Popeye had the right idea. He ate all the spinach he wanted, and stayed strong and slim—if you ignore those oversized forearms. His spinach solution formula of one can a day was pretty easy to follow (if not especially tasty), but recent studies find that he may have just been lucky.
Examining a series of fruits and vegetables, the Environmental Working Group determined that spinach is the No. 1 vegetable that consumers should buy organic. So, while Popeye was battling Brutus, he may have, at the same time, been damaging his sperm count and feeding the beginnings of a whopping case of colon cancer.
OK, most people don't swallow a can of spinach a day, or have two whopping spinach salads every day, like, oh, me, for example, so the risk for some may be less than others. I think I'll start paying the extra money for organic spinach, but do you need to?
Well, according to the EWG, conventionally grown spinach can contain permethrins, which are carcinogenic and interfere with hormones. So much for Eat All Your Vegetables.
That isn't to say that the spinach you buy in the grocery is contaminated with pesticides. Just that it could be. It's all luck of the draw, and may not remain consistent from visit to visit, depending on suppliers, weather conditions, and so on. There's really no way to know if the produce you just brought home is coated with pesticides, other than testing your spinach every time you buy it at the supermarket. And while the inventor of a home testing kit is sure to make bundles of money, that person has yet to come forward.
In the meantime, other conventionally grown veggies you might choose to avoid are bell peppers, celery, potatoes, and hot peppers. Along with spinach, these are the top five most risky vegetables. Peppers alone can be covered with chemicals like carbaryl and chlorpyrifos, which can be carcinogenic, cause birth defects, damage the reproductive system, interfere with hormones, damage the brain and nervous system, and hurt the immune system.
While some pesticides have more than one known or suspected health effect, others have been proven completely safe—so far. And, don't think just because you avoid salads and brocolli, that you're suddenly the shining star of health. Besides filling up on fatty fast foods and cholesterol-laden packaged goods in place of veggies, even that piece of fruit you pick up could be covered in just as many pesticides as the vegetables.
A strawberry can have the same carbaryl that proved so threatening on your pepper, while a banana may contain thiabendazole, which only causes birth defects and damages the immune system. Yes, even after peeling.
The fruits with the heaviest loads of pesticides in ascending order from least chemical laden to most are: imported grapes, red raspberries, cherries, pears, nectarines, strawberries, apples, and those deadly peaches, which should perhaps come with a warning label.
How much and how often you eat produce may play a factor in whether you should move over to organic, but studies examining these effects are still underway. Surely, however, I'd better plan on shelling out more at the grocery for all the produce I currently consume.
Over the past five years, the EPA has regulated a number of pesticides to eliminate residues in food to protect children. Perhaps because of the EPA's practices, the FDA recently stated that it intends to tighten up the widespread use of antibiotics in farm animals, so that the efficacy of these drugs for medicinal purposes in humans is not diminished. Significantly, many of the larger fast-food chains have voluntarily taken steps to lessen the amount of antibiotics in the meat they buy. And, any time large corporations like these voluntarily take these steps, you have to wonder about the dangers and the lawsuits they face further down the road.
Many Chicago restaurants currently boast all-organic produce, but these are still the exceptions, and usually remain in the upper brackets of options around town. In other words, that salad you get at Mc Donald's made with useless head lettuce, trans-fatty-acid-laden cheese, high-fat-and-cholesterol dressing and nitrate-drenched bacon bits has the added bonus of free o-Phenylphonol (tomatoes), endosulfans (cucumbers, peppers, and spinach), and trifluralin (carrots).
Small farms remain the main source for organic produce, according to the USDA. Almost none of these organic farms grow subsidized crops, at a time when a large portion of the share of U.S. net farm income derives from the payment of taxes in subsidy payments of some kind. Plus, organic farming is cleaner for the environment, doesn't create new strains of superbugs that are resistant to more and more agents, and won't harm drinking water.
Currently, the United States spends billions each year on necessary agriculture research, but only a small fraction of that has gone for studies specifically examining organic farming. Perhaps when the market share of organic produce (currently only at about one percent of the nation's food production) grows, more efforts and funding will go towards this practice.
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