Dirty Dozen & Clean Fifteen - A Guide to Pesticides in Produce

Chemicals & pesticides in our fresh produce is a big ‘No, no, no!’ for me & should be for us all.
Organic produce should be the way to go however, enter cost-of-living crisis plus every other expense we need to fork out for (does it ever end?) & how, seriously how is anyone supposed to go 100% organic, especially when most of us have no choice but to buy from the supermarket?

The real question is why should anyone have to go organic in the first place? I mean, why are they spraying our food with chemicals & pesticides that are so dangerous to life, not just the life of insects & other ‘pests’ that want to snack on our crops, but harmful to us as well.

We are living, breathing organisms just as those critters are, we are critters.

In fact, we are critters who are (& have been) consuming herbicide & pesticide ridden foods since birth, literally every day since we entered the planet. Would you feel safe taking a little sip of pessticide every day of your life?

No?
Why not?

Would you think I was crazy if I asked you to do so?

You would, huh?

So why as intelligent humans are you not thinking that it’s crazy to consume chemical & pesticide ridden fruit & veggies literally every day without being given much choice in the matter?
Have you ever sat down & really thought about it?

If you were a bug, you’d be dead by now. But you’re a big bug, so it’s a slow kinda process for the bigger bugs.

Long term exposure to Glyphosate (commonly known as Round-Up & used on crops since the 1970s) has been linked to some of the biggest killers of modern society:

• Alzheimer’s disease
• Birth defects including a higher risk of developing birth defects such as cardiac abnormalities and deformities.
• Cancer
• Colitis
• Heart disease
• Inflammatory bowel disease (Leaky Gut Syndrome)
• Liver disease
• Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
• Reproductive problems
• Respiratory illnesses

It’s quite scary to think that despite the evidence of serious harm to human health, Glyphosate is approved for use & is continuing to be used on crops worldwide.

What’s even scarier is that Round-Up is owned by Bayer Pharmaceuticals, a company which is supposedly dedicated to consumer healthcare & are suppliers of pharmaceuticals in the fields of:

• Oncology (cancer treatment)
• Cardiology (heart)
• Endocrinology (hormones)
• Neurology (brain)
• Thrombotic (blood clots)
• Diagnostic imaging (medical testing)

Why would Bayer supply the Glyphosate which is known to be harmful to human health yet also supply the same medications to treat the illnesses Glyphosate would cause?

I’m just as confused as you.

So, what can we do?

Short of going completely off grid & growing your own (#bucketlist), you can minimize exposure to these & other harmful chemicals & pesticides by going organic for some produce, whilst still buying others from the regular section of the supermarket.

Each year the Dirty Dozen – Clean Fifteen list is released which provides guidance on some of the most highly sprayed crops (Dirty Dozen), as opposed to the Clean Fifteen, which are less likely to be sprayed.

This guide was established to help health-conscious shoppers reduce their exposure by buying organic where possible & by knowing which items may still be consumed relatively safely from the more cost-effective section of the supermaket.

Do your best to buy the Dirty Dozen from the organic section & if required, you can still get the Clean Fifteen from the non-organic section of your supermarket. Or better yet, go to your local fruit store & support a small business.

Dee

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