Are you rich? If you are, then congratulations and if you are not, you are not alone because neither am I. Rich folks, I recommned that you buy organic food all the time. Let's stop arguing about it and stop pretending that in a perfect world we wouldn't all be eating organic foods because we would. Until the world is a bit more perfect, the rest of us will have to pick and choose when to go organic.
Don't worry, there is an easy way for us to decide when to shell out the extra money for organic produce thanks to the efforts of the Environmental Working Group. On Tuesday, they released their annual Shopper's Guide to Pesticides and you might just want to print out a list of the dirty dozen or as I like to call it the dirty dozen plus one, because I'm going to give you 13 produce items you should buy organic whenever possible. I'll also give you a list of the clean fifteen, or the cleanest non-organic produce with the least amount of pesticides in them.
Read more ¿Qué más?: The 10 GROSSEST stuff people have found in food
Alrighty, here is the dirty dozen + 1:
1. Apples
2. Strawberries
3. Grapes
4. Celery
5. Peaches
6. Spinach
7. Sweet bell peppers
8. Nectarines (Imported)
9. Cucumbers
10. Cherry tomatoes
11. Snap peas (Imported)
12. Potatoes
13. Hot peppers (Do you see why I had to include #13? Chiles!!!)
Now, let's look at the clean fifteen, which are conventionally grown fresh produce items that have the least amount of pesticides in them:
1. Avocados (Thank goodness because they are expensive enough!)
2. Sweet Corn
3. Pineapples
4. Cabbage
5. Sweet peas (Frozen)
6. Onions
7. Asparagus
8. Mangos
9. Papayas
10. Kiwi
11. Papaya
12. Eggplant
13. Grapefruit
14. Cantaloupe
15. Cauliflower
I'm serious, it wouldn't be a bad idea to keep a list of these items on you whenever you go grocery shopping that way you can make an informed decision about when you really should go for organic and when your family can afford not to.
Image via Corbis Images
