99: 2024 Pesticides in Produce Decoded

Lisa Beres 0:04

How would you like to improve your health and keep your family safe? You're listening to the Healthy Home Hacks podcast where we firmly believe in joining optimal health shouldn't be a luxury. Healthy Home authorities and husband and wife team Ron and Lisa will help you create a home environment that will level up your health. It's time to hear from the experts. Listen in on honest conversations and gain the best tips and advice. If you're ready to dive in and improve your well being and increase your energy, you're in the right place. All right, here are your hosts, baubiologists, authors, media darlings, vicarious vegans and avocado aficionados, Ron and Lisa Beres.

Ron Beres 0:50

Unless you've been living under a genetically modified rock laden with pesticides, you've likely heard of the Environmental Working Groups or EWG's shoppers guide to pesticides and produce. In fact, they've been releasing this list for over 20 years. Yes, 20 years. It's comprised of the Dirty Dozen, the 12 fruits and vegetables that are the most contaminated with pesticides, and the Clean 15 The produce with the lowest amount of pesticide residues. According to EWG's analysis of the most recent USDA data.

Lisa Beres 1:31

These lists matter in terms of your health, the health of the environment, but also in terms of your hard earned money. So you can save money by purchasing conventionally grown produce that's lowest and pesticides, and spend your dollars on organic produce with the highest number of pesticides. Think buying organic doesn't matter. Think again. Think it's just a small amount of exposure each day. Think again, pesticides are toxic by design, they are created to kill living organisms. So today, we're gonna dive deep into the potential health problems connected to pesticides, including brain and nervous system toxicity, cancer and hormone disruption, especially harm to the male reproductive system.

Ron Beres 2:14

We're digging up all of the dirt on your favorite fruits and veggies as we dissect the 2024 Guide, which includes data from 47,510 samples of 46 fruits and vegetables with our special guest, senior toxicologist Alexis Temkin, from EWG to ask her is the government protecting me? Alexis Tompkins PhD supports EWG's consumer databases, policy and research in the areas of personal care and cleaning products, pesticides and tap water. She began her research career at Columbia University Medical Center studying the molecular mechanisms responsible for environmental influence on gene regulation. As a doctoral student, she studied how exposure to environmental toxins during development can influence adult obesity and metabolic syndrome. Welcome to the show. Alexis. Yeah, there's Yeah.

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 3:14

Thank you so much. That was the most exciting introduction I've ever heard.

Ron Beres 3:19

Excited about you.

Lisa Beres 3:22

We're excited. Oh, welcome. Alexis, thank you so much for being with us today. Where are you joining us from?

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 3:29

I am joining you from Washington DC from the EWG headquarters.

Lisa Beres 3:34

Nice. Yeah. Hey, Ron's old stomping grounds. old stomping ground. Not the headquarters, not the headquarters. He's not a stalker.

Ron Beres 3:41

Not a stalker. I couldn't be but I don't live close enough. Right. So I used to live in Reston, Virginia. So Oh, awesome. Yeah.

Lisa Beres 3:48

But Alexis, I want to kick off the show by what I call one of the biggest misconceptions. Isn't the government protecting me from pesticides used on produce today? Doesn't legal mean safe?

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 3:59

This is such a good place to start. Because you're right. It is a common misconception. And I think one of our favorite terms, we use it over and over again at EWG not just for pesticides, but in other chemical safety questions Is that legal doesn't necessarily mean safe. That's exactly right. So when it comes to pesticides, you know, you'll hear that a lot of these data, which is true meet sort of the standards set by the government. But there's just more and more data out there that shows doses lower than those standards can actually have really profound and impactful health effects.

Lisa Beres 4:35

Yeah, and something that is rarely ever discussed is when these chemicals come together, right? The cumulative effect of multiple pesticides, those aren't ever studied, correct.

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 4:46

Yeah. So the way that EPA regulates pesticides is this kind of classic one pesticide at a time. But if you look at just some of those few sort of stats on our guide to pesticides and produce you know, some of these crops have up to 20 different pesticides on a sample. And across the whole crop, you can see hundreds of different pesticides used. So it's just not the reality of how people are exposed to pesticides, which is way more than one at a time. And that's really a scientific question that needs to be addressed. If we're going to say, Yeah, this is a safe practice.

