The Dirty Dozen

The Dirty Dozen.

Yes, it’s a ’67 American war film but it’s also the name of a list of 12 fresh fruits and produce that should be purchased organically whenever humanly possible. Why should you fork out your hard earned money for organic? Because doing so can lower the volume of pesticides you consume daily by 92 percent!

The Environmental Working Group (EWG), a non-profit organization that consists of scientists, engineers, policy experts, lawyers and computer programmers, pour over government data, legal documents, and scientific studies to do their own laboratory tests to expose threats to your health and environment.

The EWG has their 2011 list ready. This year the apple tops the charts with a whopping 98 percent of apples testing positive for pesticides and 92 percent containing two or more pesticides. Here’s the kicker: Nearly all the studies on which the guide is based tested produce after it had been rinsed or peeled.

Look, I’m not saying everything you have to buy must be organic. I’m really not the tree-hugging type and I’ve got a grocery budget, too. What I am saying is that you should do what you can to buy these 12 food items organically. There’s a Clean 15 list, too, which boasts the lowest in pesticides. This list gives you the power to choose which of the organic foods to buy.

Discover which foods have been hiding this dirty little secret: http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary/