Thursday, August 13, 2009

Benefits from eating fruits and vegetables outweigh any risks of pesticides

Excerpt from a SunSentinel article of 8/13/09.

Which is worse: eating nonorganic produce full of pesticides or not eating produce at all?

Research demonstrates substantial health benefits from eating fruits and vegetables. Although I wish we had more definitive research, these benefits appear to greatly outweigh any risks of pesticides.

If you want to compromise, you can save your organic dollars for the foods most likely to be high in pesticides. These, according to the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org), are peaches, nectarines, apples, bell peppers, strawberries, cherries, pears, raspberries, imported grapes, celery, potatoes and spinach.In contrast, foods that you peel — onions, peas, bananas, sweet corn and tropical fruits, for example — tend to be low in pesticides.