Dirty Dozen Contaminated Fruits and Vegetables

More and more studies have been confirming the importance of increasing fruits and vegetables in your diet. However, an area that hasn't had much press is the amount of pesticides you could be exposing yourself to.

An EWG simulation of thousands of consumers eating high and low pesticide diets shows that people can lower their pesticide exposure by 90 percent by avoiding the top twelve most contaminated fruits and vegetables and eating the least contaminated instead, according to a FoodNews Report Card.

"Eating the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables will expose a person to nearly 20 pesticides per day, on average. Eating the 12 least contaminated will expose a person to a fraction over 2 pesticides per day."

12 Fruits and Vegetables on the "Most-Contaminated" List

Listed in order, from most to least contaminated:

1. peaches
2. strawberries
3. apples
4. spinach
5. nectarines
6. celery
7. pears
8. cherries
9. potatoes
10. bell peppers
11. red raspberries
12. imported grapes

FoodNews recommends you "buy organic" for items on the above list to avoid/reduce pesticide exposure.

Keywords: fruit, vegetables, pesticides, food safety, organic, health news, health, fruits and vegetables safety, healthy eating