Unhealthy Pesticides are hiding in your food! I highly, HIGHLY recommend that everyone get their hands on the May/June 2024 issue of Consumer Reports (CR) Magazine! This one issue may save your health and possibly, your life, or the life of someone you love.

This report summarizes that 20% of the popular fruits and vegetables we consume in our diet contain very high risk from pesticides. The article in CR provides you with a list of which foods contain the highest levels of unhealthy chemicals, and what you can do to limit your exposure to potentially dangerous chemicals.

While some manufacturers of pesticides may argue that the chemicals they produce are designed to kill insects, fungi, and weeds and not human beings (of course, the first thought that goes through my mind when I hear people trying to defend pesticides as safe for humans is: "OK, let's see you eat some then!"), it seems common sense that any category of chemicals, specifically designed to kill, may have damaging effects on other living organisms.

CR reports that the Environmental Health Journal recently looked at six studies and found increased evidence of a linkage between pesticides and increased risks of cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. CR also reported on the researchers looking at farm workers and their families. Besides incidents of poisoning from pesticides, CR noted higher incidents of Parkinson's Disease, breast cancer, diabetes, and many more health problems for both the farmers and their families.

The International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health(IJERPH) reported: 385 million unintentional pesticide poisonings/year, resulting in: 11,000 deaths annually; this does not include approximately: 138,000 approximate suicide deaths annually using pesticides.

Meaning no disrespect to the IJERPH, The agency: Civil Eats, reported that a 1990 World Health Organization (WHO) had unintentional pesticide deaths over: 200,000/year. While we may never find out the precise number of deaths caused by pesticides/year, and we are even more unlikely to discover the many chronic diseases, disabilities, and dysfunction that occur due to the pesticides building to toxic levels within our bodies, there are actions we can take to hopefully minimize the damage that pesticides can do within our bodies.

First and foremost, I want to emphasize that the largest portion of our consumption of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and phytochemicals, as well as both soluble and insoluble fiber, comes from fruits and vegetables. Therefore, in the interest of maintaining healthy nutrition habits, we all need to find ways to eat healthy...yet safely.

That is the major reason for you to purchase, read, and study the CR article on "Produce without Pesticides." This article provides you with details on 59 different fruits and vegetables, both conventional and organic, USA and imported, serving sizes, and a "Risk Rating" for each.

The fruits showing the highest risk were conventional blueberries, strawberries, and watermelon. There were no organic fruits in the highest-risk categories. The vegetables showing the highest risk were bell peppers, celery (imported), collard greens (imported), green beans, hot peppers, kale, mustard greens (USA), potatoes, and spinach.

As you might expect, organic fruits and vegetables contained far fewer pesticides than conventional sources, but unfortunately, imported organic green beans fell within the highest risk category for pesticide exposure, probably due to cross-contamination from the manufacturing/processing facilities.

YES! I can already hear the complaints that organic is a lot more expensive than conventional alternatives. The choice you are facing is: pay more now for healthier food sources or pay more later...probably MUCH MORE when the toxic levels of pesticides begin to affect your health.

_©May 2024