Lisa Beres 5:23

Right? We're like, absolutely very important to know, listeners, because I mean, we still have people on our committee, our communities really smart. I'm very impressed with our community. Most of them have been following us for a very long time and are pretty savvy. But there's still that misconception that if something's for sale, that means it's been thoroughly tested, or it wouldn't be for sale. So thank you for clarifying that.

Ron Beres 5:44

Absolutely. Alexis, you know, we get to ask this question all the time. It's very general, easy question, but I wanted you to explain it. Can you explain what the term organic means?

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 5:54

Sure. So organic means that something has been certified by the USDA, and their National Organic standard program, there's a variety of different sort of criteria that go into that. But when we think about pesticides, there's a very strict list of ingredients that can be used on ingredients. And you don't see the type of really harmful synthetic pesticides that are detected and showing up on residues in conventional produce. And one of the things that I talk about all the time when we talk about organic is that there have been so many studies now, time and time, again, that show when people switch from a conventional to an organic diet, the levels and numbers of pesticides drop so rapidly. So you know, we sort of know, not just that the standards that this is, you know, a reduced pesticide or certain type of pesticide free label. But there's also just this empirical data about how it can impact exposure.

Lisa Beres 6:52

Right. So and that's interesting, because how many people are actually getting their blood tested for pesticide levels like nobody, right? So yeah, unless you mean, its mission, right, unless you're on a mission, and you're testing this for a purpose. So that's really profound, what you said, when you switch from a regular conventional diet to an organic diet, your pesticide levels in your body drops drastically, and we're gonna get into the health effects of these pesticides and why that matters as we go through the show. But, you know, that was all over the news, like a couple years ago that organic diets didn't matter didn't matter. And you know, that was some PR stunt by the pesticide companies. Because like hello, that's just not true, but a lot of people believe those studies, right? Do you remember that?

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 7:37

Sort of, I mean, it's an effective tool for reducing your pesticide exposure. And that is something we've definitely seen over and over again. And there's actually been a handful of reviews recently that show you know, an organic diet or a low pesticide diet can have some reductions in potential health effects there, you know, studies that need to be repeated on big cohorts and things like that. But there's definitely encouraging evidence that, you know, the pesticides on produce can have an effect on health. And like you said, we'll go into a few of those studies. I'm sure.

Lisa Beres 8:09

We'll get into that. Okay. So what you guys have been waiting for drumroll of the 46 items included in the analysis, which 12 fruits and vegetables were most contaminated with pesticides, otherwise known as the Dirty Dozen.

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 8:24

Yeah. All right. So we'll run down the list.

Lisa Beres 8:28

Yeah, let's talk. We didn't want listeners to have to wait too long for this list.

Yeah. All right. So we've got strawberries, number one. Spinach.

Ron Beres 8:36

No strawberries. Wow.

Lisa Beres 8:38

Oh, yeah.

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 8:41

They've been number one for a few years now. Yeah. strawberry, followed by spinach, and then our number three, our kale, collard and mustard greens, kind of group those together. Grapes, peaches, pears, nectarines, apple, Belen hot peppers, another grouping in the pepper category. cherries, blueberries and green beans.

Lisa Beres 9:07

She is really upset as she's reading this list. You know, what's interesting about this list is those are all I think every single one you mentioned, practically, is something that you wouldn't peel the skin off, right? You would just eat with the skin.

Yeah, most likely.

As I am reading it. Yeah. So the skin does it generally act as a protective barrier, like say, a banana thick skin, or avocado or something that you would peel?

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 9:34

Yeah, it can to some point. And I think what's really interesting or important about clarifying sort of around the data we use is that when the USDA collects their samples, and they test them, you know, for hundreds of pesticides, that's the source of our data. They're preparing the fruits and vegetables the way that a consumer would so they are appealing things when you know if they need to be peeled like citrus or a banana, and they are washing everything too in the same way that consumers would with just sort of like wash under water, nothing super fancy. So the residues we're talking about, and The rankings are based on washing and peeling. So it's residues that are left after you do those steps.

