List of Organic Food to buy

Comments : Too expensive to go fully organic, here's a list of foods you should buy if you can't go fully organic

10 Produce to Buy Organic

Studies based on 1999 studies by Consumers Union (CU)and the Environmental Working Group (EWG)

The two groups analyzed the amounts and toxicity of pesticide residues found in conventionally grown food samples by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. While most of these foods don’t exceed safety tolerances for a dose of a single pesticide, most contain multiple pesticide residues. CU and EWG have also considered combined exposures and risks to children. One-year-olds eat three times as many fresh peaches, per pound of body weight, as do adults, and more than four times as many apples and pears, according to CU’s Consumer Reports. In addition, children’s rapidly developing bodies are more vulnerable than adults’ are. Pregnant women should take care, too, as many pesticides cross the placenta to expose the fetus. Although DDT and related chemicals such as dieldrin have been banned in the U.S. for over 20 years, these pesticides can still be found in foods that absorb them from the soil. To reduce your pesticide exposure, you can peel fruit that you would normally just rinse, such as apples and pears. Some pesticides, like dieldrin, aldicarb and DDT, however, are systemic, pervading the flesh of the vegetable or fruit.

10 Fruits And Vegetables To Buy Organic

Peaches
Summer’s blushing fruit contains high residues of iprodione, classified as a probable human carcinogen by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and methyl parathion, an endocrine disruptor and organophosphate (OP) insecticide. Methyl parathion has caused massive kills of bees and birds. According to Consumer Reports, single servings of peaches "consistently exceeded" EPA’s safe daily limit for a 44-pound child.

Apples
Apples may contain methyl parathion. Both fresh apples and baby food applesauce can also contain chlorpyrifos, an OP which has caused large bird kills. CORE Values IPM apple growers are trying to phase out OPs.

Pears
Pears, both fresh and in baby food, can also come with methyl parathion, as well as the OP azinphos-methyl, which is toxic to freshwater fish, amphibians and bees.

Winter Squash
Dieldrin, a chlorinated, carcinogenic insecticide, exceeded the safe daily limit for a young child in two-thirds of positive samples. Another potent carcinogen, heptachlor, also showed up. DDT and its breakdown product, DDE, were detected in baby food squash.

Green Beans
Green Beans can contain acephate, methamidophos and dimethoate (three neurotoxic OPs), and endosulfan, an endocrine-disrupting insecticide, which showed up in baby food, too. Acephate disorients migrating birds, throwing them off course.

Grapes
U.S. grapes contain methyl parathion and methomyl, a carbamate insecticide listed as an endocrine disruptor; imports may contain dimethoate.

Strawberries
The enhanced red color of strawberries comes from the fungicide captan, a probable human carcinogen that can irritate skin and eyes, and is highly toxic to fish. While the lethal soil fumigant methyl bromide doesn’t show up on the fruit, it has harmed California farm workers, and depletes the ozone layer.

Raspberries
These berries can contain captan, iprodione and carbaryl, a suspected endocrine disruptor that has also been found in plum baby food

Spinach
Permethrin, a possible human carcinogen, and dimethoate dominate spinach’s toxicity ratings, but CU notes that residue levels have been declining as U.S. farmers reduce use of these insecticides. DDT has been found in spinach, which leads all foods in exceeding safety tolerances.

Potatoes
Pesticide use on potatoes is growing, CU warns. They may contain dieldrin and methamidophos, and children eating potatoes risk getting a very high dose of aldicarb, CU says.

Note: In an update to its 1999 report, Consumers Union announced two more foods high in chlorpyrifos or other pesticide residues: tomatoes and cantaloupe.