In trying to live as cleanly as possible, I tend to buy organic fruits and vegetables when I can, but I’m aware that certain produce doesn’t need to be organic. Sometimes it’s really hard to remember which things are ok to buy conventional versus the ones that are usually coated in pesticides, and I end up staring at a pile of red peppers in the grocery store for a solid five minutes. A little trick that generally works well is to stick with buying organic for foods that you don’t have to peel before eating, like grapes and strawberries, and go the conventional route for foods with a thick skin (where the pesticides can’t get through), like pineapple and bananas.
The EWG (Environmental Working Group – a non-profit whose mission it is to empower people to live healthier lives in a healthier environment) just released their Dirty Dozen list for 2017 (foods to always buy organic if you can), along with their updated Clean Fifteen (foods that are fine to buy conventional). You can read the lists here and here, as well as below.
-Strawberries
-Spinach
-Nectarines
-Apples
-Peaches
-Pears
-Cherries
-Grapes
-Celery
-Tomatoes
-Sweet Bell Peppers
-Potatoes
-Sweet Corn
-Avocados
-Pineapples
-Cabbage
-Onions
-Sweet peas frozen
-Papayas
-Asparagus
-Mangos
-Eggplant
-Honeydew Melon
-Kiwi
-Cantaloupe
-Cauliflower
-Grapefruit
Other foods I always try to buy organic (and free range!) are poultry, milk and eggs because it’s important to me that the animals are treated well and have as nice a life as possible. We don’t eat red meat in our house but if we did, that’s another one that I would be pretty strict about.
Oh and also, EWG has the most amazing database of skincare and beauty products that they rate from 1-10, detailing how ‘clean’ they are and what toxic ingredients they may have. You just type the product name in here, and the results pop up. And you can do the same here for cleaning products. Warning: it’s sort of addicting 🙂
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