Eat Your Fruits and Vegetables — With Caution

More than 1,000 pesticides are used around the world to bring about the death of insects, weeds, molds, worms, ticks, mites, rodents and fungi. They also bring about the death of sea creatures, land mammals, birds, bees, butterflies, non-targeted plants, soil microbes — and people.

The use of pesticides on food crops has ancient roots: The Sumerians of Mesopotamia, now Iraq, left behind a record of their use of sulfur dust 4,500 years ago to control insects on their farmlands. Fast forward to today and the National Institutes of Health estimates 5.6 billion pounds of pesticides are produced annually worldwide, with more than 1 billion pounds used in the United States alone. They can linger in the soil for years, some for decades.

And we're eating them.

In addition to the crops that feed us, more than 200 million of those pounds are used on crops that feed the 1.7 billion animals on factory farms of pigs, chickens, turkeys and cows.

We're eating those, too.

You will rarely see any warnings about pesticide contamination with information that recommends the daily intake of fruits and vegetables. You also will rarely see any data about which age groups are the most susceptible to troubling accumulations. Depending on the toxicity of the pesticides, the longer the pesticides accumulate and remain in the body, the more likely they are to do damage. Thus, older people are more adversely affected by exposure than healthy young adults or the middle aged.

Many organizations publish articles about the benefits of consuming fruits and vegetables but make no mention of pesticides, including the American Heart Association, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Mayo Clinic.

Depending on the pesticide, illnesses caused by prolonged or excessive exposure may trigger or worsen Parkinson's disease, digestive system ailments, cancer, heart disease, birth defects, hormone disruption and more. 

The kidneys and liver are the primary cleansers of these pesticides, some of which will be gone in just hours or days, but as we age these organs reduce in size and efficiency. As time passes, humans tend to add fat cells where there once was muscle tissue. Fat cells will hang on to these toxins longer than those once-active, now missing, muscle cells.  

If you have young children in the house, maybe grandchildren visiting or living with you, consider that infants and toddlers in particular should not be exposed to pesticides as their liver and kidney organs are not yet fully functioning. Their exposure to household insecticides also should be avoided.

Think about a youngster inhaling residual spray, or crawling on a rug in a room that has been sprayed, or touching exposed surfaces and then putting their fingers in their mouths. Consider using traps or vacuum cleaners, and sealing wall and floor crevices instead of using sprays to clear indoor problems.

If you are spraying your own yard with a pesticide, be sure to look up the consequences of using the product you chose. Whichever you decide on, wear an effective face mask, long sleeves, long pants, hat, gloves and eye protection because pesticides can also penetrate through skin and eyes.  

Should you decide to plant your own food garden and if you've spotted bugs or mold or if weeds have taken over, find out which low-toxin pesticides you can purchase, or no-toxin pesticides that you can make on your own with household supplies, and test them. Also get the soil in your yard analyzed for troublemakers that naturally occur in soil such as arsenic, lead and cadmium, or pesticides that drifted into your yard from neighboring gardens or farms, or through rivers and winds. Many state universities will provide some soil testing services or can recommend companies that will test for toxins.   

If your household has some favorite foods, research them and see if there is anything to beware of. For example, if rice is frequently on your plate, note that it naturally absorbs cadmium and arsenic from the soil, both harmful to people. Learn about the differences between brown, black, white and basmati rices, pesticide use in their countries of origin when imported, and adjust your choices as necessary. Cacao beans are also among many foods that naturally absorb heavy metals from soil, so if you have chocolate addicts in your family, do the research.  

Organic foods of course are helpful — but not perfect — in reducing exposure to contaminants, but they cost more than nonorganic foods. This is because they are produced in smaller quantities, farming them is more labor intensive, the U.S. Department of Agriculture certification process is costly. Farmers can apply pesticides that have been approved by the U.S. Department of Agricultural's National Organic Program, but note that the European Union has banned 72 pesticides still in use in the United States.

Recently, Consumer Reports produced a list of 59 common fruits and vegetables, including fresh and in some cases canned, dried or frozen, based on a review of seven years of the Department of Agriculture's annual analysis of produce contamination.

The Environmental Working Group also does a deep dive into the Department of Agriculture's food-contaminant data, and updates it annually. The end product is the Dirty Dozen and the Clean Fifteen list of the most- and least-contaminated foods. They are handy for shopping lists and trips to the store.

Today, the odds of finding a food that contains no naturally occurring or man-made contaminants is zero. That said, if you don't have a pre-existing condition that adds to the hazards of pesticide consumption, it's OK to not be paranoid about non-organic foods that are rated moderate for contamination. Just make sure to eat them in moderation.