( with berry bowl). If they dont look perfect, who cares. I feel that they are at least a bit cleaner.

[Pan]

I know they say you're not supposed to wash rasberries and mushrooms[...]

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I never heard that one. Why not? Do people want to eat dirt (let alone pesticides)?

[Gifted Gourmet]

Because both raspberries and mushrooms take on water like the Titanic ...

[FabulousFoodBabe]

Aw, nuts. I love nectarines. Love them, love them. And I've seen NYState peaches and Jersey Peaches, but no nectarines, so the organic option isn't going to work here.

However, at this point, I figure if the pesticides don't get me, all my other bad habits will.

[Gifted Gourmet]

I figure if the pesticides don't get me, all my other bad habits will.

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As my therapist said, after treating me for a year, "perhaps living isn't for everyone."

[gus_tatory]

However, at this point, I figure if the pesticides don't get me, all my other bad habits will.

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i would certainly hope that the inherent good in the fruits & veg would out-weigh the bad of the pesticides?

but to echo FabulousFoodBabe above, there's a saying in Quebec French: "il faut ben mourrir de quelque chose"--> you've gotta die of something...

[kpurvis]

Because both raspberries and mushrooms take on water like the Titanic ...

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Actually, the mushroom tale has been discounted. Swishing mushrooms in water and then draining is fine. First person who clued me in was Lynn Kaspar, and I've seen tests that disprove it since then. If you let them sit in water, they'll probably soak up some, but since most fruits and vegetables are mostly water to begin with, they won't absorb much. That whole "wipe your mushrooms" idea is a time-waster, and about as logical as the medium they're grown in.

[ingridsf]

Here's the thing that I immediately noted upon reading the report:  It doesn't really give us any useful information as to the nature and amount of the pesticides found on these various fruits and vegetables.  Somehow they arrive at a composite score that supposedly accounts for these factors, but given that the EWG is rabidly anti-pesticide, I think their presentation is somewhat suspect.  This isn't the first time the EWG and similar groups have come out with alarmist public releases about pesticides.  Here is an interesting article addressing a similar release by the Consumers Union several years ago:

Pesticide Action Network (PAN) has a database for identifying which pesticides are used with which type of produce, it's known toxicity, where it was used, and so on.

http://www.pesticideinfo.org/Index.html

I, too, would like more hard data on the effects, or non-effects, of pesticides on human health. But currently corporations are not required to demonstrate their safety before releasing them into the environment. And government regulations place the burden of proof on you and me to show harrm before discontinuing use. I don't see anything radical about basic corporate accountability.

The Precautionary Principle of Public Health would reverse that. It is slowly being introduced in San Francisco and the Bay Area. EWG and Pesticide Action Network are among the independent non-profits working on it.

[PassionateChefsDie]

I know they say you're not supposed to wash rasberries and mushrooms[...]

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I never heard that one. Why not? Do people want to eat dirt (let alone pesticides)?

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Washing mushrooms is a no-no but I belive this is more about wild mushrooms the hours I've spent with chanterelles and a mushroom brush(they use to come in 10 chips, a week later they'd all be clean as I slowly got through them !)

It's down to the amount of water already in them, you cant fry them they just stew(I can vouch for this get a chanterelle and try washing it, also would like to add that washed mushrooms dont keep so somethings going on, I'd say it depends on the mushroom, did Mcgee do it with all mushrooms or just a button!) after being washed though for buttons I dont think it really matters or morels.

But back to the original post I got probs with the word organic so the normal farmer sprays his crops twice a year to keep the infestations down, and then the organic farmer has 2 infestations meaning he had to spray twice, so why's he's organic and the other isn't! I thougt anything that grew was organic?

Most organic guidelines give the farmer the opportunity to save his crop its his living at the end of the day, just not routinely!

Edited June 14, 2005 by PassionateChefsDie (log)

[slkinsey]

I should qualify my post upthread -- in case it is not clear -- to point out that I am not necessarily "pro-pesticides." What I am is "pro-good science" and "anti-sensationalistic fearmongering." This is to say that the EWG may have some points to make, but I think the dishonest way in which they do it obscures the message to an unacceptable point.

JohnL also makes some interesting and valid points. It's never been clear to me that there is a reasonable alternative to some form of chemical pest control (be that with naturally-occurring chemicals or manufactured chemicals). When I go to the greenmarket I can always tell which farmer doesn't use any pesticides, because the leaves of his lettuce are always full of tiny holes where they have been eaten by insects.

"Organic," it should be pointed out, does not necessarily equal "no pesticides." For example, organic farmers may use things like oil, Bacillus thuringiensis, copper sulfate, pyrethrum, rotenone, etc. for pest control. Many of these natural substances have far greater toxicity and environmental impact than the manufactured pesticides (copper sulfate, for example, has been banned in Europe because it is a permanent soil contaminant that has high toxicity for both humans and fish). I can tell you right now, I would much rather eat a vegetable with a high score on the EWG's list than an organic tomato from the field of a farmer who uses copper sulfate.