Ron Beres 10:11

And Okay, interesting.

Lisa Beres 10:12

Yeah. And something I read in the study, if you could explain real quick how the EPA versus the USDA does the preparation. So can you kind of get into that? I think you just said the, am I saying that? Right, the FDA versus the USDA?

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 10:28

No. So I think just primarily that most of the data come from USDA. And I think it's this common misconception that you can just wash off pesticide residues, and you have nothing to worry about. So we always like to say that it's important to know that these data come from washed and peeled. So it's stuff that's left over and not washing and not peeling, you are likely going to have higher residues. So it's always good practice, you know, not just for pesticide contamination either just for general, you know, like foodborne illness prevention and good food hygiene to wash fruits and vegetables, yep, dirt, all that stuff. But it doesn't take care of all of the residues, right.

Ron Beres 11:03

That is why we want to buy organic produce, if, for example, they're part of the Dirty Dozen, right? That's the whole premise.

Lisa Beres 11:11

That's the whole premise of this list.

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 11:13

The whole premise of this list is basically for people to eat lots of fruits and vegetables, while reducing their pesticide exposure, right. So if you're always eating stuff on the Dirty Dozen, then it's maybe better to opt for those organic or choose the clean 15, which has really low pesticide residues. And those are good conventional options, but 65% of the samples on the clean 15 had no detectable residues.

Lisa Beres 11:37

Yeah, we're gonna get in listeners, hang on, if you don't hear the clean fix. stay till the end of this. Yeah, that's our cliffhanger. Oh, it's so and one thing on a divert. So there's the PLU code, I think it's called right? Is it the PLU code on every fruit and veggie? Every produce has a code that's really there for the grocer. But as consumers, we can use that as a little detective label. If we don't know if something is organic, is that correct? So it'll start with a certain number. Are you familiar with that?

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 12:05

I'm not familiar with that. thing, I will look into.

Lisa Beres 12:08

Ron, Ron and I made up an acronym to help us remember, okay, eight is not great. So if the PLU starts with number eight, that means it's genetically modified the PLU. Number eight is not great. Four is a bore four is conventionally grown. And that would be the numbers start with four that is not organic, and then nine is fine. If it starts with the number nine, it's organic.

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 12:31

That's fantastic. I have no idea. I love that.

Lisa Beres 12:35

We'll licensed that to EWG.

Ron Beres 12:39

Sometimes in the grocery store, it will say like organic produce, but for whatever reason, it's butting up against the non organic produce. So looking at the numbers gives you that validation that Okay, good.

Lisa Beres 12:48

This is more genetically modified, where they're not going to like put a sign saying it's a GMO. So if you pick it up, and you see the eight, now, you know, it's not great. Okay. You don't want that that's genetically modified.

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 13:01

Handy tools. So I really appreciate that. Thank you. Okay. Absolutely.

Ron Beres 13:05

Alexis, you know, I read on your website that the CDC bio monitoring program, found between 2005 and 2016, 100% of Americans ages six and older tested had detectable levels of certain pesticides. Why is this exposure so rampant?

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 13:23

Wow. Well, there's so many ways to answer that question. There's so like a few different ways people can be exposed. So the CDC test, I will also say the CDC only test for a handful of these pesticides. So there's a whole bunch of this exposure that we are also missing in terms of our just national bio monitoring. So it's a small subset. And even that small subset, there's a lot of exposure, and there are different routes and ways you can be exposed to pesticides. So fruits and vegetables is probably the most common for the general population. But a lot of people also use pesticides, you know, in their home like to treat insecticides or so you can have pesticide accumulation and dust for from nearby areas. But the truth is, some of those can also come from legacy pesticides. So like things that have been around for a long time that we don't use anymore, but they're really persistent, like DDT and things like that. You'll also see detections. But there's heavy pesticide use on agriculture in this country, and it leads to pesticide exposure in the general population. There was a long way to get there.

Ron Beres 14:26

Wow. Right. There was this old study a while back was on 550 different homes, I believe it was in the northeast area. And this was 20 years after DDT was just banned from the marketplace. And they still found something like 50 to 60% of the homes had trace amounts of DDT and the carpeting and yeah, it didn't leave. That was 20 years later, right. I like to see that test updated to see how much is left now.

