A Shoppers Guide to Pesticides

The Shopper's Guide to Pesticides is a great resource for consumers looking for healthier low pesticide diets. Since organic produce can be quite expensive,  you can use the Shopper's Guide to especially avoid those conventional fruits and vegetables found to be highest in pesticides.

Eating conventionally-grown produce is definitely better than not eating fruits and vegetables at all, but it's important to know that even small doses of pesticides and chemicals can cause lasting negative effects to human health, especially during fetal development and early childhood development. The Shopper’s Guide will help you determine which fruits and vegetables have the most pesticide residues and are the most important to buy organic. According to the Environmental Working Group, you can lower your pesticide consumption by nearly four-fifths by avoiding the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables and instead eating the least contaminated produce.

Rinsing your produce reduces the pesticides, but doesn't completely eliminate them. Peeling your fruits and veggies also helps, but you are loosing lots of nutrients by removing the skin. The best approach: rinse all produce and buy organic when possible.

You can find the complete list fruits and vegetables tested at www.foodnews.org.