When to Go Organic

Eating the best foods available are good for physical health but not always financial health. Here’s how to pick and choose

By Dawn Klingensmith
CTW Features

Buying everything organic – from milk to mangoes – might be a healthy choice for the body. But many consumers, especially in non-urban areas, have found it’s less-than-healthy for the household budget.

For those that can’t afford to go all organic, certain foods take priority over others – especially if the aim is to avoid pesticides, says nutritionist Carol Anne Wasserman of New York City.

“Pesticides are held in the skin of foods, so buy organic anything you can’t peel,” she says. “Berries – especially strawberries – and mushrooms should really be organic because of their porous surfaces. Carrots would be more important than bananas. You can peel both of them, but bananas have a thicker skin. Potatoes and apples are known to have high pesticide contents, so opt for organic with those foods, too.”

The nonprofit Environmental Working Group reviewed nearly 43,000 laboratory tests on produce compiled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and ranked fruits and vegetables based on pesticide contamination. Topping the list of foods with the highest pesticide loads were peaches, apples, sweet bell peppers, celery, nectarines, strawberries and cherries. Least contaminated were onions, avocados, frozen sweet corn, pineapples, mangoes, frozen sweet peas and asparagus. The criteria used to create the list of 43 fruits and vegetables takes into account how people wash and prepare produce, and while washing and rinsing may reduce pesticide levels, it doesn’t eliminate them. Peeling also reduces exposures, but valuable nutrients go down the drain with the peels, the organization reports.

Kathleen D’Ovidio, assistant professor of food science at Delaware Valley College, Doylestown, Pa., counters the group’s conclusions.

“The USDA makes no claims that organically produced food is safer or more nutritious than conventionally produced foods,” she says, adding that fertilizers and synthetic pesticides wash off harmlessly and compromise the planet only when used incorrectly.

D’Ovidio says food-borne illnesses caused by E. coli and other microorganisms pose a greater threat. “Any food, organic or not, is going to carry the same risk,” she says. “The risk is very, very low, but as we saw with the spinach and lettuce outbreak, it can occur.”

By definition, organic foods are produced according to government-established production standards. Organic produce is grown without the use of conventional pesticides or artificial fertilizers and contains no food additives. Organic beef, pork and poultry come from animals reared without the routine use of antibiotics and without a trace of growth hormones.

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