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 14:51

Yeah, and the effects of that the health effects can also transfer to different generations. So their studies, I mean, this is a little you know, you don't find DDT or like it's not sprayed now anymore, but the legacy of that can impact generations to come. And we're seeing that in some really interesting and unique studies that I think are coming out are mostly in California.

Lisa Beres 15:10

Oh, okay. Where we live? Thanks, Alexis. Yeah, no, it is. It's interesting because we don't think about pesticide exposure, say at the golf course next year home or the school or Disney Land and Disney World. Ron's mom lives right outside of Disney World. Ron's mom and dad. And you know, there's no mosquitoes, miraculously at Disney World, like none. And it's good. We don't want to be getting like mosquito exposure to all those diseases, but at the same time, like that's being heavily doused with pesticides that people don't think about, you know, insecticide, yeah. Yeah.

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 15:47

And that can lead to other. Yeah. Other sources of exposure. Like if it gets into the water, or is nearby, there's some regulations in California about school applications and being whether or not how close you have to be, but even those are not always going to be fully protective.

Lisa Beres 16:02

Yeah. So in the Dirty Dozen, getting back to the Dirty Dozen, four of the five most frequently detected chemicals were fungicides, can you explain what these chemicals are and what they do to our health?

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 16:15

Sure. So I will at least say that there's over 200 different pesticides were detected across all the Dirty Dozen, but we wanted to take sort of a closer look to see what was coming up most frequently, or what might be coming up in the highest levels, because that's ultimately going to impact exposure to some degree. And we found that fungicides, were really prevalent. And four out of five, right at the top five for fungicides,. And what's unique about fungicides, too, is that they're often applied, like after harvest. So they're used to basically prevent, like mold and mildew and that kind of grit. I think everybody knows, like, what a moldy, what happens when you've written something really long and it gets moldy, right. But because they're applied after harvest, and like much closer to when they're going to meet consumer shelves, the grocery store shelves or be consumed, they can have really high levels of concentrations of these pesticides, rather than something that's applied earlier in the growing season. And so again, they might meet, you know, legal standards, but there's some evidence about these fungicides, that suggest they could be endocrine disrupting chemicals. So for some of them, this one called foody oximeter, you know, we can see that it might block androgen receptors, which means it could potentially impact the male reproductive system, or sometimes it can act like an estrogen and these other cellular systems, right, we need more studies. But there's the sort of concerning emerging evidence that made it something we wanted to highlight and something that, you know, think needs a closer look in terms of whether or not these pesticides and the levels they are used that are safe.

Lisa Beres 17:46

Yeah. And one thing I'm it's bringing to mind when you said like, yeah, there's legal levels that somebody deemed safe maybe 50 years ago, right. But today, we know we've got so much exposure from so many different sources that these levels need to drop drastically, in a lot of cases are some of these pesticides and fungicides not even say something that's being tested in the water, like PFAS . There's legislation now where they're trying to ban six classes of PFAS from water. But that didn't even exist. So PFAS is in our drinking water, as we know, but it was not only illegal, because there was no standard set for it. How could it be illegal if there wasn't a standard set the same case with some of these?

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 18:27

Yeah, I mean, the regulation of drinking water standards, you know, PFAS is going to be the first one that's been developed in decades, I'm pretty sure. You know, it's a system that really doesn't favor a lot of adding new regulation or finding chemicals to regulate. So there are definitely some regulations around pesticides. But a lot of these are really just based on dietary exposure. You know, when EPA regulates a chemical, they will estimate how much could potentially get into the water and again, say like, does this exposure exceed our safe limit, the real issue is that those safe limits are just set too high. So even if you have an idea of how much something might be in the water, you know, if it doesn't meet that standard, it's not going to trigger anything. And a lot of the data that's made to set those safe standards are very old. It's submitted by you know, the companies that are making pesticides. That's the way the system is, that's the way the system is set up.

Lisa Beres 19:20

For sure. In every industry. I feel like Alexis, we're talking about flame retardants, everything, it's cosmetics, fragrances, right? It's the industry self regulating these. So they're bringing the safety data.

