Which produce should be organic?

I have always been curious.. if unable to buy completely organic produce, which should always be organic, or which are the worst in commercial produce? Does anyone have a chart or a site that compares the two? Any information greatly appreciated. (:

Comments

  • jenny2052jenny2052 Raw Newbie

    I have a list! This comes from Ann Louise Gittelman’s Fast Track Detox Diet. She’s a relatively mainstream nutritionist, but she does focus a lot on detox, organics, enzymes, and holistic healing—I’ve really enjoyed her books.

    When grown non-organically, the most toxic fruits are: strawberries, cherries, apples, Mexican cantaloupe, apricots, blackberries, pears, raspberries, grapes from Chile, and peaches.

    The worst vegetables are: spinach, hot and sweet peppers, celery, and white potatoes (sweet potatoes are ok).

    Unfortunately, these are many of the most popular produce items! But there are things you can do to lessen the toxicity if you must buy these—you can peel some of these or soak them in apple cider vinegar or a clorox bath (one half teaspoon Clorox to one gallon water). Still, I think it’s uncertain just how much of the chemicals these tactics remove. Buying frozen organic versions from Cascadian farm is another option.

  • CLOROX? I have been reading information from Kevin Trudeau. He talks how all bagged veg. are covered in chlorine so Isn’t that toxic?

  • A friend of mine sent me this list one time but I don’t know where it’s from. I have always assumed that it is much safer to buy organic if you are going to eat the skin of a fruit/veg. If it is something like an avo or orange with a thick rind, I usually don’t worry.

    Pesticide Levels in Fruits and Vegetables (Lowest to Highest) 1. Onions 2. Avocado 3. Pineapples 4. Mango 5. Asparagus 6. Kiwi 7. Bananas 8. Cabbage 9. Broccoli 10. Blueberries 11. Cauliflower 12. Winter Squash 13. Watermelon 14. Tomatoes 15. Honeydew Melon 16. Cantaloupe 17. Oranges 18. Cucumbers 19. Hot Peppers 20. Carrots 21. Lettuce 22. Spinach 23. Strawberries 24. Celery 25. Sweet Bell Peppers 26. Apples 27. Peaches

    I had to conduct an analyisis of pesticides in foods for an environmental science class I took. I can’t remember the website (it was a ”.gov”) I used but here is some information I found saved in a spreadsheet on my computer: tomatoes, romaine lettuce, and spinach each have residues of more than 15 different pesticide chemicals. Each of these chemicals was in concentrations in the range of .001 to .15 parts per million. No chemical in any of the foods I analyzed exceeded .2 ppm. Of course this information was coming from a government agency, so who knows? Can we trust anyone these days?

  • jenny2052jenny2052 Raw Newbie

    Clorox isn’t Chlorine—-it’s sodium hypochlorite. I have to say, even though I’ve read about Clorox baths being recommended by several different authors, I just can’t bring myself to use them. I just use apple cider vinegar and water.

  • just in case anyone is curious here some of the most common chemicals in the foods i analyzed: DDE, chloroform, endosulfan sulfate, dieldrin, toluene, styrene, benzene, dicloran, diazinon, methamidophos, acephate. there are wikipedia pages for most of these that explain possible health effects, and reasons for use.

  • Here is the list: http://www.foodnews.org/fulldataset.php

    Items near the top had a lot of pestecides; items near the bottom had few if any. So, let’s say, mango, pineapples, avocado, and onions are safer. Also frozen sweet corn, but IIUC, that’s not raw.

  • Its hard to know what to take a risk on, not everyone can source or afford organic all of the time.

    Apple cider vinergar I normally use if I have to buy ””Normal”” produce.

    guess you have to weigh up

    SAD Vs regular produce

    and in relation

    sprayed food raw vegan Vs, 100% Organic raw vegan

    Can be hard depending on where you live and what you can source.

    It would seem the things that are “safer” to eat in regular produce are infact cheap organic anyway! Like bananas and avacado- which in the UK anyways are the same price organic or with pesticides!

    Intresting thread.

  • thanks for that link AlexS. very informative.

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