If fruits and vegetables are not safe, what is?

wash mine under the tap too. and back in the 50s the used dtd and that didnt harm us its what they use now that does the bad things to us grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

My brother is a chemist and advised me a long time ago to peel as many fruits and veggies as I could, I never eat the peels anymore except from the fruit and veggies I grow. Many of my veggies are not as beautiful: my swiss chard is loved so much by snails that they are full of holes. I have thought a lot about eating them (the snail, of course). My brother said that washing them wasnt enough. Take care and PLANT!!! I´m on my way noy to plant more parsley.

I also use tap, but know that the best thing to do is either use this cleaner you can buy I believe in the produce section of your grocers or Another option, though you have to really rinse it off when you are done,is to use a small amount of hydrogen peroxide with water and scrub your fruit and vegetables. Or even better if you can, grow your own..:)

I hate having to see the negative results of humans deciding to use nonorganic materials on things such as our water, food, and medicine. I feel like a lot of the health problems and diseases that are arising in today's day and age are from lack of research and time investigating the actual long term health effects of coming into contact with some of the chemicals we are around on a daily basis. A read a news article in Nexus magazine the other day that said that Europe is placing into effect a ban on all harmful chemicals that are in everyday products that humans deal with and they have been working on exiling all potential risk chemicals from their list. I read that the United States has so far shown no strong effort as to researching the health risks with some of these chemicals that are involved in our daily lives. The most unfortunate thing is that consumers don't know how to test what's in their products and corporations can pay money so that they don't have to test products as long as they are supposed too or they can bribe someone into not having to list some even more potentially harmful chemicals. We've been putting toxic stuff into our food and water supplies for quite a while now and I would recommend starting a garden as soon as you can because then you will know that there is nothing in your food that you have to worry about. We even have to worry about our drinking water becoming contaminated now as well. It's really sad to see how our lack of caring is negatively effecting our food, I just hope that we will be influenced to do deeper and more thorough research for the future because it is an absolutely necessary step in evolving. Great post friend let me know if you find out on any good ways to remove pesticides from fruits and veggies.

I think, this is something out of control. All we can do is, wash fruits and vegetables before use. These days size of fruits and vegetables is big and that is not natural, some chemical influence is making them more attractive in size and taste. Doctors suggests to eat fruits and vegetables more but if this is the scenario, we are more prone to illness instead of being healthy.

Food is a delicate matter no matter what. These days, almost nothing is natural or healthy... they use technology to bio-engineer anything people can eat, using chemicals and dangerous substances, instead of simply doing it the old fashioned way. Andy why? Because they look better like that. They may look better, but they're slowly killing us, time-wise. If it were me, I'd just have my own little space far away from humanity, where I can live with the ones I love, a long and healthy life, just like people used to in the old days...

The sad thing is that today we don't get all the vitamins ans minerals from vegetable and fruits that we use to because the farm ground id wearing out. Instead of putting the natural fertilizers on the ground such as green and cattle manure on the fields the farmers are having to use chemicals to get plants to grow. Some fruits and vegetables don't have to be organic to be safe. they are the ones that we peel and have thick peels such as watermelon. Onions, avocados, sweet corn, pineapple, mangos, Asparagus, sweet peas, kiwi, cabbage, egg plant, papaya, broccoli, tomatoes (safer now than they use to be), and sweet potatoes. These are more likely to have less pesticide used on them but they still need to be wash good. These are the vegetables and fruits that should be organic. celery, peaches, strawberries, apples and blue berries, nectarines, bell peppers, spinach ,kale, cherries, potatoes, grapes and leafy greens, carrots and pears,. http://www.thedailygreen.com/healthy-eating/eat-safe/Save-on-Sustainable-Gallery-44032808 Here is a simple vegetable wash you can make at home for pennies to get those pesticides off your vegetable. Vegetable wash gettimg rid of some bacteria, but for better protection make your own natural cleaning concoction: Mix 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar, and 1 cup cold tap water in a spray bottle, shake well, and apply to your produce. Rinse with tap water before cooking or serving. in a clean sink or bowl put 4 Tablespoon of salt, fill bowl with cold water & when salt has dissolved add juice of half of a large lemon [ or all of 1 smaller size] soak fruit or vegs for 20 min' then rinse REALLY well, berries need only 10 min' soak simply mix a few tablespoons of vinegar with the water in the spray bottle and you're in business for a whole lot less! I got these from thriftyfun.com

I think that if we really spent a lot of time and research, we could find that every single item that we consume is actually bad for us in one way form or fashion. So, I typically try to eat fruits and vegetables and just wash them off before I consume them. Even if it is something that I will be cooking, I still like to wash it. I have heard that some people go to the point of washing their meat as well. But I really don't feel comfortable doing that, although I have tried it. Plus, you are cooking it so in my opinion the heat cooks the germs out of it. Except for all of the hormones and stuff which are making people even bigger than they were in the past. I guess we just have to consume everything within reason. I am in complete agreement with the fact that organic foods just aren't affordable. If you could grow your own, or go to a local farm market that would be nice. But sometimes in life, that is just not an option. Good luck to you with your AHD, I hope you are able to figure out a way around it.

