If you’re trying to achieve the best overall fitness or just want to fuel your body right, the reality is that many people just don’t have but don’t have the money to go completely organic in today’s economy.
The agricultural chemical industry tends to downplay the negative effects of eating food that has been sprayed with pesticides, but with many studies proving otherwise, there is no doubt that eating organic is safer than eating
many conventional foods. The question for many is, how to stay within a budget while making better food choices.
When making these tough decisions, consider making the change to organic for these top ten foods that contain the highest risk for contamination. These are foods that are the most vulnerable to an overabundance of pesticides, antibiotics and/or growth hormones, and can’t be easily cooked or washed in a way that will decrease the chemical or hormone residues.
Apples were the number one ranked food on the list of fruits and vegetables that most often carried pesticides according to the Environmental Working Group’s annual list.
Strawberries and raspberries are frequently sprayed with pesticide due to the fungus that develops on both of these delicious berries. Unfortunately the residue that remains on the fruit when it is sold at the grocery store.
Spinach is one of the healthiest leafy green vegetables, but it also has the most pesticides.
Celery was found to contain over 60 different pesticides when it was tested last year, while sweet bell peppers tend to be have the most contaminants of the pepper family.
Unfortunately, the versatile potato was found to have over 35 pesticide residues. If you can’t go organic when purchasing potatoes, consider using sweet potatoes which tend to have fewer contaminants.
Studies have found that rice often contains over 40 different pesticides that are used during production; 15 of them are consider contaminants that can have ill effects on humans, and our drinking water.
Dairy products, including milk, cheese and butter frequently contain antibiotics and hormones from the feed the cows ate in addition to a number of pesticides.
Finally, fatty meats were also found to contain a high number of pesticides as chemicals tend to remain in the body for a long time, and do so in cattle as well.