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Photo Source:\u00a0 US News & World Report<\/span><\/p>\n Every year, the Environmental Working Group(EWG)\u00a0 releases its list of the \u201cDirty Dozen,\u201d or the 12 fruits and vegetables available in the U. S. with the most pesticide residues. The media publicizes the list, and unfortunately, scares the daylights out of some folks about enjoying Mother Nature\u2019s finest once revered as uber-healthy.<\/p>\n As a registered dietitian, I beg you: Don\u2019t let this list scare you from eating fruits and veggies.<\/p>\n For one, of course, there are so many health benefits of consuming fruits and vegetables (whether fresh, frozen, canned organic or conventional<\/a>), from heart health to weight loss. Even the EWG admits that \u201cthe health benefits of eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables outweigh the risks of pesticide exposure\u201d and that \u201ceating conventionally grown produce is far better than skipping fruits and vegetables.\u201d I\u2019d rather you stress over the weather or even more threatening, the Red Sox bullpen, than panic over produce.<\/p>\n What\u2019s more, there\u2019s already a robust process in place to make sure the produce that winds up on store shelves \u2013 even those landing in the \u201cDirty Dozen\u201d \u2013 are safe for you to consume. It\u2019s a science-based, four-step assessment conducted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s Pesticide Data Program (PDP), which launched in 1991 and manages the sampling, testing and reporting of pesticide residues on both domestically grown and imported foods.<\/p>\n The organizations estimate how high a dose of each pesticide is potentially harmful for human health, consider all the ways a person could be exposed to the pesticide \u2013 such as eating, drinking and inhaling it, as well as absorbing it through the skin \u2013 and establishes a very liberal \u201creference dose,\u201d which is an amount that is safe to consume daily even if you were exposed to it in multiple ways.<\/p>\n The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) applies very stringent criteria to ensure that pesticide residues on foods provide a \u201creasonable certainty of no harm\u201d to consumers.\u00a0 Such measures include considering exposure from food, drinking water, and the residential environment, considering the cumulative exposure for entire families of pesticides possessing a common toxicological mechanism, and applying additional safety measures in cases where infants and children may be more susceptible to pesticides than adults.\u00a0 Only after such criteria are met does EPA allow pesticides to be used on specific crops,\u201d says Carl K. Winter, a professor at the University of California at Davis whose research on how to detect pesticides in foods and evaluate their risk to humans is used to inform the PDP\u2019s work.<\/p>\n Indeed, the latest PDP report uncovered that over 99 percent of the foods it tested, including produce, had pesticide residues well below the levels that the EPA has established as safe to consume. And get this: This is the very report the EWG used to create its \u201cDirty Dozen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n So while, as the EWG points out, some produce is more likely to have pesticide residues than others, it\u2019s virtually all safe to consume. The Dirty Dozen report misses that very important point.<\/p>\n So why is it released every year? According to an email response \u00a0from the EWG, it\u2019s to support the organization\u2019s recommendation to buy organic whenever possible for health and environmental issues. But, Winter says, \u201cthe worse thing for consumers is to be scared to feed produce to themselves and their family.\u201d<\/p>\n I agree. Get the most amount of fruits and veggies for your buck when it comes to buying produce. Buy what is on sale and wash it before you eat it. Enjoy Mother Nature\u2019s finest, in hefty amounts, no matter how it\u2019s grown.<\/p>\n This article originally appeared in US News & World Report<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Photo Source:\u00a0 US News & World Report Every year, the Environmental Working Group(EWG)\u00a0 releases its list of the \u201cDirty Dozen,\u201d or the 12 fruits and vegetables available in the U. S. with the most pesticide residues. The media publicizes the list, and unfortunately, scares the daylights out of some folks about enjoying Mother Nature\u2019s finest … Continue reading Should I Be Worried About the EWG’s Dirty Dozen List?<\/span>