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Fast Food Takes Its Place
What if someone asked you to name the great cuisines of the world? What would you say? French food, of course, is famous. Italians are world-renowned. Greek food has its own following. What about America?
Well, what comes to mind when you hear the...
Indoor Grills Featured in Steven Raichlen's Newest Book
With a great number of city people living in condos, with no possibility to grill outside, Raichlen's latest book, "Indoor! Grilling" covers a topic of large interest, especially that grilling is a tradition in America, some sort of a national...
Planning a Football Party
When fall comes and football is in full force women around the country begin to use the phrase football widow. I can attest to a few Saturdays and Sundays where the TV in our home is going all day and my husband is glued to his favorite chair. ...
Regional Cuisine Of The United States: Louisiana Cajun Cooking
Louisiana Cajun cuisine originated with a group of French residents of Nova Scotia, who were expelled by the British in 1755. They eventually, after years of a nomadic existence, settled in the Southern Louisiana swamplands. There they adapted their...
The Secret To Preparing The Perfect Paella
According to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English
Language, paella is a saffron-flavored dish made with varying
combinations of rice, vegetables, meat, chicken and seafood. The
Dictionary also explains that in the Old French and...
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Pesticides, Can we avoid them?
Why, unfortunately, just washing vegetables is not enough to ensure produce clean enough for consumption
We all ingest lots of chemicals, one way or another. We breathe them, we drink them, and we eat them. The most troublesome are pesticides in produce. It makes me uncomfortable to think that while we are eating fruits and vegetables in reality we are also ingesting poisons that can accumulate in our bodies and make us very sick. This is food that supposes to be healthy and good for us!
Even if the most toxic chemicals have already been banned for use in agriculture, pesticides in general are poisons designed to kill insects, weed, small rodents and other pests. The long time effects of these poisons on people are not completely known. Even the minimal risk with these pollutants is too much, when we think we may expose children. We should try to do every effort to minimize our intake of these adverse chemicals.
Education is the key. Knowing which produce contain more pollutants can help us make the right choices, avoiding the most contaminated fruits and vegetables and eating the least polluted, or buy organic instead. In simulation of consumers eating habits has been demonstrated that changing a little bit the eating practices can lower considerably the ingestion of pesticides.
The results of an investigation on pesticides in produce by the USDA Pesticide Data Program (*), show that fruits topped the list of the consistently most contaminated produce, with eight of the 12 most polluted foods. The dirty dozen are: Apples, Bell Peppers, Celery, Cherries, Imported Grapes, Nectarines, Peaches, Pears, Potatoes, Red Raspberries, Spinach, and Strawberries.
You don’t like broccoli? Too bad because they are among those least contaminated. In fact the 12 least polluted produce are: Asparagus, Avocados, Bananas, Broccoli,
Cauliflower, Sweet Corn, Kiwi, Mangos, Onions, Papaya, Pineapples, and Sweet Peas.
Can washing of produce help get rid of pesticides? Not really. The fruits and vegetables tested by the USDA PDP (*) are “prepared emulating the practices of the average consumer” before testing for pesticides. That is: “(1) apples are washed with stems and cores removed; (2) asparagus and spinach have inedible portions removed and are washed; (3) cantaloupes are cut in half and seed and rinds are removed; […] and (9) tomatoes are washed and stems removed”.
Washing before consuming is highly recommended because helps decrease the pesticide residues present on the surface of the vegetables, but the majorities of pollutants are absorbed into the plant and can’t be just washed away. Some pesticides are specifically created to stick to the surface of the crops and they don’t come out by washing. Peeling can help eliminating some of the chemicals but not all, and a lot of important substances will be discarded with the skin.
So, on one hand we have to eat plenty of fruit and vegetables for a healthy diet, and on the other hand we have to reduce as much a possible the intake of pesticides. What to do if you are unconvinced by the claims of the chemical companies that certain levels of pesticides are not dangerous?
We have very few options to defend ourselves: (1) Wash all vegetables and fruit very well; (2) Change eating habits in order to consume more of the produce with low pollutants; (3) Consume a diet as varied as possible; (4) Buy organic foods.
About the Author
Anna Maria Volpi is a cooking instructor and personal chef in Los Angeles. Visit Anna Maria’s website http://www.annamariavolpi.com/ for step-by-step illustrated traditional Italian recipes for tiramisu, pasta, pizza, lasagna, risotto, gnocchi and much more, articles and food newsletter.
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Cooking Tips - @ CDKitchen.com :: it's what's cooking online! |
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