Pesticides in our food are unfortunately excessively common nowadays. While everyone should have access to healthy fruits and veggies, almost no food is free of pesticides in our world today, not even organic produce.
Advertisement:
Does this surprise you? Many people haven’t a clue that even organic fruits and vegetables may contain residues.
Yes, even organic farmers are allowed to use pest control substances, except only a few and with certain regulations. Some of these pesticides are natural substances and some are synthetic.
The number one thing to do to reduce exposure to pesticides
Wash your fruits and veggies with salt water. Rinsing the produce under running water only removes so much of the pesticides, so you need to use something more effective, something like baking soda water.
You could also use vinegar water or salt water, but baking soda is the most effective in removing pesticides.
Mix 1 oz. of baking soda with 100 oz. water and let the produce soak for 15 minutes.
Alternatives for when you can’t afford to spare that much time on washing produce
Many people don’t have 15 minutes for every time they need to wash produce. In fact, most of us barely rinse for longer than a few minutes, let along spend time making water solutions for soaking.
But before you give up, here’s what you could do. Prepare the mixture in the morning and soak all of the produce that you will be using or eating that day.
Alternatively, soak for at least a minute. It won’t be as effective as the 15 minutes-practice, but this quick and easy way will still remove a decent amount of pesticides.
It’s also good to scrub the fruits and veggies with a brush after soaking, then rinse off under cold running water.
The fruits and vegetables to wash more thoroughly
Some fruits and vegetables can carry chemicals and bacteria in their crevices so you’ll want to wash these more thoroughly and whip up that baking soda water.
Berries, for example: rinse them in a mesh strainer after soaking, then pat dry with paper towels or a clean kitchen towel, gently and just before consuming.
For berries it is also effective to use vinegar water. Combine 4 parts water and 1 part plain white vinegar, then soak the fruits for as much as 20 minutes and rinse well with water.
The advantage of vinegar is it will also remove bacteria from the produce and the fruits won’t taste like vinegar at all, so don’t worry.
Other fruits and vegetables to wash more thoroughly are plums, peaches, apples, grapes, pears, and tomatoes.
Remember that fruits and vegetables are an important addition to diet and one of the healthiest choices we can make is eating more of them daily.
Advertisement:
And now that you know how to minimize your exposure to pesticides you can stop worrying and start eating more produce, whether conventional or organic.