If you aim to eat as cleanly as possible to preserve that temple you call your body, you may want to cross-check what you're buying with the new list of contaminated produce items from the Environmental Working Group. The EWG ranked the pesticide levels of the fruits and veggies we regularly buy to come up with its "Dirty Dozen," a compilation that the organization has put together for the past two decades, per CNN. The group tested nearly 50,000 samples of more than four dozen types of nonorganic produce, looking for traces of 250-plus chemicals. Pesticide exposure has been tied to a slew of maladies, including preterm births, congenital malformations, heart disease, cancer, and lower sperm count, among others. The top offender on the EWG's list? Luscious red strawberries.
The full 12:
- Strawberries
- Spinach
- Kale, collard greens, and mustard greens
- Grapes
- Peaches
- Pears
- Nectarines
- Apples
- Bell and hot peppers
- Cherries
- Blueberries
- Green beans
Meanwhile, the EWG has the Dirty Dozen's counterpart, the
Clean 15, which shows the foods with the least amount of contaminants. Avocados top that ranking; check out what other foods get a pat on the back
here. (More
food contamination stories.)
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