I'd be interested to hear what some people in a position to know think are reasonable and realistic alternatives to (naturally occurring or manufactured) chemical pest control.

(As an aside on the discussion fork re mushroom washing: I believe both Frank McGee and Alton Brown have conclusively shown that mushrooms do not absorb a significant amount of water from a brief rinsing -- or even a lengthy soaking.)

[ruthcooks]

But are these figures "washed" or "pre-washed"? I'll bet they quote the numbers before any food preparation is done.

How much pesticide remains after washing? Peeling? (I never eat peach skin, fuzzy weird sensation.)

This table appears meaningless except to people who eat everything straight from the grocery. And they're asking for it: pesticides are not the worst thing you might find on the produce.

[ingridsf]

I should qualify my post upthread -- in case it is not clear -- to point out that I am not necessarily "pro-pesticides."  What I am is "pro-good science" and "anti-sensationalistic fearmongering."  This is to say that the EWG may have some points to make, but I think the dishonest way in which they do it obscures the message to an unacceptable point.

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Sigh sigh sigh. I want good science. But good science -- 99% of all science -- is government funded. Which is not a bad thing in itself. But decisions are made about WHAT to study, and the effects of these substances have not been studied. Why not? Breast cancer rates are still going up, as just one example, yet only 2% of the NIH research budget goes into studies of possible environmental factors, which include the 85,000+ chemicals currently present in the environment. And that includes pesticides. I'm not suggesting all chemicals are "bad," but I find it outrageous that corporations get a free pass on dumping whatever they want.

[slkinsey]

I'm not suggesting all chemicals are "bad," but I find it outrageous that corporations get a free pass on dumping whatever they want.

I completely agree. I just don't think two wrongs make a right.

[Pan]

[...]When I go to the greenmarket  I can always tell which farmer doesn't use any pesticides, because the leaves of his lettuce are always full of tiny holes where they have been eaten by insects.[...]

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Do you buy those? I remember hearing a story about an upland Thai village, where there was according to the report a misguided aid program that promoted strong pesticides that ended up making people sick, so the villagers bought only the insect-eaten vegetables at the market and refused to touch the ones that looked perfect. Now, I don't think we're dealing with anything that drastic in these parts, but still, I'm interested to know what you do with that information.

[slkinsey]

[...]When I go to the greenmarket  I can always tell which farmer doesn't use any pesticides, because the leaves of his lettuce are always full of tiny holes where they have been eaten by insects.[...]

Do you buy those? I remember hearing a story about an upland Thai village, where there was according to the report a misguided aid program that promoted strong pesticides that ended up making people sick, so the villagers bought only the insect-eaten vegetables at the market and refused to touch the ones that looked perfect. Now, I don't think we're dealing with anything that drastic in these parts, but still, I'm interested to know what you do with that information.

I buy on gustatory criteria, not dogmatic or health-related criteria. If the greens look good and taste good, I buy them. If not, I don't. These, to my eye, don't look very good. Given all the other things I am doing to my body (breathing NYC air, drinking too much alcohol, eating too much fat and too many calories, etc.) I am not overly concerned about whatever minute trace amounts of synthesized pesticides I may be getting from greenmarket produce (especially since, as I point out upthread, some of the common naturally-occurring and derrived-from-naturally-occurring-sources pest control substances organic farmers may use are far more toxic).

[ingridsf]

I'm not suggesting all chemicals are "bad," but I find it outrageous that corporations get a free pass on dumping whatever they want.

I completely agree. I just don't think two wrongs make a right.

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You say "fear-mongering,"

I say, "community organizing."

Fear-mongering!

Community organizing!

Let's wash the poooooisins off!

(I love Mad Magazine; unfortunately, I lack their genius for twisting song lyrics to suit my highly suspect Personal Agenda.)

And as we free clinic workers advised the young woman who told us she preferred eating peach pits to yucky "artificial" birth control pills: "Yeah, well, just cause it grew outside doesn't mean it won't kill you."

[WHT]

I know they say you're not supposed to wash rasberries and mushrooms, but I always do.  I just spin the berries in my oxo salad spinner( with berry bowl).  If they dont look perfect, who cares.  I feel that they are at least a bit cleaner.

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Since most pesticides are water-soluble I would hope this would get rid of most of them. It would make for an interesting experiment to try.

[Susan G]

Since I was born, I've been in the long process of dying..........and the diminishment of my quality of life will be enormous if I stop eating peaches, strawberries and grapes.

I'm confident I will live longer than my ancestors did - so why be greedy for an X amount of time which may or may not be due to me?

[Pan]

Since I was born, I've been in the long process of dying..........

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You sound like my Baba (grandmother): "Every day I die a little."

Sheesh.

I mean, I get your point and all, but...