Vegetarian diet Vs pesticides?!
Vegetarian diet Vs pesticides?
Im trying to eat more veggies and fruits but do to the pesticides in these, is eating veggies and fruits actually bad or good for you?
Answers:
Pesticides used in the United States are EPA approved. The companies that manufacture them spend millions of dollers getting them tested and approved. Contrary to common belief, if used properly and at the recomended amount, pesticides will not have any kind of biological magnification (like DDT did in the '60s) or effect on human health. Things have changed dramatically for pesticides since the sixties and pesticides no longer have negative effects toward the environment or human health.
I would strongly recomend against organic foods. Besides being more expensive, human rights are an issue. While legeslation has done some good in protecting immigrant workers, they still emerge with back problems and other physical ailments.
Organic food growing requires more land for an amount of produce than industrialized agriculture(w/use of pesticides) would for the same amount of produce. So save your money, buy regular produce.
Source(s):
Environmental Science Student
yes, the pesticides are very bad for you. Dont eat anything thats meant to kill something else. Buy organic if you can-its expensive, but worth it. Perhaps there is a local organic farm in your community. I have lived in my small town for over 20 years, and only discovered we have an organic farm that sells produce about 3 years ago. Another option is to grow your own. I use an indoor hydroponic garden throughout the year, and and container gardens during the growing season.
(I have fingerling potatoes growing in a wheelbarrow and tomatoes, pimentos, and peppers growing in inverted 2 liter bottles, so the plants are growing upside down-really cool) If this is not an option, and you must buy commercial produce, make sure you soak it in a solution of half water, half food grade peroxide, lemon juice, and a pinch of baking soda. Rinse really well. To remove wax from fruits such as apples and cucumber, make a paste of baking soda and lemon juice, buff the fruit, then rinse well.
ORGANIC
The pesticides sprayed on produce is fairly easy to wash off. These things are good for you, Vegetables and fruits are the mainstay of a healthy diet.
Why Should You Care About Pesticides?
There is growing consensus in the scientific community that small doses of pesticides and other chemicals can adversely affect people, especially during vulnerable periods of fetal development and childhood when exposures can have long lasting effects. Because the toxic effects of pesticides are worrisome, not well understood, or in some cases completely unstudied, shoppers are wise to minimize exposure to pesticides whenever possible.
Will Washing and Peeling Help?
Nearly all of the data used to create these lists already considers how people typically wash and prepare produce (for example, apples are washed before testing, bananas are peeled). While washing and rinsing fresh produce may reduce levels of some pesticides, it does not eliminate them. Peeling also reduces exposures, but valuable nutrients often go down the drain with the peel. The best option is to eat a varied diet, wash all produce, and choose organic when possible to reduce exposure to potentially harmful chemicals.
Test Results: Complete Data Set
Rank (worst to best)
Commodity
Combined Score
Percentage of Samples Tested with Detectable Pesticides
Percentage of Samples With Two or More Pesticides
Average Number of Pesticides Found on a Sample
Average Amount (in ppm*) of All Pesticides Found
Maximum Number of Pesticides Found on a Single Sample
Number of Pesticides Found on the Commodity in Total
1 Peaches 100 96.6% 86.6% 3.1 1.134 9 42
2 Apples 89 92.1% 78.9% 2.5 0.901 9 37
3 Sweet Bell Peppers 86 81.5% 62.2% 2.4 0.138 11 64
4 Celery 85 94.1% 79.8% 3.0 0.413 9 30
5 Nectarines 84 97.3% 85.3% 3.0 0.576 7 26
6 Strawberries 82 92.1% 69.1% 2.2 0.843 8 35
7 Cherries 75 91.4% 75.8% 2.8 0.290 7 25
8 Pears 65 87.2% 47.4% 1.6 0.544 6 32
9 Grapes - Imported 65 85.3% 53.4% 1.7 0.291 7 32
