Are You Eating Toxic Fruit and Vegetables?
Written by Jeff Behar, MS, MBA

As many Americans continue to increase their consumption of fruits and toxic fruit and vegetablesvegetables in their diet in an effort to increase their health, well being, lifespan and decrease their risk to diabetes, heart disease, cancer and other chronic conditions they may in fact be increasing their risk to several types of cancer.
Is the Public at Risk from Pesticide Use?

There has been much publicity about the importance of increasing the amount of fruit and vegetables in the diet. A day doesn’t go by where there isn’t a new article or press release about a study of the positive effects of increasing the amount of fruit and vegetables in the diet.

Many health organizations, such as the American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, and the American Diabetes Association all recommend eating lots of vegetables and fruits. As this healthy push towards increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables and decreasing consumption of refined and processed foods there is a growing concern about regarding low level pesticide exposure from chemical residues left on produce.
The Use of Pesticides on Fruit and Vegetables

Over the last 60 years farmers and growers have changed the way they produce food in order to meet the expectations of governments, consumers, and other buyers. In doing so they have made many changes to the way they farm. This often includes the use of pesticides to:

Protect crops from insect pests, weeds and fungal diseases while they are growing
Safeguard human health, by stopping food crops being contaminated by fungi
Prevent rats, mice, flies and other insects from contaminating foods while they are being transported and stored

Although pesticides can be very beneficial in that they are used to kill unwanted pests, weeds and molds, they can also harm people, wildlife and our environment. There are still pesticides and herbicides used that do not actively decay and accumulate in our soils, and also bio accumulate in our bodies. This can cause irreversible and potentially fatal consequences.

Bio accumulation is the process by which the concentrations of some toxic chemicals gradually increase in living tissue, such as in plants, fish, or people as they breathe contaminated air, drink contaminated water, or eat contaminated food.

Pesticides are used for a variety of reasons. Primary reasons include:

To protect Crops and increase yields. Much of the world’s food production is lost to attack from pest and diseases, in the field, at harvest and in storage. Crop protection decreases spoilage, which lowers price and increases availability. Crop protection products have also enabled food production to keep pace with the world population.

Meet consumers’ expectations. Consumers expect attractive, high quality, nutritious, safe, reasonably priced food, pest free, toxin free with minimum waste and microbial contamination. If a significant amount of produce was to be lost to pest damage, the price per unit of marketable produce would rise substantially.

Pesticide Use a Growing Health Concern

While pesticides have important uses, studies show that some pesticides cause health problems at certain levels of exposure.

Improper pesticide use has been found to cause various forms of cancer, birth defects, miscarriages, sterility, and deaths. The EPA ranks pesticide residues as one of the leading health problems in the US. A significant amount of produce in US groceries is imported. Of this produce a significant portion comes from countries using large amounts of pesticides and herbicides during the farming practices.

A study conducted by the National Academy of Scientists estimates that in the next 70 years, one million additional cases of cancer in the US will be caused by pest residues.
How Pesticide Use Threatens Consumers

Pesticide toxicity threatens US consumers in the "circle of poison" effect in which unregistered or banned pesticides are exported to other countries such as Mexico and sprayed on crops whose produce is then exported back to the US. Mexico has increased its reliance on pesticide imports and is currently the second largest pesticide importer in Latin America.
New Zealand pesticide use has also continued to increase with New Zealand continuing to rely heavily on pesticide use in its farming practices (source: Trends in Pesticide Use in New Zealand: 2004). Additionally many European countries also export banned pesticides to many nations that export produce to the US and find their way to US grocery stores and subsequently into US homes for consumption.

Homegrown fruits and vegetables may not be much better. A report card for pesticide regulation issued by Consumers Union in 2001 gave the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency a grade of D for reducing dietary risks associated with pesticide residues on foods grown in the U.S., citing "slow progress, and much of the task incomplete."

USA Standards for Pesticides on Food

To protect your health, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sets standards on the amount of pesticides that may remain on food, if pesticides are applied.
Food Testing Deemed Spotty at Best

Currently, US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA is responsible for protecting the public health by assuring the safety, efficacy, and security of our nation’s food supply. The FDA is responsible for testing food quality, including food imported to the United States.

FDA tests on imported foods reveal that contamination by illegal pesticides account for only five percent of imports (other independent testing suggest contamination rates slightly higher); however, contamination rates are higher for imported carrots, pineapples, rice, peas and pears (Allen, May 28, 1991). Of important note however, is the FDA is understaffed and only tests one or two percent of imports while the rest wind up in US grocery stores!!!

Note: Since 1987, annual reports have been prepared to summarize results of the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) pesticide residue monitoring program. Reports from Fiscal Years (FYs) 1987 to 1993 were published in the Journal of the Association of Official Analytical Chemists/Journal of AOAC International. FY1993 and FY1994 reports were published in the journal and also made available on the World Wide Web. Reports for FYs 1995-2002 are available only online.

Each report is available in the format(s) used at the time they were written. Also available: databases of monitoring results, FY1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003. Although according to the FDA results in these reports demonstrate that levels of pesticide residues in the U.S. food supply are well below established safety standards, there are other studies that would challenge these conclusions and many other scientist that would state that additional studies should be done to ascertain the long term effect of low level pesticide exposure on human health. Source: http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/pesrpts.html
Strategies to Reduce Pesticide Exposure

Here are some strategies you can employ to reduce you and your family’s potential exposure to toxic pesticide contamination from food sources.

Buy organic. A recent study at the University of Washington found that children who ate mostly organically grown fruits and vegetables had only one-sixth the amount of pesticide by-products in their urine as compared to children who ate conventionally grown foods. If cost is an issue, as a minimum, consider buying organic varieties of just the foods that have been shown to be more likely to have high levels of chemical residues, such as peaches, apples, pears, winter squash, green beans, grapes, strawberries, raspberries, spinach, and potatoes.
Avoid imported produce from areas known to have high levels of chemical residue. As a minimum, consider especially avoiding tomatoes, strawberries, and spinach from Mexico), peaches, pears, and grapes from Chile, fruits and vegetables especially apples from New Zealand.
Peel produce that is likely to have high levels of pesticide residue. The pesticide DDT, banned in the U.S. in 1973, has been found in the skins of root vegetables grown more than 20 years later.
Always wash (and peel, where possible) fruits and vegetables. Soaking is fine to loosen dirt and debris, but studies have shown that running water is the most effective means of physically removing pesticide residues as well as dirt and bacteria. Note: washing with commercial produce washes were shown in one study to be only slightly more effective than plain running water in removing residues and may not be worth the extra money.
Throw out the outer leaves of leafy vegetables. The outer leaves of leafy vegetables will contain the highest amounts of toxins if they have been applied to the vegetables.
Eat a variety of fruits and vegetables. If your produce isn’t organically grown, eating a mix of foods from a variety of sources can minimize your risk of ingesting too much of any one pesticide.

Bottom Line on Healthy Eating and Pesticide Use

Despite the potential health risks of pesticide residues, current science indicates the health advantages of eating plenty of fruits and vegetables are greater.

So load up on fruits and vegetables to protect your health.

At the same time, minimize your exposure to unwanted contaminants by choosing your foods wisely and taking some simple steps to prepare them.