Things will be so poisoned it wont matter, the build up in water from all the run off pesticides will be toxic also. Most drinking water is becoming contaminated because of all the chemicals that end up in it from everything we use. Not to mention all the genetically modified foods we eat. A product of the society we live.

if i paid attention to what is good or not i would not eat. i wash my fruits and vegetables very well under the water. i think it is better to eat more fruits and veggies than other things. the farmer's market is a good place to buy fruits and veggies. they are from the farms and not too expensive. if there is a blueberry bush you know of you can pick them too

They use the pesticides to get higher yields. So many people have drawn straws at what causes these new found illnesses and pesticides on produce is one of them. Like you I can't afford to buy organic.... Can you imagine w/ 3 small kids who can wolf 2lbs of strawberries a day how expensive the would be?!?! So other than washing them it's the best you can do. Do you have a farmers market you could go to? They are very popular here. Otherwise if you have a neighbor who has a garden ask if you could contribute to the purchase of plants ect if they'd share the harvest?

when I did my own cooking I always washed my fruit and veggies very carefully and somtimes even a tiny pinch of dish soap on root stuff, just to get anything on skins off is the main thing and rinse several times too. I have never had any taste problems.

I try and buy organic, but I also am trying some veggie wash that my step-mother gave me, supposedly it removes a lot of the nasty stuff.

There is one thing I know that can be used to clean away pesticides and herbicides. It's salt. In your cooking, before you slice the vegetables, try wash them first with water containing significant amount of salt. The chemicals will be washed away.

I have not read that article yet, but I do always wash my fruits and vegetables. There are some that are more crucial than others as far as having pesticides on them. You may have some attention problems anyway right now as you are under a lot of stress. The pesticide use was heavier when you and I were younger, which is when it would have affected your brain development anyway. In the US they say to try to buy more US grown fruits and vegetables because we have tighter controls on the chemicals that are used on our plants.

That's too bad as I love strawberries. As far as other fruits and vegetables sometimes I have found organics comparable in price and sometimes even less at my local market. Also I don't know if where you live there are local farmers who sell stuff from roadside stands but a lot of times they don't use these toxins on their produce. You could always ask them and hopefully they will be honest.

Hi Suspenseful, I always wash fruit and veg under the tap first even if it is organic and am of the mind set that everything in moderation. I don't think I would eat if I avoided everything I read about that was harmful in some way. Mind you I guess that would solve weight problem lol Huggles Ellie :D

I'm afraid I don't do much of anything with my fruits and vegetables. I might rinse them if I see some dirt but that's about it. I'm very late getting my garden in this year because of all the frost and rain so I'll be buying from our local farm. Could you maybe get a group together and go to a farmer's market each week? I know it's terrible about pesticides on our stuff but if not for them a lot of our food would be eaten by bugs. And like you said, organic is sooo expensive!!

A minister in India when asked about pollution in agricultural food products said that 'even the a mother's milk is contaminated/polluted' and what can I do about it. Such is the situation we are in. Washing foods before use is a must and a minimum requirement.There are intrinsic or made part of pollutants or contaminants we can not easily eliminate. In this fast paced world even a farmer wants to produce things fast according to market demands..a la..following Darwinian survival of the fittest principle. To keep pace with these changes in addition to facing environmental pollution, we have to improve body immune system by making use more artificial/natural food supplements. So its a vicious cycle, we have to face it. or wait till it breaks on its own.

A lot of pesticides can be removed by using a small amount of dish detergent and washing the fruits or vegetables in this solution. Be sure to rinse well after washing. Don't wash all your produce at once, wait until you're ready to use it. Once you wash off the pesticides, the produce will tend to turn bad rather quickly. There are also commercial products available that are based on citric acid, these are formulated to remove most pesticides, but they really aren't necessary. As an alternative, you can fill a clean sink with cold water, add a little lemon juice a tablespoon of salt and soak the produce for 5 minutes. Again, rinse thoroughly after cleaning. Some produce, such as cucumbers, tomatoes, apples, etc. have a wax coating, these are more difficult to clean because the wax is difficult to disolve. There are products available to remove this wax coating, but it might be wiser and easier to peel these items.