10 Spinach 60 70.0% 31.2% 1.1 1.240 6 24
11 Lettuce 59 58.9% 33.0% 1.3 0.108 9 49
12 Potatoes 58 81.0% 18.0% 1.0 1.655 4 18
13 Carrots 57 81.7% 48.3% 1.6 0.046 6 31
14 Green Beans 53 65.4% 39.0% 1.3 0.187 6 34
15 Hot Peppers 53 55.0% 27.5% 1.0 0.290 6 51
16 Cucumbers 52 72.5% 31.7% 1.2 0.057 6 40
17 Raspberries 47 47.9% 23.3% 0.9 0.906 6 21
18 Plums 45 56.2% 10.2% 0.7 1.359 4 17
19 Grapes - Domestic 43 61.4% 21.8% 0.9 0.107 6 29
20 Oranges 42 83.3% 28.8% 1.2 0.084 4 15
21 Grapefruit 40 62.3% 22.6% 0.9 0.530 5 9
22 Tangerines 38 66.7% 33.3% 1.2 0.375 3 4
23 Mushrooms 37 60.2% 22.3% 0.9 0.158 5 16
24 Cantaloupe 34 54.9% 20.1% 0.8 0.028 4 21
25 Honeydew Melon 31 59.2% 14.2% 0.8 0.012 4 16
26 Tomatoes 30 46.9% 13.5% 0.6 0.029 5 16
27 Sweet Potatoes 30 58.4% 10.0% 0.7 0.198 3 17
28 Watermelons 28 29.4% 14.0% 0.5 0.028 6 18
29 Winter Squash 27 39.8% 12.6% 0.6 0.019 5 16
30 Cauliflower 27 72.4% 8.1% 0.8 0.004 3 4
31 Blueberries 24 27.5% 10.0% 0.4 0.327 4 11
32 Papaya 21 23.5% 5.0% 0.3 0.053 4 19
33 Broccoli 18 28.1% 3.2% 0.3 0.004 3 19
34 Cabbage 17 17.9% 4.8% 0.2 0.121 3 18
35 Bananas 16 41.7% 2.0% 0.4 0.029 2 7
36 Kiwi 14 15.3% 3.4% 0.2 0.160 3 8
37 Sweet Peas - Frozen 11 22.9% 2.3% 0.3 0.010 2 5
38 Asparagus 11 6.7% 0.6% 0.1 0.026 2 19
39 Mango 9 7.1% 0.5% 0.1 0.057 2 13
40 Pineapples 7 7.7% 0.6% 0.1 0.002 2 7
41 Sweet Corn - Frozen 2 3.8% 0.0% 0.0 0.005 1 3
42 Avocado 1 1.4% 0.0% 0.0 0.001 1 2
43 Onions 1 0.2% 0.0% 0.0 0.000 1 2
Note: We ranked a total of 42 different fruits and vegetables but grapes are listed twice because we looked at both domestic and imported samples.
* ppm means parts per million
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Overall the benefits of eating produce strongly outweigh the slight risk of potential residues. Matt H gave a good answer but since cubcowboygirl cut'n'pasted that list I'm doing the same with info I gave in another answer since it applies to your question also.
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It's quite true that you can rinse most pesticides off the product. If you want to go an extra step you can use a touch of detergent or an organic soap like Dr.Bronner's. Dr.B's is really effective at removing the wax that's often used on produce! Most pesticides break used today are fairly reactive chemicals and break down quickly under the influence of sunlight, oxygen and naturally occurring bacteria. Farmers tend to like that because the older persistent chemicals also killed the beneficial insects and organisms needed to maintain soil health. They've also gotten really 'gun shy' about trans-genic plants with 'built-in' toxins ever since the Starlink corn mess a few years ago (a LOT of farmers lost big bucks over that stuff)..
Please look at the link from the EWG that the previous answerer gave and look at the amounts of stuff they found. Only in a few cases does the amount exceed 1 part per million and in most cases the amount found was measured in parts per billion or trillion. A decade or so ago these residues wouldn't have been detectable. A good analogy would be to put 1-10 drops of whatever into an olympic sized pool and that's the amounts of residue that's being detected here!
Organic does NOT mean pesticide free! Here's the EPA's list of products that can be used and maintain an organic pesticide free label. The EWG did *not* test organic produce for *these* compounds!
http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/biopestici...
What also gets overlooked these days is that plants generate their own insecticides when attacked by critters. That's part of the reason EPA allows certain chemicals to be used and still maintain a pesticide free label. Not using pesticides can actually result in produce being more toxic than if it was sprayed!
Even if you don't want to consume fruits and veggies because of the pesticides,you should still eat them,because you still consume less pesticides than you would from meat.Toxins and bacteria get more concentrated as they go up in the food chain,and they are easily stored in fat tissue,which meat/dairy has alot of.