T-Nation: Bad Fruits, Evil Veggies

Credit: T-Nation

Every year, about 1.3 million pounds of pesticides are used on U.S. crops. That equates to about 6 pounds of pesticide on every acre of farmland.

Of the 35,000 registered pesticides used in this country, fewer than 21% have been tested for carcinogenicity. Fewer than 10% have been tested for their potential to cause mutations and fewer than 40% have been tested for their potential to cause birth defects.

The Clean 15
1.Onions
2.Avocado
3.Sweet corn
4.Pineapples
5.Mangos
6.Sweet peas
7.Asparagus
8.Kiwi
9.Cabbages
10.Eggplants
11.Cantaloupe (US grown)
12.Watermelons
13.Grapefruits
14.Sweet potatoes
15.Honeydew melons

The Not-So-Sweet 16
1.Strawberries
2.Bell Peppers (both green and red)
3.Spinach
4.Cherries (US grown)
5.Peaches
6.Cantaloupes (Mexico grown)
7.Celery
8.Apples
9.Apricots
10.Green beans
11.Grapes (Chile)
12.Cucumbers
13.Pears
14.Winter squash (US)
15.Potatoes
16.Blueberries

What to Do About the Whole Thing
1.You could relegate yourself to just eating foods from the “Clean 15.” Unfortunately, you wouldn’t be getting much variety.

2.You could say “screw it” and continue eating whatever fruits and vegetables you fancy, hoping against odds that the healthy and life-promoting constituents of these foods will outweigh the possible negative effects of the chemicals and pesticides. Good luck on that one.

3.You could go organic. The trouble is, buying organic is expensive. Secondly, fewer than 1 or 2 percent of the farms in the U.S. are certified organic. Thirdly, no one’s really set up a legal definition for the term organic, so many of these farms could be screwing us.

4.You could simply make a willful effort to eat a large variety of fruits and vegetables so that, hopefully, you won’t ingest large quantities of any one liver-glowing pesticide or chemical.

5.You could wash your fruits and vegetables in a solution containing one teaspoon of dishwashing detergent in a gallon of warm water. Swirl the produce in the solution for 10 seconds, and then rinse thoroughly, lest you prefer your stir fry be flavored with a dash of Palmolive.

6.You could peel those fruits or vegetables that are amenable to peeling, thereby mechanically removing most pesticides or chemicals. Similarly, you can discard the outer leaves of vegetables and just eat the stuff inside.

7.You could buy frozen or canned fruits and vegetables. The washing and blanching that prepares fruits and vegetables for freezing or canning supposedly removes between 80 and 90% of pesticides. The same concept applies to Biotest’s Superfood, a freeze-dried preparation of 18 fruits and vegetables.