The Dirty Truth

I really do love my veggies. My wife will often look at me a little funny at my enjoyment in eating a good salad. I get it, my passion isn’t normal and it certainly isn’t the same as a piece of chocolate cake! What can I say? As someone with a degree in nutrition, it should make sense that I’m into healthy food. But is a diet of eating whole fruits and vegetables as healthy as we think? I suppose if I’m writing a blog about it, you’ve already guessed that there’s more to that produce you buy at the local supermarket than you may think.

In a perfect world, I could say “yes, eating fruits and vegetables is 100% healthy”. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. In the real world of mass food production and protecting crops from damaging pests, there are often chemicals on our food that have been shown to cause harm. Pesticides are the very chemicals that protect crops from all of the bugs out there and their use in farming really does make sense. Anyone who has dabbled in home gardening has undoubtedly experienced their plants getting decimated by some random creature (like weird hornworm caterpillars on my tomato plants! I’m still bitter about that one).

With plant protection does come the trade off for our own health. If you think about it, something that gets sprayed and kills bugs probably isn’t awesome for our bodies either. As it turns out, studies have found pesticide consumption being linked to various cancers, fertility issues, hormonal issues, and damage to the nervous system! Not only this, but studies have also found that these chemicals stay in your system and can be found in blood and urine samples.

Now that I’ve scared you enough, there are ways to navigate this issue. For starters, make sure you are thoroughly washing your food, as it will remove a good amount of chemicals from the skin (though it won’t be eliminated completely). Second, In most cases switching to organic options when you can is very helpful in reducing exposure. With this will ultimately mean increased food bills, which is not easy, especially now with everything being more expensive as it is. If that’s the case, then switching to organic for the more “dirty” produce would be a good start. That’s right, some produce has been shown to be more pesticide heavy, while others are generally lower in chemicals. Here’s a list of each:

Dirtier:

• Apples

• Peaches/Nectarines

• Lettuce

• Grapes

• Celery

• Strawberries

• Cherries

• Pears

• Spinach

• White potatoes

• Carrots

• Green beans

• Cucumbers

• Raspberries

• Plums

• Oranges

Cleaner:

• Onions

• Avocados

• Pineapple

• Mango

• Asparagus

• Kiwi

• Bananas

• Cabbage

• Broccoli

• Papaya

• Blueberries

• Cauliflower

• Watermelon/Honeydew/Cantaloupe

• Sweet potatoes

• Tomatoes

• Winter squash

If all else fails, try to follow the guidelines of this list and be sure to give a heavier wash to the dirty list. Using a diluted solution of soap and water is often recommended to better remove unwanted chemicals. How about taking a little more control of your food source? Home gardening has been growing in popularity and learning to grow your own clean produce could also be a rewarding strategy. At the end of the day, if you’re eating more produce then you’re on the right track, but you may need to fine tune things a bit more. So, keep going and enjoy that salad and give it a good wash beforehand. I know I will!

Dr Rob Liguori