Organic Foods: Buy Some, Skip Others

I get asked all the time what my viewpoint on organic foods. I believe that I have a well-balanced approach to it, not being on one extreme or the other. One observation that I find interesting (and to me comical) are those individuals who are hard core extremist when it comes to buying ALL organic, yet they still eat lots of high sugar, high fat foods and are overweight. Buying all organic will not ensure healthiness by any means! There are so many things in this world that aren’t good for you (ie toxins) that it is impossible to avoid all of them. I believe in a balanced approach that finds the fruits and vegetables that are most susceptible to pesticides and try to buy those organic and skip on those that have very low levels of pesticides.

So here is a list of 43 fruits and veggies that have been rated for their amount of pesticides. I would recommend to buy accordingly. This study was done by Environmental Working Group (EWG) you can visit their site at www.ewg.org

RANK	FRUIT OR VEGGIE	SCORE
1 (worst)	Peaches	100 (highest pesticide load)
2	Apples	96
3	Sweet Bell Peppers	86
4	Celery	85
5	Nectarines	84
6	Strawberries	83
7	Cherries	75
8	Lettuce	69
9	Grapes – Imported	68
10	Pears	65
11	Spinach	60
12	Potatoes	58
13	Carrots	57
14	Green Beans	55
15	Hot Peppers	53
16	Cucumbers	52
17	Raspberries	47
18	Plums	46
19	Oranges	46
20	Grapes-Domestic	46
21	Cauliflower	39
22	Tangerine	38
23	Mushrooms	37
24	Cantaloupe	34
25	Lemon	31
26	Honeydew Melon	31
27	Grapefruit	31
28	Winter Squash	31
29	Tomatoes	30
30	Sweet Potatoes	30
31	Watermelon	25
32	Blueberries	24
33	Papaya	21
34	Eggplant	19
35	Broccoli	18
36	Cabbage	17
37	Bananas	16
38	Kiwi	14
39	Asparagus	11
40	Sweet Peas-Frozen	11
41	Mango	9
42	Pineapples	7
43	Sweet Corn-Frozen	2
44	Avocado	1
45 (best)	Onions	1 (lowest pesticide load)