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 19:33

Yeah, and then academics or peer reviewed, scientists are kind of playing this catch up game. Once you know that something is in the food, they say, Okay, well, let's look at this. And our system, which is much more sensitive, which looks at developmental neurotoxicity, or indicators of right, like reproductive harm, that are more sensitive than the studies that are often designed and using regulatory aspects. So it's always this catch up game. And then again, pesticides are regulated every 15 years. versus when you do this review. So something can be on the market for a very long time. And even if new data does come out, and even if EPA says, Okay, we're gonna consider this, you still have this whole long time that that exposures happening. And there's numerous examples of that.

Ron Beres 20:14

Yeah, interesting. Hey, Alexis circling back to fungicides. Two of those bones. Were also found in the highest concentrations of any of the Dirty Dozen pesticides. Which two are these?

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 20:38

And agriculture in general, too. So we're talking about coffee beans, right. And a lot of different any agricultural product, correct when we're talking about pesticide exposure?

Right. Yeah, I mean, the the data that we look at primarily is just for these 46 fruits and vegetables. I actually don't know if the USDA has collected or tested coffee, it's the crop I'm not as familiar with.

Lisa Beres 21:22

Yeah, whoo, a new project for EWG. We'll have you back. And we'll talk coffee, because coffee is kind of also a big topic that we've discussed, because now they've come out with all these really wonderful brands like Purity Coffee, and LifeBoost coffee, and there's a lot now that do, they're certified for no toxicity or low toxin, they're shade grown, they're tested for mold, because coffee can be very high in mold. And I think about like how many people get their daily dose of Starbucks, or whatever coffee, they're drinking, and don't even think about spending a little extra to get that in organic, and then you're subjecting yourself to toxins every day, and people are like obsessed with their coffee. So, you know, they're not usually drinking just one cup. So that's just another thing. I wanted to pop in there. But also, you know, we're seeing a decline in male sperm counts and infertility and all of that. Right. And so there's definitely, with these two fungicides you're talking about, in particular, will you feel like that's a connected thing? Or just needs further study? Or what would you say about that?

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 22:21

I think it definitely needs further study to make that connection. But you're right. There's a lot of really incredible studies that have looked at. They're called, like meta analyses, right? And they pull together different populations, different pieces of data. So you get a really big sample of the population that show yeah, that there's been this overall sperm count decline or impacts on male reproductive health, male fertility, and the authors that have worked on this for a long time, you know, do speculate that sources of toxic chemicals could be contributing to at least some of that a lot of those authors worked on plastic, some pesticides, right? So it is this chemical cocktail, this mixture that we need to understand a little bit better, and it's just not how it's being done at the regulatory space.

Lisa Beres 23:04

Yeah, Atrazine, that's a whole another show. Atrazine, they did that Berkeley study, right, they found the Atrazine, one of the world's largest US pesticides, I believe is linked to turning male frogs into female frogs and emasculating the male frogs. So like, I think it was one in every 10 frogs that was exposed to this Atrazine was a male frog that turned into a female. That sounds like sci-fi, but it's actually not anyone can look up the study. Are you familiar with that study?

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 23:32

Yeah. And the author of that study, Dr. Tyrone Hayes was really you know, there was a lot of pushback in sort of how to interpret that study and the agricultural business and companies really trying to denounce them discredit that work. But Atrazine is a well described endocrine disrupting chemical, and it's also primarily a water contaminants. So you might not find it on fruits and vegetables, but in certain areas where it's applied really heavily. It can be found in the water sources near there.

Lisa Beres 24:01

Make its way to your drinking water. Yeah. Okay. And that's a whole nother topic too. So filter your drinking water. Okay, so 90% of the peaches tested positive for a potential hormone disrupting fungus side that may harm the male reproductive system. Is that one of the two that you mentioned? That was on 90% of the peaches? ,

Ron Beres 24:12

Alright. Alexis, you also mentioned to you that the worst of the Dirty Dozen was strawberries, right? Yeah. And in fact, 99% of the strawberries had detectable pesticide residues, even after being washed. No question, what a vinegar rinse or any other home rents work to remove this?

