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Eating fruits and vegetables is an essential part of a healthy diet, but the frequent concerns arising around the amount of pesticides contaminating produce also grows every day. It’s exceedingly frustrating when you want to eat healthy foods, but thinking about industrial processing methods makes you hesitate.

Pesticides, which are used to kill pests and insects, are heavily toxic and pose a danger to eaters like us. Moreover, it is becoming increasingly difficult to avoid toxicity in our food because of its widespread usage. According to the Environmental Working Group (EWG) “At least one pesticide was found on 63 percent of the samples analyzed for the Shopper’s Guide”. As a result, an emphasis on buying organically grown produce has emerged.

“Organic” is a title which is supposed to be a label for consumers to identify food that is grown without any chemicals. Therefore, one of the best ways to avoid pesticides leaking into your healthy diet is to buy as much organic as possible. Fortunately, studies have been done regarding which fruits and vegetables are more prone to having pesticide contamination than others.

The EWG constructed this list comparing the “Dirty Dozen” (produce you should buy organic) versus the “Clean 15” (consisting of produce having the lowest pesticide contact). I found this chart super helpful because you are able to direct your buying habits to organic food more frequently while focusing on replacing the produce that poses the most risk. You’ll be able to reduce your interaction with pesticides by a substantial amount.

Note: It is crucial to always keep a healthy regime no matter what, as the benefits of eating fruits and vegetables outweighs the risk of pesticide contact.

For the full list see: http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/list/