Eating for Two: "Dirty Dozen" and "Clean Fifteen"

I really like to buy as much organically produced food as possible, but, as with many people, we have a limited budget (if you ever want to hear my reasons I would love to share, but I don't think I have the room in this post!). Buying organic when possible has become even more important to me since we found out that we are pregnant.  While pesticides aren't good for anyone, even in the residual amounts found on lots of produce, they can be especially dangerous for someone as small as the baby in a Mom's tummy.  Because of the way the Mom's system works, much of what we eat goes for the baby's needs before it goes for Mom's, all the good and the bad.  Because developing babies are so tiny even amounts of pesticides that are "safe" for adults can be detrimental to the baby.   This is often a source of much internal debate at the grocery store: Is it more important to get organic strawberries or squash?  What about blueberries, do they really get sprayed that much?  Does the spray they put on the tops of potatoes affect the roots (the parts we eat)?  

I finally found a tool that has helped us in this area and hopefully it can help you too!  I had heard about the "Dirty Dozen" several times before but didn't really understand how accurate it was until I started doing some research of my own.   A group of independent researchers has been sampling fruit from the grocery store from 2000 to 2008 (which is an impressive study, if I might say) for pesticide residue.  They tested the amount of pesticide residue after cleaning or prepping the fruit in the same way as the majority of consumers would to eat them raw (either washing or peeling depending on the fruit/vegetable).  They ranked the fruits and vegetables based onthe concentrations of pesticides left after that prepping.  The 12 worst (or highest concentrations of pesticides) are the "Dirty Dozen" and the fifteen best (lowest concentrations of pesticides) are the "Clean Fifteen".  This list has been very helpful in settling some of the above mentioned debates for me!  I know that the ones most important to get organic come from the "Dirty Dozen" list and I'm okay to save some money and get conventional fruit/veggies from the "Clean Fifteen" list.

This link  will take you to a pdf file that has both lists on it and you can print off.  You can search around and learn more, or get the whole study at this website.


If you are curious and don't want to try the websites, here are the lists!


The Dirty Dozen (Buy these Organic when possible)
1-Celery
2-Peaches
3-Strawberries
4-Apples
5-Blueberries
6-Nectarines
7-Bell Peppers
8-Spinach
9-Cherries
10-Kale/Collard Greens
11-Potatoes
12-Grapes (Imported)


The Clean Fifteen (You can buy these conventional)
1-Onions
2-Avacado
3-Sweet Corn
4-Pineapple
5-Mangos
6-Sweet Peas
7-Asparagus
8-Kiwi
9-Cabbage
10-Eggplant
11-Canteloupe
12-Watermelon
13-Grapefruit
14-Sweet Potato
15-Honeydew Melon


I hope this helps some of your organic shopping dilemmas!