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 24:42

That's a really good question. So like I said, these are all sort of washed in water. And that typically gets rid of some pesticide residue. So like if these had been on washed, they probably would have had higher residue concentrations. There's not a ton of great data on You know, whether vinegar is the best or baking soda is the best or water is the best. So, and it might depend on the pesticide. So a wash is probably not going to get rid of everything. Water is definitely really good. But no, I don't know if anybody's done sort of a before and after vinegar wash on strawberries. It's actually a piece of research that me and another colleague at ew G really want to write a review article on because there's so many questions about it. And to be honest, the answer is probably it depends. It's going to depend on the pesticide. Yeah, but definitely, water is going to get rid of some, but not all of them. That's what this USDA data shows.

Ron Beres 25:35

Alexis is when you do wash the vegetables and fruits, how is it wash? Is it like, what's the qualification is to like, go five minutes in a tub? And you dump it out? That's a rinse or what would be the protocol?

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 25:46

No, I mean, I think the way the USDA does, it is much more like I'm a consumer in a rush sort of thing, you know, so I rinsing under running water. And I think using also making sure that your hands are clean before but also just sort of like rubbing produce, or sometimes you can use again, a very clean brush can help get rid of some of that extra dirt and like the abrasion can help remove some as well. Right. But again, like I don't think soaking in a tub, or as long as they're dried running water is probably better than soaking because really standing.

Lisa Beres 26:16

Okay.

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 26:17

That's sort of standing water at a certain temperature, right, you can also get growth. So I typically do running water.

Lisa Beres 26:24

I think what we see a lot on like Instagram is the tub, and you throw in all the produce maybe with vinegar in the water. And then you take out all the produce, and you see all the dirt. And there's a false sense of without off all the pesticides, but that could literally just be the dirt and good news, maybe the bacteria and stuff like that, right?

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 26:42

Yeah. So like I said, there's not great data on like, all of these empirical things, I'm like, which one is the best. But as long as you're washing your produce, it's gonna help some I tip like I do running water at home, or like a salad spinner is a good one. For my leafy greens.

Lisa Beres 26:57

We do vinegar water combo. And we used to have a spray we're on I forget which brand it was where we sprayed it. There's been a couple sprays we've had along the years, right, and we realize they're really just vinegar, most of them have vinegar in them. So we kinda, I know.

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 27:10

But yeah, so we definitely recommend not using like detergents or sort of these like washes or things like that, because those can have other chemicals in them that just haven't been evaluated here could leave other residues. So that's always a good.

Lisa Beres 27:23

No, we had any got well, for sure. We had an eco friendly one. But I don't remember the brand,

Ron Beres 27:27

Right? Why would test question for Alexis, Alexis?

Lisa Beres 27:31

Put her on the spot.

Ron Beres 27:32

It's Valentine's Day and someone you love near and dear to your heart. Just gave you a plate of strawberries with chocolate? Do you eat them or investigate them?

Lisa Beres 27:40

Throw the strawberries?

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 27:41

No, I'm going to eat them. Oh, absolutely. So I mean, the core message here also is that people need to eat more fruits and vegetables. And it doesn't matter which way they're grown really, like there's really not enough people are eating more fruits and vegetables. And there's so much data on showing that fruits and vegetables have protective benefits for a lot of health effects, right. So we want to get a lot of fruits and vegetables. So even if it's conventionally grown, eating more fruits and vegetables is going to be worth it. That being said this is there's studies that show you know like high pesticide fruits and vegetables might counteract some of those beneficial effects. Right. So that's why you might want to opt for low or choose organic. But yes, if somebody's gonna give me a plate of chocolate covered strawberries on Valentine's day I'm going to eat that.

Lisa Beres 28:34

Okay, I'm gonna give you a trick question two, because I don't think you're expecting this. And I don't even know if you've ever heard of it that apeel. This new coating that they're putting on produce to make the produce lasts longer. And it's showing up at Trader Joe's and a lot of these stores, maybe Trader Joe's banned it recently. I can't remember but it's a coating. And it's even being allowed to put on organic veggies. And a lot of people are kind of up in arms about it because we're not being told there's no way to kind of know what they apeel is there. Have you heard of that? Do you have any feedback on that?

