Pesticides in Produce Push Protective Parameters
October 30th, 2009 Posted in Green Living & News
So you like your fruit, so do I. I usually try to grab an apple every night as my pre-bed snack.
But what is that doing to me? Is eating too much of a good thing a bad thing?
I’m talking, of course, about pesticides on my produce.
Environmental groups studying produce have found that some foods can have up to 9 pesticides in a single serving. And some are more pesticide-filled than others.
The items with the top pesticide numbers are referred to as the “Dirty Dozen,” and include popular produce like carrots, cherries, and number 1 peaches.
Shockingly, these results are after the fruits have been pealed and washed.
On a happier note, foods like onions, avocados, and frozen corn contain the least pesticides per serving.
But what can that mean for health? As a kid, I never ate much fruit, with the exception being the occasional orange (ranked 23rd of the 47 tested). And that could have been a good thing.
Pesticides can cause several problems in youth, including learning disabilities and issues with asthma.
An estimated 5 to 10 percent of students in schools suffer from a learning disability, and studies show that certain pesticides can cause these disabilities if consumed during late stages pregnancy.’
Asthma has become the most common disease among children, and research has showed that exposure to herbicides and pesticides can lead to increased likelihood of an early-onset form of asthma.
So our food supply isn’t the safest, and research on the long-term affects of new pesticides takes time, usually more time than it takes for the pesticides to hit the markets, and eventually our food. Meanwhile, we continue to consume pesticide-filled produce. Why farmers haven’t made the move to natural insecticides is beyond me. We could save ourselves a lot of headache and heartache by switching to insecticides that use natural ingredients like cinnamon oil instead of chemicals.
1 Comment | The First 1,000 to Comment (Starting 12/21/2009) Will Become EcoSMART Product Testers!
By Justin Weaver on Nov 3, 2009
Thank you for publishing this. My son is allergic to pesticides and believe it or not a lot of people seem to think that pesticides will not harm them. Well I beg to differ. I went to a local super market(name will not be disclosed) and purchased fresh fruits from the produce section. Well later that day my son wanted to eat one of the peaches I had bought as a snack. Now let me clarify, my son is not allergic to peaches or any other fruits and has never had a problem eating them before. Well after eating the peach about an hour to two hours later, my son became very sick. He was very nauseated and throwing up. He skin became very red and almost looked like it was swollen with red blotches all over his skin. This worried very much so I took him to our local hospital. They did urine test and blood test. I told them that the only thing he had eaten recently was that apple. Well, they got the test results back and found that he tested positive for pesticides in his urine and blood. They told me that he must of had an allergic reaction because this usually doesn’t happen to most people. I was so in shock that something like this could even happen. I was also very angry with that super market. It was almost like a bad nightmare. This couldn’t be happening to me and especially to my son. Well they made him drink something to counter act the pesticides and kept him in the hospital for a couple of days for observation and to make sure he was going to be okay. While I was at the hospital with my son I decided to call that super market and let them know what had happened. I felt that someone needed to say something especially before this happened again to someone who may not be as lucky. So to all those out there reading my post. Please be very careful on the fruits and vegetables that you buy and very weary on where you buy them from. You never think something like this will ever happen until it happens to you, especially when you trust this big super markets to help look after your well being as well as the FDA. I just hope that this post will not only help others but also warn people that this stuff does happen. Thank you EcoSmart for making great products that are safe to use around your whole family. I just wish other companies would use your products instead of the highly toxic products they are currently using.