5/29/11

Three Low-Pesticide Fruits

low_pesticide_fruits

If organic produce is too expensive for your budget, you can save money and avoid pesticide health effects by purchasing the following three fruits:

  1. Pineapple
  2. Mango
  3. Kiwi

The Environmental Working Group report found that only 8%, 7%, and 15% (respectively) of pineapple, mango, or kiwi samples had any pesticide at all.  (Compare that to peaches for which over 96% of samples tested positive for pesticides.) 

Part of the reason that these test low for pesticides is that they are peeled and only the inner portion is eaten.  You can reduce your exposure to toxins in high-pesticide fruits like peaches (we’ll cover that rest of that list soon) by washing and/or peeling the skins.  Or, of course, you can always buy the organic version.

One interesting insight from the FDA pesticide reports, is that orange juice was low in pesticides, even though oranges themselves tested fairly high in pesticides.  It’s possible that the testing of orange fruit also included the skins, since orange peel or zest is sometimes an ingredient in recipes.  Orange juice, of course, has all the skin removed. 

So add orange juice to your grocery cart along with pineapples, mangos, and kiwis (and the low-pesticide vegetables) to save money and support your good health.