12 Most Contaminated Fruits & Vegetables

[Guest guest]

The Top 12 Most Contaminated Fruits & Vegetables

by Frederic Patenaude

We know that pesticides are definitely dangerous to human health. We

also know that one of

the best things we can do to avoid pesticides is to consume organic

food. However, this isn’t always possible due to several restraints:

availability, price,

etc.

There’s another thing we can do, however, to reduce our pesticide

exposure: avoid the

fruits and vegetables that are the most contaminated.

When organic is not available, eat fruits and vegetables with

consistently low pesticide

loads.

It’s been shown that you can lower your pesticide exposure simply by

avoiding the top 12

most contaminated types of fruit and vegetables, and eating the

least contaminated instead.

Eating the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables will expose a

person to nearly 20

pesticides per day, on average. Eating the 12 least contaminated

will expose a person to a fraction over 2 pesticides per day.

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The Black List

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So, what are the most contaminated fruits and vegetables? Here’s the

black list, according

to the most recent data analysed:

---> The top 4 are fruits, in the following order:

#1 (Most Contaminated): Peach

#2: Strawberry

#3: Apple

#4: Nectarine

---> The other highly contaminated fruits in the top 12 are:

#5 Pears

#6 Cherrie

#7 Red raspberries

#8 Imported grapes (Chile, Mexico, etc.)

Some of these fruits, such as peaches and nectarines and raspberries,

can contain up to 45

different pesticides! Overall, studies show that those fruits

have a high chance of being contaminated with a good number of different

pesticide

residues.

As for the vegetables, those that are the most likely to expose you to

pesticide residues

are:

#1 Celery

#2 Spinach

#3 Potatoes

#4 Sweet Bell Pepper

Those vegetables have a high chance of containing pesticide residues,

some of them

containing several!

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The Least Contaminated Produce

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---> Now, for the “good” vegetables, here’s the top, least contaminated,

in order of

purity:

- Sweet corn

- Avocado

- Cauliflower

- Asparagus

- Onions

- Peas

- Broccoli

---> The least contaminated fruits are:

- Pineapples

- Mangoes

- Bananas

- Kiwi

- Papaya

Very few mangoes and pineapple have pesticide residues on them, and when

they do they

usually contain only one type. Bananas do often contain pesticide

residues, but rarely multiple ones.

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Conclusion

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To avoid pesticides, the best thing is to consume organic foods. When

that is not

possible, select the foods that have the least pesticides on them, and

avoid those on the “black list.”

---> Other importance tricks to help reduce our pesticide exposure:

* Peel non-organic fruits, whenever possible*: That means pears, apples,

etc. I know many

nutritionists say that the peel contains the most vitamins, but

it isn’t quite true. The peel of fruits is indigestible, so even though

it may contain

many vitamins, they are not assimilated as well as the vitamins

in the flesh of the fruits.

*Wash your produce with a non-toxic soap*. You can buy a non-toxic soap

for washing

produce in most health food stores. Use this soap to wash your

non-organic

peaches, or other fruits if you happen to buy them.

Remember however that eating non-organic fruits and vegetables is still

better than

drinking organic beer or eating organic pizza!

“Young writer and entrepreneur, Frederic Patenaude, is the author of the

best-selling

e-book " The Raw Secrets " and is known for his no-gimmick, BS-free

approach to health and

nutrition. To learn more about " The Raw Secrets " , and to read his FR*EE

how-to articles

and newsletter, visit

http://www.fredericpatenaude.com.”