Reply To: Materia Medica of Foods
Hi Cody,
This is a really great question.
The EWG’s Clean15/Dirty Dozen list is..overly simplified and unfortunately not unbiased (they are funded partly by the organic food industry). I assume that the produce that doesn’t make the list falls in the middle (like you say), but I’m honestly not entirely sure. Rather than worrying about the list, I believe in supporting local farms (who may not have the organic label, which is very costly for small farmers, but who abide to organic farming rules in growing their produce. Organic food is very expensive, and often flown miles and miles to get to our grocery stores.
I have found an article that may be shed more light on the matter for you! https://canadianfoodfocus.org/health/the-dirty-dozens-dirty-secrets/
“To assess the risk of pesticide residues on our produce, we need to know a few simple things.
1. The specific type of pesticide (chemical) found
2. The amount of residue found on the food
3. How the amount (or dose) we consume compares to the dose we know might cause harm.
The Dirty Dozen simply looks at the overall number of residues found, and compares each fruit and vegetable to one another, essentially ranking them.
It ignores the dose completely. This is a huge omission.
As with any chemical, the dose matters. A lot. Just because a residue is present, doesn’t mean it poses a risk to our health.
With today’s advanced technology, we can now identify residues in amounts as small as parts per billion (think one drop of water in an Olympic-sized swimming pool).”
Riley