See Entire May 14, 2010 Newsletter

In keeping with my merry month of May theme of REDUCE as the first “R” – I invite you to consider reducing the amount of pesticides you eat on a daily basis. OMG – researchers of all kinds have been busy testing what we eat – especially in the fruit and vegetable department.

The good news? The Environmental Working Group developed a guide which analyzed data collected from nearly 96,000 tests for pesticide residues in produce between 2000 and 2008. (Hope that’s long enough for you long fact finders!) The information was collected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture AND the U.S Food and Drug Administration. You can read more by visiting www.foodnews.org.

So about that good news…Here is a list of the “clean” 15 – those which tested lowest in pesticides (in order): onions, avocado, sweet corn, pineapple, mangos, sweet peas, asparagus, kiwi, cabbage, eggplant, cantaloupe, watermelon, grapefruit, sweet potato, honeydew, and melon!

The bad news might actually make you sick if you really think about it so don’t – just buy organic. The “dirty dozen” (and I mean DIRTY): celery, peaches, strawberries, apples, blueberries, nectarines, bell peppers, spinach, kale (will never pass through my lips anyway), cherries, POTATOES, grapes (imported).

Note about celery from The Daily Green: A perennial entrant on the Dirty Dozen list, 64 pesticides detected in residue on this veggie make celery rank No. 1 in the 2010 analysis, up from No. 4 in 2009.

Sick yet? Read on about peaches: Peaches, No. 1 on the Dirty Dozen list in 2009, rank No. 2 in 2010; 62 pesticides have been detected in residue on peaches. Read more

So why, might you ask, do you think cancer rates are on the rise?

Mrs. Green on YouTube
Have I mentioned lately that being Mrs. Green is fun? I invite you to take a look at just how much fun I am having on this journey by visiting Mrs. Green’s World and clicking on WATCH: YouTube videos. Most popular? Mrs. Green and the High Efficiency Toilet. The toilet obsession continues….