Look - Organic is Written on the Ceiling! - The Farmer's Daughter USA

Like most people, I like to peruse the magazines while waiting in line at the grocery store. I had just jokingly told my brother that I thought vegetables were making me gain weight (hence why I just had to buy that pint of ice cream), when I noticed the cover of Fitness Magazine’s May 2013 issue. According to them, it was entirely possible that vegetables were making me fat.

Look, I know people fall for a lot of things, and certainly those buying Cosmo and Fitness Magazine probably do, but seriously?!

Vegetable “Fat Trap 9” is pictured above (photographed while waiting in line, friends! You can literally ag-vocate anywhere!). Those vegetables are making you fat, apparently, because of all that dirty pesticide residue.

After looking up the research, it all goes right back tot he Environmental Working Group’s annual Dirty Dozen list (which turns out to be just a dirty lie). See, the group tries to warn people about the dangers of pesticide residue and how certain fruits and vegetables are more dangerous.

But the group uses fuzzy math and hazy science to compile the list (see link above or Food Insight for some scientific explanation). In reality, there is no way you will ever consume enough pesticide through residue to hurt you (and this assumes you DON’T wash your food…which you should, because who knows who touched it before it got to you).

The trace amounts of pesticides found on the produce means the “risk” is negligible. Literally, if you wanted to poison yourself with residue, you’d have to actually try.

Take a look at the “dirty dozen” list, and see how much you would have to eat every single day to get enough pesticide residue in your system to be worried:

1. Apples – 571 servings/day
2. Celery – 133,951 servings/day
3. Strawberries – 2,640 servings/day
4. Peaches – 318 servings/day
5. Spinach – 4,487 servings/day
6. Imported Nectarines – 439 servings/day
7. Imported Grapes – No figure given. Amt for cherries is 1,171 servings/day
8. Sweet Bell Peppers – 845 servings/day
9. Potatoes – 12,626 servings/day
10. Domestic Blueberries – 306 servings/day
11. Lettuce – 15,227 servings/day
12. Kale/Collard Greens – 3,265 servings/day

(Source: Edible Intelligence) And that comes from the highest amount ever found by the USDA. So unless you’re picking the apple right off the tree after a fresh spraying, you’re not even coming close to that, especially once you’ve washed it off.

I know that organic’s thing is to sell people on how much healthier the produce is, how it is nutritionally superior, or how it is better for everyone. What else but lies will get people to part with more of their hard earned money for the exact same (or even inferior) organic produce? But this is out of hand. Now we’re telling people that eating conventional fruits and vegetables are going to make them gain weight and become obese? Give me a break. Eventually people will see through this garbage; right!?

Look, if you want to be healthy, eat your conventional fruits and vegetables. Don’t buy organic. Not only will you be healthier and better looking, you won’t be contributing to worldwide starvation.