How To Make Your Produce Safer To Eat
If organic foods are too expensive for your pocketbook, then you can still do something to get rid of some of the pesticides that your fruit and vegetables have on them.
I read that you should try and buy locally grown produce that is in season. Anything grown on small nearby farms is less likely to be treated with pesticide waxes that are used to inhibit fungus growth on produce that's shipped long distances. So even if other pesticides are used in growing the produce, that is one pesticide that you don't need to worry about.
One article tell us to wash fruits and vegetables with soap and warm water and to peel them when possible. One study found that washing produce with a mix of water and mild dishwashing detergent or even bleach and then peeling the skins or the outer leaves of lettuce and cabbage, eliminated pesticide residues in 21% of fruits and vegetables.
When you peel bananas, carrots, and potatoes all the pesticides on the outside are removed. Corn also had no residues after it was shucked.
But then many people told me that all the vitamins are found right under the skin of fruits and vegetables and if we peel them we are losing important nutrition. I guess you will need to decide which is more important to you, more nutrients or less pesticides. By peeling, at least some of the unwanted poisons on some of the foods will be eliminated this way.
But as I read more, I got information from another site that said that we shouldn't use soap to wash food off. They say it can make us sick. I don't want to do something that will taint my foods even more than if I did nothing. That article suggests that we just use warm water to wash the foods off.
I personally don't think warm clean water will get oil based pesticides off the foods. So I went looking for a safe soap to use to wash my fruits and vegetables off.
I found Vermont Soap Organics Fruit & Veggie Wash. It's supposed to be safe to eat and will make foods taste better. All I care about is that the soap will wash off and that I am not making myself sicker if I use this soap.
I checked to see what the ingredients are and this is what came up:
- Fruit and Vegetable Cleaner:
Organic Oils of Coconut, Olive and Jojoba, Natural Citrus Essential Oil Blend with Organic Orange Oil, Organic Aloe Vera, Rosemary Extract. If you use a wash that is great and you adore it, please tell us about it.
It sounds safe enough. I'll order this soap and will peel and wash my fruits and veggies and will scrub what I can off with warm water until it comes in.
It might be extra work, but at least this way we have some options about what unwanted extras we take in with our foods.
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