A shopper's guide to pesticides

Many people are becoming aware of the negative health impact of toxins and are chosing to buy organic foods. Research has found that small doses of pesticides and other chemicals can cause lasting damage to human health, especially during fetal development and early childhood. Scientists now know enough about the long-term consequences of ingesting these powerful chemicals to advise that we minimize our consumption of pesticides. 

There are many ways to reduce your exposure to pesticides - buying organic produce is one way but even if you can't afford to buy everything organic, there are certain vegetables and fruit which are lowest in pesticides and are fine to be bought from your local fruit store. People who eat five fruit and vegetables a day from the Dirty Dozen list consume an average of 10 pesticides a day. Those who eat from the 15 least contaminated conventionally-grown fruits and vegetables ingest fewer than 2 pesticides daily. 

Click here to access your shopping guide to pesticides and find out which vegetables/fruit are the worst offenders. Please note that broccoli should be added to the Dirty Dozen.