Pesticides: are you choosing poison produce?

May 6, 2016 Ashley 0 Comments

If you’re anything like me, a significant slice of your check’s left in the produce aisle.

Bananas. Strawberries. Raspberries.

Whatever that exotic one in the corner with thorns is.

I love it all. Fruit’s become my fave over the years on account of its capacity to satisfy my fructose tooth and convince my viscera I’m full and fueled. But, while I’m glad I detoxed from processed stuff enough to legit enjoy the earth’s desserts, I face the same problem a lot of us do. And that’s asking myself perpetually whether a given fruit’s been fettered by pesticides, rendering it inedible.

Now, we know pesticides aren’t good for us. But, as I stood there the other day, debating just how bad it’d be to buy this one cheaper non-organic brand, I realized I didn’t know…why. (Because: cancer?) Sure. Cancer’s definitely among the logical reasons you should avoid chemical infused fruit. However, even if you don’t catch a case of the Big C, there’s a litany of other health effery you could be dealing with. Now, some people (specifically, the agro-folk making a profit off the chemical coated food they’re selling you) will tell you it’s “all about the dose, maaaaan”. Or, in other words, if it only has X point X whatever-grams of pesticides in it, it’s allegedly good to go.

(Yes, all the dreams you have *are* true after you go to pesticide induced forever-sleep)

However, more recent research (that’s not funded by agr-orporations) seems to counter that. Aside from the possibility of dying from a painful terminal illness, studies have shown you might also potentially acquire and simply suffer from any of the nine following life-long maladies after prolonged pesticide ingestion:

1. Food Allergies
2. Memory Loss
3. Diabetes
4. Autism
5. Obesity
6. Parkinson’s
7. Infertility
8. Birth Defects
9. Alzheimer’s

and last but not least:

10. Cancer

So, this means you should go back to the processed sludge on the shelves, right? Ah, if only it were that easy. Unfortunately, most of that junk’s pumped full of chemicals itself. Whether that’s done through the manufacturing process or the tumor inducing food and drugs they fed the cows that provided its meat or milk, you’re getting screwed, indubitably. Your best bet? Suck it up and chuck your bucks at the organic brands. Not only can you nix the toxin aspect, but you can also bring on the opposite of that malady catalog above for yourself. Because organic stuff’s typically got higher nutrient and mineral levels than its poison covered cousins, you get the benefit of everything that potentially prevents all those illnesses in the first place.

Now, right about now, you’re probably thinking this inundation of info’s making you sicker than just voluntarily ingesting pesticides would. I get it. That’s how I felt at first, too. Luckily for us both, though, we live in a land where we can summon our digital secretaries to do the dirty work. Don’t want to painstakingly scour search engine pages for an easy list of organic brands? No problem. Just download something like the Smart Foods app on your apple device, so you don’t have to eat the poison apple.

And, finally, for the workarounds. Believe it or not, you don’t have to fork over your whole paycheck for your fork free foods. Sure, those Driscoll’s might cost a little extra. But snack hacks do exist in the world of organic. For instance, if you buy in bulk, buy local, or even buy frozen produce (especially for those smoothies ‘n dishes that don’t require it served fresh), you can cut down on costs a monumental amount.

Yes, the effort of avoiding pesticides makes me a tad tetchy too.

But what’s the point in eating healthy if hell is among the side effects?