Clean Fifteen and Dirty Dozen: 2010 edition just released

Have you heard of the Clean 15 and Dirty Dozen list?  

When I first began to "get serious" about purchasing more organic foods, this was a resource I relied heavily on.  I was not ready to buy everything organic (I still don't, for the record), but I knew that some foods were probably worse than others in terms of pesticide contamination.  I did not have time to research each food individually though. 

Enter the Environmental Work Group (EWG).  They have a shoppers guide to the 15 least-contaminated fruits and veggies as well as the 12 most-contaminated.  I just received an email from EWG that the 2010 version has been released!  

There is also a three minute video that answers a few questions like "Why have such a list?", "Will following these guidlelines make a difference?", and "What is the best way to use this?"  Head over to the EWG's website and download your own copy of the list and watch the video. 

Of course this does not mean that the "clean 15" should never be purchased as organics, but if organic is not an option for whatever reason, these are the ones to cause you least amount of worry!  You may want to reconsider buying non-organic versions of the ones on the "dirty dozen" list though as they tend to carry the largest amount of pesticides with them to your body.

I would love to hear if there were any foods that surprised you one way or  the other. 

I will say that I was surprised by potatoes.  I guess I assumed that foods grown underground are somehow less susceptible to pesticide absorption than those grown above ground, but when I stop and think for a minute that doesn't really make sense!  Those plants still have to absorb nutrients and water, so that does not automatically cut out absorption of pesticides!