Saturday, November 10, 2007

Top Organics List

I bet you have seen this list; I used to have it printed out to carry in my wallet but I keep giving it away. For easy reference, here is the Environmental Working Group's list of the Top 12 Foods to Buy Organic (you can cough up your email to get a printable guide to the foods most/least contaminated with pesticides. The site also provides a longer list adapted from pesticide residue research for your perusal).

CHEC (Children's Health Enviro Coalition) combines the EWG info with research from the Consumer's Union and gives in-depth info about which pesticides you're avoiding in their Green Guide list.

I've combined these sources below:

Dirty Dozen+ (Buy Organic)
Peaches, Apples, Sweet Bell Peppers, Celery, Nectarines, Strawberries, Cherries, Lettuce, Grapes (Imported), Pears, Spinach, Potatoes, Cantaloupe, Tomatoes

Cleanest 12 (Lowest in Pesticides, Save Your Cash)

Onions, Avocado, Sweet Corn (Frozen), Pineapples, Mango, Sweet Peas (Frozen), Asparagus, Kiwi, Bananas, Cabbage, Broccoli, Eggplant

Care2 has a helpful list that provides alternative foods with the same nutrients to buy in case they don't have, say, organic strawberries (go for the vitamin C in blueberries, raspberries, oranges, grapefruit, kiwifruit, or watermelon instead).

Delicious Organics (some organic produce delivery company in South Florida) has a more exhaustive list that includes genetically modified foods, corn, and nuts (which are probably also smart to avoid since anything high in fat hangs onto toxins like dairy/meat/oils). DO seems to update their list so check it out; the EWG info is almost a decade old. But remember to consider the source (an organic delivery service company, which might benefit from consumers needing to buy, well, as many organic products as possible?)....

2 comments:

UCS said...

Awesome, thanks these are soo useful!

JessTrev said...

Glad you can use the org lists -- tx for your amazing art classes.