Dirty Dozen? Continue to eat your fruits and vegetables!
Posted Jun 22 2011 12:00am
Nobody wants to knowingly consume pesticides, but the current risk of pesticides on whole fruits and vegetables is smaller than the risk to your health if you don’t eat fruits and vegetables at all. So how can you eat healthy and reduce your risk from pesticides?
1. Wash all your fruits and vegetables well by rubbing the whole produce under running water. You can use a vegetable scrubber brush on heartier produce such as potatoes and apples.
2. Peel when necessary. The skin of many fruits and vegetables contain a good portion of the fiber and vitamins and minerals, but better to eat only the flesh of a fruit than to not eat it at all if you are concerned with the levels of pesticides on the outside of the fruit.
3. Eat a variety of produce and buy organic when possible–but still practice numbers one and two!
Nobody wants to knowingly consume pesticides, but the current risk of pesticides on whole fruits and vegetables is smaller than the risk to your health if you don’t eat fruits and vegetables at all. So how can you eat healthy and reduce your risk from pesticides?
1. Wash all your fruits and vegetables well by rubbing the whole produce under running water. You can use a vegetable scrubber brush on heartier produce such as potatoes and apples.
2. Peel when necessary. The skin of many fruits and vegetables contain a good portion of the fiber and vitamins and minerals, but better to eat only the flesh of a fruit than to not eat it at all if you are concerned with the levels of pesticides on the outside of the fruit.
3. Eat a variety of produce and buy organic when possible–but still practice numbers one and two!