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 29:06

I have not heard of it? No, I don't know what it is. But my guess is it's a tool that's probably being used to combat some of this. fungicide issues are like basically when fungus grows, you want something that's going to be protective, that's maybe not a fungicide. So if it's on an organic produce, it will have had to go through the organic standards. But again, like I'm making my note, this is I'm going to look up PLU codes. I'm gonna look up apeel and see what it is. But no, I'm not familiar with it.

Lisa Beres 29:31

Okay, good. Yeah. And maybe it's all natural. I've read mixed things about it. I guess one of the main issues is that it sort of discreetly and yes, you're right, it is being put on to make the purchase last longer, but there's not really disclosure with it. Right. So that we might have a GMO issue on our hands where remember how long it took to label GMOs like when they first came out there was that so now at least we know well, we don't know if it has GMOs, but we know if it doesn't, they're gonna let you know All right, if it's non GMO, and guys, listeners, a lot of people get confused with this too. If your produce is organic, it is non GMO. Right, Alexis? Yeah. Is non GMO.

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 30:11

So that's one of the organic standards.

Lisa Beres 30:13

Yes. So it might have not, you know, when you see something labeled the Non GMO Project verified, that's great. But if it's organic, it is non GMO. Alright, so that label encompasses actually even more than just the non GMO. Okay, correct. Yeah. Non GMO, something could be non GMO.

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 30:28

But still, it could still have pesticides.

Lisa Beres 30:31

Yeah, it could be laden with pesticides. Yeah, so that can be a false sense of security.

Ron Beres 30:35

So we're gonna go from dark to light. This is a good time. Just a good segue. Let's do it. Let's do it. Okay, almost 65% of EWG 2024. Cleaned 15 Fruit and Vegetable samples had no detectable pesticide residues. Let's move on to the clean 15 The produce found lowest in pesticides. So which items made this coveted list, Alexis.

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 31:03

It's the clean 15 And it honestly doesn't get as much recognition as I should sometimes. So I really liked this list. It's avocados.

Ron Beres 31:11

Let's do drumroll so let's do one, two, or five. So everyone knows like who the winner is? And who got second.

Lisa Beres 31:16

Oh, are these? Are they in order?

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 31:18

Yeah, they're in order.

Lisa Beres 31:20

Okay, so one is the lowest in pesticides.

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 31:22

One is the lowest in pesticide.

Lisa Beres 31:24

Did you say avocado? Of course you did.

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 31:26

It's the lowest and pesticides Yeah, avocado is number one. Number two, sweet corn. Number three, pineapple. Four is onions. Five is papaya. Six is sweet peas. Seven asparagus. Eight is honeydew melon. Nine is kiwi. Ten cabbage. Eleven Watermelon. Twelve mushrooms, 13 Mangoes, 14 Sweet potatoes and 15 Carrots. I feel like I'm like singing a song about how many.

Lisa Beres 32:00

We need one. So we can all remember it. That's cool. When you said onions. Is it any onion? Was it yellow, red, green.

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 32:07

I think the way that USDA does their sampling is usually like a sampling of onion. So you know, each of these has hundreds of samples taken and each sample is a composite of more individual samples. So you know, something that could meet the onion would be like red, yellow, I'd have to verify but I'm pretty sure it's a variety of onions.

Lisa Beres 32:25

Okay, good to know. We're onion people. Those all had skins thicker skins credit for the most part.

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 32:30

Yeah. So for the fruits. Yeah, in general, right, you definitely see things that have less skin or less peeled on the Dirty Dozen. I happen to be a particular fan of tropical fruits in general. So these are my favorite fruits. The ones that are on the clean 15,

Lisa Beres 32:43

Yeah I know kiwi. What else? The melons the pineapple?

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 32:48

Papaya? Yeah, mangoes.

Lisa Beres 32:50

Mm hmm.

Ron Beres 32:51

I mean, sweet corn was not as dramatic. I'm not loving sweet corn, corn. Corn, but that sounds good. I'm glad it made number two, right.

