Sweet Yet Sour

No, this is not a blog about the movie “The Dirty Dozen”, which I admit I was forced by my father to watch multiple times as a child.  Instead I wanted to share some information that I found surprising, scary and very helpful about organic foods.  

I’m always trying to decide which foods I should spend the extra money on to buy organic. It’s generally a random choice, depending on what I am buying and what I am going to use it for when I cook the item. For example, I started buying organic potatoes only when I am going to leave the peel on; if I’m going to just take the peel off before I cook the potato, I go cheap and buy the conventional potatoes.  It has always sounded good in “Dorrie Logic”.

So I decided to do a little research about this thing my sister keeps mentioning, the “Dirty Dozen”.  I’m learning I don’t have to be so random about what I need to buy organic, and where I can save money.  I can go with the “Dirty Dozen” rules.

The “Dirty Dozen” is a list of foods that you should buy organic when you can afford it, because they contain high levels of pesticides and other nasty things when grown conventionally.

In “Dorrie Logic” if I take the peel off my conventionally grown potatoes, I am eliminating the pesticides, right?  I turn out to be wrong on this issue, and was pretty surprised at some of the foods on the list that contain a lot of pesticides. Apparently, while washing and peeling reduces some pesticides, there is some contamination that can remain, even after you have peeled and washed the food.

Anyway, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) has compiled the list of the “Dirty Dozen”, of the most highly pesticide ridden foods.  The EWG actually has a list of 43 fruits and vegetables that ranks them from high to low on their pesticide levels (onions, avocados and corn are at the bottom of the list with low pesticide levels for example).  They also have a handy downloadable “short list” that you can print out and carry with you when you are shopping.

Here’s the link to the full list, and the place where you can download the wallet size list, http://www.foodnews.org/walletguide.php

And here’s the summary of the top 12 foods with the highest pesticide level rankings: 
1. Peaches
2. Apples
3. Bell Peppers
4. Celery
5. Nectarines
6. Strawberries
7. Cherries
8. Pears
9. Imported grapes (although, seriously, it’s so hard to find out where the food is coming from, how am I going to know if my grapes speak Spanish?)
10. Spinach
11. Lettuce
12. Potatoes

I was surprised by some of these items in the top 12, I mean, celery? I was not surprised by spinach, because we’ve heard a lot about spinach and the bacteria on it lately.  But have you ever heard of someone getting sick from their celery?  I guess that’s probably because it’s loaded with pesticides in the first place!

So I have to re-think my shopping list, because frankly, pesticides and bacteria scare me, and I don’t want to be eating or serving something that is loaded with pesticides or little bacteria beasties.  I’m going to download the wallet guide and stop thinking that peeling and washing my fruit will save me from consuming pesticides.   

Not that I want to be alarmist and “I have to grow everything myself”, but I do like knowing which foods are really high in pesticides, and those foods, like pineapple and onions, where it’s a waste paying the higher cost for me to buy organic.