What's your favorite fruit? Peaches, cherries, apples, blueberries? There's nothing quite like a good piece of fruit in season, that's why I was so looking forward to eating the gorgeous cherries I had purchased from Sam's Club. I washed them and proceeded to eat the luscious fruit (with the help of my husband and sister).
A little while later, I was NOT feeling good. My stomach was quite unsettled, and I just couldn't figure out what was going on. I had won the prize for eating the most cherries, and was paying the price, experiencing painful abdominal cramps. We all came to the conclusion that it had to be the cherries that were making me feel so ill, and I proceeded to GOOGLE "cherries". I was surprised and disturbed to find that I was not alone in my "cherry sickness". As a matter of fact, there were others who had eaten cherries and had even ended up in the hospital!
As I was researching, I found that cherries test VERY high in the amount of pesticides & chemicals found on them. Their thin skin allows the harmful substances to sink in and no amount of washing will get rid of them. The chemicals become part of the cherry. After reading this, I have to say that I felt angry. I felt like I had been poisoned, by our food industry! Do they realize how harmful these chemicals are?? Do YOU??
Needless to say, the bowl of beautiful cherries weren't quite what they seemed, hence the moral of this story.
To buy ORGANIC or not to buy, THAT is the question. Page & I both are firm believers in avoiding pesticides & undue chemicals at all costs. However, we do not have a money tree growing in our backyard, so we pick and choose what we buy (though trying to buy as much organic as possible).
We'll be sure to cover more on this topic at a later date, but until then we wanted to give you a helpful lists of fruits/vegetables to buy organic, the "dirty dozen" those that have tested the highest in having harmful chemicals. We are also including a list of the "clean 15" those with the fewest pesticides.
"Dirty Dozen" (best to buy organic)
CHERRIES, Peaches, Nectarines, Apples, Strawberries,Blueberries, Grapes (imported), Celery Bell Peppers, Lettuce/Spinach, Kale, Potatoes
"Clean 15" (fewest pesticide residues)
Onions, Avocado, Sweet corn, Sweet peas, Asparagus, Sweet potatoes, Cabbage, Eggplant Kiwifruit, Pineapple, Mango, Cantaloupe, Watermelon, Grapefruit
Honeydew Melon
-Obviously not all varieties of produce are listed above, but a good rule of thumb is that if the fruit/veggie has thin skin, it's going to have higher amounts of pesticides in it.
*ALWAYS wash your produce regardless; we use GSE (grape seed extract) it's safe and very effective.
Next time you're grocery shopping, just remember my little story about the bowl of cherries, and maybe it'll cause you to think twice about the importance of buying organic. What price do you put on your health?
~Lauren & Page
We LOVE Organic fruits & veggies and the prices are starting to get more competitive, so it's not quite as pricey as it used to be (we still have a long way to go to get the prices down, though). We always try to buy organic, especially in the "dirty dozen" areas, but also include corn, because I was told that the pesticides absorb inside the kernels and can be very highly infected...yuck. We buy lots of good, fresh veggies from our local farmer's market which may not totally be organic and chemical free but are MUCH safer, fresher, tastier and healthier than mass market grocery store produce :)
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