Daily wellness tip: When to buy organic

Chicago Tribune.com, Julie Deardorff
Published September 17, 2007

Buying organic can be expensive, but it's possible to stretch your food dollar by knowing which fruits and vegetables are most commonly and highly contaminated with pesticides and chemicals, even after washing and peeling. Here are the "dirty dozen" or the ones that should induce "panic if it ain't organic," according to Renee Loux, author of "The Balanced Plate" (Rodale, $22.95). 1. Meat: beef, pork and poultry: Meat has higher levels of pesticides than any plant food, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, Loux writes. 2. Dairy: milk, cheese and butter. "Animals concentrate pesticides and chemicals in their milk and meat." 3. Strawberries, raspberries, and cherries. Thirty-six different pesticides are used on strawberries. Raspberries (39 chemicals) and cherries (25 chemicals) also have high residue levels. 4. Apples and pears. Apples (36 chemicals) have a high rate of pesticide residue (91 percent). Peeling helps but doesn’t eliminate the danger. Pears (35 pesticides) have a 94 percent contamination rate. 5. Tomatoes. (More than 30 pesticides). Peeling won’t help because the thin skin doesn't stop chemicals from infiltrating the whole tomato. 6. Potatoes. (29 commonly used pesticides) 7. Spinach and other greens, including lettuce. Eighty-three percent of conventionally grown spinach tested was found contaminated with dangerous levels of the 36 chemicals used to grow it, Loux wrote. 8. Coffee. Loux recommends purchasing Fair Trade coffee. 9. Peaches and nectarines, which have thin skins, get 45 different pesticides 10. Grapes (35 pesticides). 11. Celery (29 pesticides). 12. Bell peppers (red and green). One of the most heavily sprayed foods, with standard use of 39 pesticides. So what conventional food can you buy? The advocacy group The Environmental Working Group named onions, avocados, and sweet corn to their Consistently Clean list. For all three foods, more than 90 percent of the samples tested had no detectable pesticide residues. Others on the Consistently Clean list include pineapples, mango, asparagus, sweet peas, kiwi, bananas, cabbage, broccoli, and papaya. Here's the EWG's ranking of the most contaminated fruits and vegetables: RANK FRUIT OR VEGGIE SCORE 1. (worst) Peaches 100 (highest pesticide load) 2. Apples 96 3. Sweet Bell Peppers 86 4. Celery 85 5. Nectarines 84 6. Strawberries 83 7. Cherries 75 8. Lettuce 69 9. Grapes - Imported 68 10. Pears 65 11. Spinach 60 12. Potatoes 58 Click here to read this post.