Clean 15 (2014 list)

Clean 15  (2014 list)

Each year the Environmental Working Group (EWG) puts out a Dirty Dozen list and it's opposite, Clean 15 list.

Here are this year's WINNERS!

According to the EWG, approximately 60% of thousands of produce was found to be contaminated with pesticides. As the EPA is not providing accurate and thorough information when it started to publish information in 1999. So in 2007, it stopped altogether providing any information.

Check each year for an updated list.

The  Clean Fifteen™ can provide you with safer foods to consume with not as much contamination from toxins and pesticides. If you cannot buy organic, these foods are the foods to consume with not as high of a risk to your health than the other produce with higher contaminants.

Relatively few pesticides were detected on these foods, and tests found low total concentrations of pesticides.


EWG's notable findings:

• Avocados were the cleanest: only 1 percent of avocado samples showed any detectable pesticides.
• Some 89 percent of pineapples, 82 percent of kiwi, 80 percent of papayas, 88 percent of mango and 61 percent of cantaloupe had no residues.
• No single fruit sample from the Clean Fifteen™ tested positive for more than 4 types of pesticides.
• Detecting multiple pesticide residues is extremely rare on Clean Fifteen™ vegetables. Only 5.5 percent of Clean Fifteen samples had two or more pesticides.

http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary.php

For more information, check out Donna Marie Laino's blog: http://healthyhealingfoods.blogspot.com/

2014 Dirty Dozen Foods

Did you know that pesticides were exceptionally toxic to the Nervous System?  

Let's just stop there for a second and back up a minute.

Imagine trying to pick up a cup, blink an eye, catch a ball or pull your hand away from a hot doorknob and not feel it or not be able to move at all.

It's the peripheral nerves that have the task transporting information back and forth from your brain to your spinal cord. Innately, people tend to protect our body and preserve function.

So why aren't we buying food to do the same?

The Environmental Protection Agency has banned the use of certain pesticides however, there are some of these toxic chemicals still detected on foods. Harmful organochlorine pesticides were found on fields that had phased them out in the 1970's and 1980's.

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) is a non-profit organization that advocates policy to protect individual and global health. They have developed "Shoppers' Guide to Pesticides in Produce", an annual list to help guide us in buying safer produce.

 According to EWG:

• Every sample of imported nectarines and 99 percent of apple samples tested positive for at least one pesticide residue.
• The average potato had more pesticides by weight than any other food.
• A single grape sample contained 15 pesticides. Single samples of celery, cherry tomatoes, imported snap peas and strawberries showed 13 different pesticides a piece.

Use Caution when buying these foods: 2014 Dirty Dozen

These foods are best bought organic to avoid the pesticide contamination. Notice the similarities of the lists: 2014 vs 2013.

2013 Dirty Dozen List

They have also added a "plus" category of leafy greens and hot pepper this year.  

Greens such as kale and collards, have shown to frequently been contaminated with neuro-toxic pesticides.

For more information, check out Donna Marie Laino's blog: http://healthyhealingfoods.blogspot.com/