But the big winner was avocado. It's all good. And by the way, we're vegan. So we love we love this list. Thank you for sharing with us. Yeah.

Lisa Beres 33:07

Let this list be your new smoothie recipe guys listening, you can throw all this in your VitaMix and be on your way with like, low pesticide exposure, all these antioxidants that you're gonna get from all these fruits and veggies, right. They're just loaded with so.. And you're right, Alexis, I think like fruits and veggies don't get enough credit for how many healing benefits and nutritional benefits and minerals and vitamins and antioxidants and all of this that's in the produce, right? And we're kind of in this vibe of this fast food lab grown, you know, food system, that we're getting further away from the natural foods now. Frozen foods. Do you think that's just as good to eat? Or better?

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 33:52

Yeah, well, so I will say frozen foods, you know, like we our recommendations are usually if it's frozen on on the Dirty Dozen, try not organic if it's frozen on the theme 15. But frozen foods are a really good way to get fruits and vegetables into your diet that might just be more practical in some ways than a fresh fruit and vegetable all the time. So it definitely goes in line with that, like eat more fruits and vegetables for sure. And if Frozen is the best option sometimes then like that's a good way fo get fruits and veggies into your diet.

Lisa Beres 34:19

Yeah, I agree. It is a lot more convenient. Let's be honest. It's great for smoothie stuff.

Ron Beres 34:24

Yeah, absolutely.

Lisa Beres 34:26

Well, Alexis, do you have anything that you want to leave listeners with any tips?

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 34:32

Yeah, I mean, just like to emphasize this tool. It's really supposed to be a tool, right? It's supposed to help you make the decisions you want to make for your family in a way that you can eat more fruits and vegetables and reduce your pesticide exposure. So it's kind of the best of both worlds.

Lisa Beres 34:48

Yeah, right. I mean, people really look for this list every year. I know I'm one of these nerds. You know, when it comes out. I'm like, You guys do like a big, it's coming. It's coming. It's like a movie premiere. Hear for us in the health community.

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 35:02

Oh my God, that's awesome.

Ron Beres 35:04

Alexa. Well, we wanted to end on a high note. But I did have a question that I forgot to ask earlier. Can you share about pesticides in baby food? Can you elaborate on this?

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 35:11

Yeah, sure. So I will say I will put a plug into like, stay tuned for next year for more baby food because basically the way our data works, so it comes from the USDA, they sampled a small amount of baby food last year. And they're doing a whole nother round of sample laying, like this year. So we'll have more data next year to talk about it. But we didn't take a look at the data. And baby food is interesting, because there's a lot of good news there compared to the baby food in the 90s, which really sparked a lot of legislation around making sure that children were more protected from pesticides. Baby food has way lower levels of those really toxic pesticides that we saw in the 90s. So there's a lot of good news there. That being said, Baby Food still has pesticides in it and so there's more work to be done in that regard. And then next year, we'll have more data and a better look at what the pesticides and maybe some.

Lisa Beres 36:07

Okay, mamas. Stay tuned.

Alexis Temkin, Ph.D 36:11

You know, sorry, I was gonna say that we just recommend are clean 15 Right. For baby food options. Clean 15 are probably good conventional. Organic for the Dirty Dozen. So same same thing goes or baby.

Lisa Beres 36:22

Okay, perfect. Okay, very good to know very important with babies with their developing bodies, that you're being extra careful with what you're feeding them as they grow. Well, thank you so much for being with us, Alexis. You can learn more about the 2024 shoppers guide to pesticides in produce at ewg.org/foodnews, and we will have the link in the show notes.

Ron Beres 36:46

Absolutely. Thank you, Alexis, and thank you friends. Be sure to rate review and subscribe to this podcast. We'll have all the links in the show notes at Ronandlisa.com/podcast. See you on the next episode. Bye.

Lisa Beres 37:00

Thank you. Thanks so much. I thank you.

This episode of the Healthy Home hacks podcast has ended. But be sure to subscribe for more healthy living strategies and tactics to help you create the healthy home you always dreamed of. And don't forget to rate and review so we can continue to bring you the best content. See you on the next episode.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai