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Can washing fruits and veggies rid them of pesticides?

Written By: text_none_author Published In: ROOT Created Date: 2016-01-22 Hits: 1353 Comment: 0

While organically grown fruits and vegetables have become the talk of the town and are growing more and more popular as a health choice, but when it’s either too expensive or too hard to find the usual easily found fruits and vegetables find their way into the kitchens and onto the dining tables.

Now we know that these are filled with pesticides and chemicals, but does washing them really do the job? Sadly, the disappointing news is that the diligent washing doesn’t do the job and detoxify the dinner.

The washing is helpful and may reduce the pesticide levels but certain vegetables are coated with substances like wax to enhance their shelf life which results in the layer serving as a trap for the poisonous substances. Others have a soft waxy skin that helps keep the chemicals on the fruit/vegetable even after you’ve washed them. Funny how nature works, isn’t it?

The amount of different pesticides that are found on different fruits and vegetables vary from one to another. There’s even a list of the ones that have the most pesticide with the one topping the list having the most amount of pesticides and the second one having the second most. These are called the ‘Dirty Dozen Plus’. Check this out,

  • Apples

  • Strawberries

  • Grapes

  • Celery

  • Peaches

  • Spinach

  • Sweet bell peppers

  • Nectarines-imported

  • Cucumbers

  • Cherry tomatoes

  • Snap peas—imported

  • Potatoes

Surprising how all of these are so common in their diets? They even had 2 more additions in the list –

  • Leafy greens, such as kale and collard greens

  • Hot peppers

Now on the contrary, we have the clean 15 which are the least polluted. –

  • Avocados

  • Sweet Corn

  • Pineapple

  • Cabbage

  • Sweet Peas — Frozen

  • Onions

  • Asparagus

  • Mangoes

  • Papayas

  • Kiwi

  • Eggplant

  • Grapefruit

  • Cantaloupe

  • Cauliflower

  • Sweet Potatoes

These are the ones that have the least remaining residue on them, good to know that they’re just as common isn’t it?

There are ways to ensure that the damned pesticides don’t make their way on to the dinner table, here are a few hacks on how to do it!

The mighty Vinegar soak! – Create a solution with 10 percent white vinegar and 90 percent water and soak your veggies and fruits in them. Stir them around and rinse thoroughly. Does the trick.

Blanch and Peel – Blanching them in warm water for a short time and or removing the peels does the trick in most cases as well.

Eat healthy!