In spring words detox, fruits and vegetables, “dirty dozen” are in the air. Let me explain why it is so important to pay attention not only to detox options but also to the list of fruits and vegetables with the highest level of pesticides, and why sometimes healthy foods can make us sick.
Every spring we try to incorporate more fruits and vegetables into our diet, but a couple of months later we feel worse than we are supposed to, so we go back to our old eating habits and hope to start out healthier lifestyle next year.
Sounds familiar? The worse part is that most of the time you feel guilty, see yourself as a failure and blame yourself for your excuses. True? Well, don’t!
We feel obligated to start eating more fruits and vegetables, because we know from TV, books, media, etc. they are very important for us to stay healthy. But do you know that all fruits and vegetables are treated with pesticides, and some of them have a very high level of toxins which can be dangerous to our health?
Unfortunately, the air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink contain dangerous chemicals and toxins. Everything is full of toxins nowadays, and when I say everything I mean literally everything: your make-up you apply on your face, lipstick for your lips, tooth paste for your teeth, soap for your hands, detergent for your cloth, shall I continue? Did you know that while using a shower for 10 minutes a tremendous amount of toxins from the water penetrates through your skin into your blood? (I use a head show with a filter).
As for fruits and vegetables, some of them we can eat in large quantities and be happy about it, but some of them it is better to avoid eating non-organic because they can do more harm than good for our health.
Have in mind that organic produce doesn’t mean pesticide free. Organically grown fruits and vegetables are grown on better soils and have less pesticides level. Well, and these pesticides are less dangerous to our health, but they are still pesticides, maybe only better quality 
So as you can see, it is very important to know which fruits and vegetables make the dirty dozen. If peaches, strawberries, cherries contain a very high level of pesticides, we have to think twice before buying them non-organic. Would you like to add more dangerous toxins to your system? I don’t. There are always other choices: you can buy organic only a smaller amount (if the price is high), you can buy local (if you know that the farm is small and they care about their produce), or you don’t buy at all.
Here is a list of the “dirtiest” and the “cleanest” fruits and vegetables for 2009 based on Environmental Working Group Survey.
In 2009 these fruits and vegetables you should buy organic:
1. Peaches 100
2. Apples 93
3. Bell Pepper- 83
4. Celery – 82
5. Nectarines – 81
6. Strawberries
– 80
7. Cherries – 73
8. Kale – 69
9. Lettuce – 67
10. Grapes – Imported from outside U.S. – 66
11. Carrot – 63
12. Pear – 63
This is a list of fruits and vegetables you don’t have to buy organic:
Onion – 1
Avocado – 1
Sweet corn – 2
Pine Apple – 7
Mango – 9
Asparagus – 10
Sweet peas – 10
Kiwi – 13
Cabbage – 17
Eggplant – 20
Papaya – 20
Watermelon – 26
Broccoli – 28
Tomato – 29
Sweet Potato – 29
Grapefruit – 29
Honeydew Melon – 30
You can download Shoppers Guide to Pesticide or even get a Magnet at http://www.foodnews.org
Life is the sum of all your choices. ~Albert Camus
If we want to be healthy, let us be choice smart, shall we?
Breathe, smile and be happy.
© Irina Wardas, HHC
Women’s Holistic Health, Nutrition and Relationship Expert
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While this is a great list to have when considering just straight pesticides, it’s really astonishing how many other factors should be considered. Which pesticides are more harmful, which have the greatest effect on children, which can pass on to future generations (yikes!), and which are better for our farmers and environment. Trying to keep it all straight makes my head dizzy! There’s another list dubbed “Dr. Greene’s Organic Rx” which does a pretty good job of balancing in more than just one or two factors. I really encourage people worried about their health to keep both the pesticide list and Dr. Greene’s list in their hip pocket and shopping cart! His list can be found here http://www.drgreene.com/21_2154.html, and has text and video descriptions.
Thanks for spreading the green health message!
Thank you for sharing Claire. Have a fabulous day. Breathe, smile and be happy.
Thanks for this post. It is most helpful. I eat many oranges and they were not on either list.
Good for you, Heidi. Oranges not only rich in vitamin C but also a great instant mood booster-squeeze some skin, breathe and smile…
Hi Irinas!
I have been taught by other nutritionist that we should buy all organic fruits and vegetables because they have better nutritional value than conventional produce. I guess that I am questioning why you would put a list of produce that doesn’t need to be organic. Please clarify. Is this just for the purpose of detoxing and for those who don’t want to spend the extra $ for organic?
Breathing, smiling and being happy!
Tomasa
Hi Tomasa,
Unfortunately, not everyone can afford buying all fruits and vegetables organic nowadays. The least we can do is to avoid “dirty dozen”. I’ve included more fruits and vegetables, so people can make the right choices and use common sense.
Breathe, smile and be happy.
Thank you Irina…this came at the PERFECT time for me as I am starting a five day cleansing fast today. It will be even healthier now. Truly appreciate all you share!
Hi Edie, like your new picture. Good luck with your cleansing fast. The most important days are the first two and the last two – transition in and out.
Breathe, smile and be happy.
Many of the foods on your list of non organic are also highly probable to be GMO if non-organic, so that is something else to consider.
Absolutely! But it will be another article:-)
Breathe, smile and be happy.