Pesticides

M8.3: Pesticides

 Last night I had Steak and fingerling potatoes with a kale, apple, scallion salad. According the What's on my Food website, the breakdown of pesticides per-food is as follows: 

  1. Fingerling Potatoes (health effects: carcinogen, hormone disruptor, neurotoxin)
    1. Chlorpropham (found at 80.2%)
    2. Imidacloprid (found at 25.5%)
    3. Flutolanil (found at 11.1%)
    4. Variety of a total of 35 pesticides, most found at lower levels
  2. Kale (health effects: carcinogen, hormone disruptor, neurotoxin, reproductive toxin)
    1. DCPA (found at 53.1%)
    2. Imidacloprid (found at 30.3%)
    3. DDE p,p' (27.2%)
    4. Variety of a total of 35 pesticides, most found at lower levels
  3. Apple (health effects: carcinogen, hormone disruptor, reproductive toxin)
    1. Diphenylamine (DPA) (found at 82.8%)
    2. Thiabendazole (found at 81%)
    3. Pyrimethanil (found at 75.2%)
    4. Variety of a total of 47 pesticides, most found at lower levels

I find it not surprising knowing that there are chemicals on my food, I grew up in a semi-conscious house that taught me to wash all raw fruit and vegtables before I eat them, not eat raw cookie dough b/c of the raw eggs in them, and always cook my meat completely through. So I always new that there was some element of personal protection that was needed within the kitchen when buying from a super market. But I am surprised about the sheer number of pesticides and the odds of them being on literally everything. So now the question is not if the pesticides are there or not, but how many of them are there? 

The dinner that I made was made with organic produce delivered by Imperfect Produce which provides organic vegetables to its subscribers that would have otherwise been thrown away because they are "imperfect" in some way to sell at the store (usually it just means that they are too big or something). This is a convenient option for me and also takes the thinking out of the equation when looking at health benefits and risks of shopping at the grocery store. However, I am learned in this area and regular shopping, whether that is at Walmart or Whole Foods can be incredibly challenging with limited warning about the food safety needed to be completed to eat the produce consumed. Which is scary now, in seeing the after effects of this issue, which is all of us were probably born with pesticides in our blood, will live out the rest of our lives with pesticides, potentially pass pesticides down to our children, and eventually dies with pesticides in our blood. 

Comments

  1. Aubrey MatthewsOctober 25, 2019 at 9:59 AM

    I was taught the same as a child I don't why as an adult I have got away from washing my fruits and veggies before use which is terrible. Washing them in cold water removes 70-80 percent of pesticide residue. I usually only eat peeled fruits like grapefruits, oranges, and watermelon. I eat a lot of spinach so I should be washing the leaves even though on the packaging it says triple washed.

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