Fruit and vegetables should be the staple food in any diet.
They are the wholesome, natural, disease combating wonders that should be
consumed in abundance! This is why it is so wonderful that your favourites are
generally available year round, are blemish free and relatively cheap.
Unfortunately such things come at a price. Surprisingly farmers do not just
wave a magic wand in order to get your shiny red apples every month of the year
for a couple of dollars a kilo. They use a cocktail of synthetic chemical pesticides
which remain on your produce long after they are shipped to your local
supermarket.Pesticides ‘are created expressively to kill living organisms’ (EWG, 2011). This is to enhance and enlarge crop production to keep up with population needs and to maximise profit. This is all very well except for the fact that pesticides have been controversial for DECADES. In fact there are pesticides being used all over Australia today that are listed as ‘probable carcinogens’ and endocrine disrupters. It irritates me but doesn’t surprise me that some of these particular pesticides are already banned in Europe and the UK! Once again Australia seems to be the slow cousin, dragging its feet through the bureaucracy that comes with banning a dangerous chemical.
The EWG has developed a list called ‘The Dirty Dozen’ of the 12 fruits and vegetables that have the highest amounts of pesticide residue.
These are:
#1 Apples#2 Celery
#3 Strawberries
#4 Peaches
#5 Spinach
#6 Nectarines
#7 Grapes
#8 Capsicum
#9 Potatoes
#10 Blueberries
#11 Lettuce
#12 Kale
If possible, you should buy these products organically. If
this is unaffordable you could also try Karen Fischer’s technique of washing
your produce in water with two tablespoons of vinegar added which will assist
in removing the pesticide residue.
Luckily for us, the EWG also compiled a list of the 15
cleanest fruit and vegetables which can be found at: http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary/
We have all heard about DDT right? The evil pesticide that
causes baby birds to be hatched deformed? Well it was used widely in Australia
for 30 YEARS before the authorities decided it probably wasn’t all that safe.
Makes you wonder what pesticides are out there today disrupting the ecosystem and
damaging our health doesn’t it?
xo
Miss Chemical
Detective
References and links for further reading:
Fischer, Karen (2008) The Healthy Skin Diet. Wollombi. Exisle Publishing Limited
