One of the difficult decisions when trying to save money is whether or not to buy organic since organic foods still tend to be more expensive than non organic foods. One way to balance the need to save money and place healthy food on your table is to know which non organic foods have the greatest amount of pesticides on them. This allows you to purchase organic fruits and vegetables of those types that tend to carry the most pesticide while purchasing non organic foods that are less harmful to you.
Here are the top 20 fruits and vegetables where pesticides are detected:
1. Nectarines: 97.3%
2. Peaches: 96.6%
3. Celery: 94.1%
4. Cherries: 91.4%
5. apples: 92.1%
5. Strawberries: 92.1%
7. Pears: 87.2%
8. Grapes (imported): 85.3%
9. Oranges: 83.3%
10. Carrots: 81.7%
11. Sweet Bell Peppers: 81.5%
12. Potatoes: 81.0%
13. Cucumbers: 72.5%
14. Cauliflower: 72.4%
15. Spinach: 70.0%
16. Tangerines: 66.7%
17. Green Beans: 65.4%
18. Grapefruit: 62.3%
19. Grapes (domestic): 61.4%
20. Mushrooms: 60.2%
While this list of which fruits and vegetables are found to have pesticides on them most frequently, it doesn't tell the entire story. It doesn't take into account such factors as if the foods had multiple pesticides on them and the concentration of the pesticides on them. When these factors are taken into consideration, the following are the worst non organic foods to purchase:
1. Peaches
2. Apples
3. Sweet Bell Peppers
4. Celery
5. Nectarines
6. Strawberries
7. Cherries
8. Pears
9. Grapes (imported)
10. Spinach
11. Lettuce
12. Potatoes
13. Carrots
14. Green Beans
15. Hot Peppers
16. Cucumbers
17. Raspberries
18. Plums
19. Grapes (domestic)
20. Oranges
These are ordered in worst to least harmful and take into account normal washing and peeling habits of people. That means that even though most people wash their apples before eating them, even after doing so, apples are still number 2 on the list.
In the best of all worlds you would want to buy all your food organically to avoided unwanted pesticides, but for many this would be a budget buster. The above list will allow you to put your hard earned money toward organic fruits and vegetables rather than non organic in the areas that are likely to be most beneficial to your health. By keeping in mind what fruits and vegetables tend to be the worst for you when purchased non organic, you can adjust your shopping habits to get the healthiest foods while still staying within your budget.
Another way to save money is that more and more organic food companies are offering coupon discounts for their foods if you contact them directly.
Hat tip: foodnews.org
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I have looked for organic green beans for many years and can never find any. I even visited some friends in Los Angeles and we searched and could not find any and out there there is plenty of sensibly priced organic foods…cuz most of them are grown there.