Dirty Dozen and Thrive in Thirty
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has developed an annual list of fruits and vegetables, frequently referred to as the “Dirty Dozen”. One of my avid readers, Three Cookies (who I am also an avid reader of), also posted about these recently here. The Dirty Dozen is a list of produce that is suspected of having the greatest potential for contamination with residues of pesticides.
Ever hear of “Eat This Not That” ?
It is almost the same concept for organic vs. conventional produce scale. Some conventional produce has more evidence of pesticides than others so they might be a “healthier” option. The EWG cautions consumers to avoid the conventional forms of these specific dozen and recommends the organic counterparts instead due to their reduced (potential) exposure of pesticide residues.
This Dirty Dozen has generated quite a bit of media- newspaper, magazine, radio, television and of course BLOG coverage. It has most definitely become an influence on the purchasing decisions of consumers. However, when I read this report from the Journal of Toxicology, I was surprised! (Journal of Toxicology 03/2011- http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jt/2011/589674/ )
You see, they looked at the nitty gritty of the EWG’s testing for specific pesticides and the amount in each of the dozen foods including bell pepper, peaches, strawberries, apples, blueberries, kale, nectarines, etc. This study looked at what can be equated to a daily “safe” intake or rather, the “reference dose” of pesticides.
The reference dose is similar to the upper limit of what can be consumed without any known adverse effects and even if you go above this reference dose, there could still be no harmful effects. Another way of thinking about it is having a glass of wine ( or two): It may or may not be the best idea, it actually offers antioxidants and can decrease stress. However, it could result in a headache the next day but ultimately the long-term effects of that one extra glass are negligible.
So we can consume pesticides?
Well, I don’t think anyone is suggesting you consume any amount but for those that are wondering how to figure out choosing organic foods over conventional, this is an interesting reference article to help you decide for yourself!
For three of the dirty dozen —blueberries, cherries, and kale—the amount detected was no where close to the reference dose (upper limit that shows no ill-effects). In fact, it was 30,000 times lower than the pesticide estimates for all of the most frequently used/detected pesticides. So if the amount that is generally the upper limit that is still considered acceptable is 1 teaspoon, these three items were detected to have less than 0.0000003 of a teaspoon. You could consume the entire teaspoon (in my example) and based on evidence, have no side effects anyway – these are shown to contain less than the equivalent of 0.0000003 of that “safe” amount.
Given these findings, the inclusion of blueberries, cherries, and kale on the “Dirty Dozen” list is not justified. All three of these can be considered Superfoods and I recently just posted about dark leafy greens among other Superfoods for the Thrive in 30 series.
I think this adds to their conversation for sure! The take home message from the Superfoods video was to consume more whole fresh foods like Kale… cherries, blueberries, and other vegetables & fruit. I have yet to see the Organic vs. Conventional issue brought up in the series for Thrive in 30 but I haven’t finished all 12 videos!
What do I think?
I think the ultimate take home message to the majority of consumers (from Thrive in 30, from EWG, from this article, from RD’s, from Me…) is – eat more fruits and vegetables America! Organic, conventional, fresh, frozen, local, seasonal, out of season…..just choose more.
This study cast doubts as to how consumers avoiding conventional forms of such produce items are improving their health status. It could be easy to sum up as if you can afford it, buy the organic form. If you cannot afford it, buy the conventional form because you are consuming something like 0.000000003 of the highest amount that has yet to show harmful effects and you still need the major nutrients in that produce.
The article conclusion:
It is concluded that (1) exposures to the most commonly detected pesticides on the twelve commodities pose negligible risks to consumers, (2) substitution of organic forms of the twelve commodities for conventional forms does not result in any appreciable reduction of consumer risks, and (3) the methodology used by the environmental advocacy group to rank commodities with respect to pesticide risks lacks scientific credibility.
What do YOU think?
