Successful weight loss equals eating more fruits and vegetables, but with that often comes concerns about the pesticide content of some of those fruits and vegetables that even thorough washing won’t remove completely.

It makes me feel like I’m trading one bad thing for another (being overweight and the health risks that come with it or literally eating toxins in the form of the pesticide residue).

While I’d like to buy organic fruits and vegetables all the time, it can get really expensive. Where I live organic costs 2-3 times as much as conventional fruits and vegetables which really puts a strain on my grocery budget.

So to strike a balance between avoiding pesticides and keeping my grocery budget under control, I use the Environmental Working Group’s list of the “dirty dozen fruits & vegetables.” The dirty dozen are the ones I try to buy organic, grow myself (I’m lucky enough to have a garden) or buy from local growers at a farmers market where many growers follow organic growing practices and avoid pesticide use but haven’t gone through the process and expense of obtaining “certified organic” status.

Here’s the list:

Dirty Dozen Fruits and Vegetables:
PEACHES
APPLES
SWEET BELL PEPPERS
CELERY
NECTARINES
STRAWBERRIES
CHERRIES
SPINACH
LETTUCE
GRAPES (imported)
CARROTS
PEARS

If you have an iPhone there’s an app available to download so you’ll always have easy access to the list. Download it by clicking here. The same link will also give you access to a pdf version to download and print if you don’t have an iPhone.

If you get to the store and don’t have the list or can’t remember what’s on it, but want to steer clear of the produce items that are likely to have the highest levels of pesticide content, think about the skin. Thinner skinned fruits and vegetables absorb more pesticides and contaminants so if it’s thin skinned produce or produce where you eat the whole thing, such as lettuce, head to the organic section.

Thick skinned fruits, bananas or grapefruit for example, may have as much pesticide residue as apples, but who eats banana peels and grapefruit rinds? Those are 2 produce items that I don’t bother buying organic. I could be full of “phooey” but I feel safe with thinking I’m throwing the most contaminated part of it in the trash.

But no matter what fruit or vegetable you buy ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS wash it before using it even if the skin is going to end up in the trash.

Here’s a true example of why: A lady in the small community I live in was recently hospitalized. She got swollen and was really sick but at first the doctors couldn’t figure out the cause. They finally pinpointed it to cantelope she had eaten. The outside rind was contaminated and while she didn’t eat the rind she also didn’t wash it before cutting it open, so contaminants on the outside got on the fruit she ate via the knife she used to cut it.

So ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS wash produce before using it, even organic.