Arsenic with that Apple? The Pesticide Problem

Simply put, pesticides are poison. They are meant to kill things. And they're in your food.

The chemical beginnings of pesticides came after World War II when the United States and thousands of pounds of leftover arsenic and hydrogen cyanide. Not kidding. The stuff used to kill our enemies in World War II was modified to be applied to our food. Did they kill things? Yes, they were proven to kill humans, why not anything else? Luckily, eventually these chemicals were considered too toxic (YOU THINK?!) and abandoned.

But that's not to say the second generation of pesticides are any healthier. The second generation of pesticides were synthetic. The most popular of which was DDT. It first was discovered in 1939 by the Swiss chemist Paul Muller and was originally used to delouse soldiers during World War II. Later, it became so good at killing things and boosting crop yields that Muller was awarded the 1948 Nobel Prize for its discovery.

In 1962, DDT lost its status as golden child of agriculture. That was the year Rachel Carson's book, Silent Spring, was published issuing grave warnings about the use of pesticides, including DDT. DDT was found to be accumulating in unintended places, like in water, soil and the fatty tissues of bids, fish and other wildlife. And repeated exposure has been shown to be toxic to mammals' reproductive, cellular and nervous systems. In 1972, the United States revoked the registration of DDT, meaning it could not be used on crops in this country. Less developed countries do still use DDT because of its cheapness and high effectiveness.

In the United States today, though we do not use DDT, we still use thousand of pounds of chemicals on our conventional produce to make it "better." And though there hasn't been another Silent Spring to begin a public outcry, that doesn't mean there aren't ill effects of the chemicals sprayed on our foods today.

I want you to meet Carlitos (that's him at the top of this post). Carlitos is a baby born to a family of farm workers in Florida. Carlitos has no arms, nor legs. He's like a little sack of flour with a head on top. He's a happy baby, smiles a lot, but he's not a starfish — he won't grow back his limbs. How did Carlitos end up this way? His parents suffered pesticide exposure in the fields in which they worked in Florida. For more about Carlitos, check out this great work by The Palm Beach Post.

Now, most people in the United States today won't get the level of pesticide exposure of Carlitos' parents. But that doesn't mean we should allow ourselves to be exposed to any level of them. You cannot fully rid yourself of pesticides in your food simply by washing it. Pesticides are sprayed on your fruits and vegetables with abandon from the earliest stages, meaning the produce has most likely absorbed chemicals you can't wash off.

This is why it's imperative to buy organic whenever possible. Organic produce in this country has grown by leaps and bounds and is available almost everywhere. Yes, it is more expensive than conventional produce. Yes, the apples and oranges may look smaller. This is because we're so used to the gigantic fruits and vegetables pesticides have allowed us in this country. Those smaller fruits and vegetables? They're what fruits and vegetables looked like for millions of years — up until the 1940s. If it's good enough for your ancestors, isn't it good enough for you?

Organics are gaining in popularity, but they aren't the norm and their numbers are just a small fraction of the conventional growers' numbers. That's why there's such a price difference. Until demand is high enough and there's enough production, the price of organics won't go down.

If you're on a budget and can't buy organic all the time, that doesn't mean you have resign yourself to the fact that for the sake of eating healthy fruits and vegetables, you have to poison yourself. There are ways to limit your exposure.

The first thing you can do is to buy organic anything that you or your kids eat a lot of. For example, the more bananas you eat, the more exposure you get, so it's important that if you eat a lot of bananas, to buy organic. Whatever it may be: corn, apples, broccoli, anything that you eat a lot of.

Next, you can focus on the foods that have the highest levels of pesticides and contaminants.

Fruits:

• Peaches
• Strawberries
• Raspberries
• Apples
• Grapes (and raisins)
• Nectarines
• Apricots
• Pears
• Cherries
• Lemons (especially if using the rind)
  
• Limes
• Bananas
• Kiwis
• Pineapple
• Cantaloupe
• Tomatoes

Vegetables:

• Potatoes
• Corn
• Celery
• Cucumbers
• Spinach
• Lettuce
• Peppers
• Squash
• Carrots
• Green Beans

Focus on those fruits and vegetables and you will already be limiting your exposure extensively. And we all want to be healthier and happier and chemical-free!