The jury is still out on the health benefits of organic foods. There may not be much of a different nutrient-wise between organic and conventionally grown produce, but there are plenty of ethical and environmental reasons to choose organically grown produce. Organic produce can be more expensive than it’s conventionally grown counterparts. Thankfully, you may not need to buy everything organic.
Check out the Environmental Working Group’s round up of the best fruits and vegetables to buy organic. They deem these crops to be the “Dirty Dozen”, as they are most likely to be contaminated with inorganic pesticides and probably worth the extra money. They include:
- apples
- peaches
- nectarines
- strawberries
- grapes
- celery
- spinach
- sweet bell peppers
- cucumbers
- cherry tomatoes
- imported snap peas
- potatoes.
They also include hot peppers as well as kale and collard greens as part of their list.
On the flip side, they have a list of the produce least likely to be contaminated entitled the “Clean Fifteen”. These fruits and vegetables are typically safe to buy as a conventionally grown crop and do not need to be purchased as organic, so save your money! The Clean Fifteen include:
- avocados
- sweet corn
- pineapples
- cabbage
- sweet peas (frozen)
- onions
- asparagus
- mangos
- papayas
- kiwi
- eggplant
- grapefruit
- cantaloupe
- cauliflower
- sweet potatoes.
For further information on how the EWG came to their conclusions, read the report summary.
