The Dirty Dozen

I did my grocery shopping yesterday and noticed that the organic produce section is considerably larger than it was when I first moved to Austin. This is awesome! Buying organic is great for you and the environment....but it's so expensive! So if you're on a tighter budget like I am, knowing which produce is really worth buying organic helps alot. Thankfully, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) has put together a list of the Dirty Dozen. This is the list of vegetables and fruit that have the most pesticides on them. Why should you care?

• Pesticides are designed to kill pests. As such, they are toxic. This means that ingested pesticides will cause damage to your body. This is especially true for children. The harms include: damage to hormonal sytem and nervous system, skin, eye and lung irritation, and carcinogenic effects.
  
• Some stats by the EWG: those who eat the 12 most contaminated fruits and veggies ingest an average of 10 pesticides a day. On the other hand, those who ate the 15 most clean ingested fewer than 2 pesticides a day.
  
• Washing and peeling don't help as much as you would think. Rinsing only reduces the amount of pesticide on the produce, but does not get rid of it. Peeling does eliminate any pesticidal residue, but it all the nutrients and vitamins in the skin are also lost.

The list

They also have a full list here. Go check it out. Eat smart and healthy!

I also found a database compiled of cosmetics and they rate them on a hazard scale based on their ingredients. Pretty cool! It's called Skin Deep.