Organic or Not? How to decide...

Top pesticide offenders in the produce department

It seems that every day, stores are carrying more and more organic items. Generally, organic items cost slightly more, so families are left questioning if organic items are necessary. I had the same questions. If money were not an object, you bet we’d all buy only organic foods. However, we live in the real world of bills and budgets, so here’s some information to help you make this decision for your family.

The Facts:

USDA’s most recent report of produce testing reveals widespread pesticide contamination on popular fruits and vegetables (USDA 2008):

• USDA found one or more pesticides on 70.3% of samples tested.
• The agency found a mixture of between 5 and 13 different pesticide residues tainting one of every 10 samples (10.4%) of fruit or vegetable analyzed.

According to the Environmental Working Group’s analysis of USDA and FDA data:

For infants 6 to 12 months old, commercial baby food is the dominant source of unsafe levels of pesticides in food. Every day, about 77,000 infants are exposed to unsafe levels through eating baby food preparations of apple juice, apple sauce, pears and peaches. The authors stress that baby food is generally safer than other foods parents may feed their infants.

"The point is not that parents should avoid feeding baby food to their children, the point is that pesticides in baby food are not safe for babies. Baby food should not have any pesticides in it at all. We think if you ask parents, they will agree," said Wiles. "In the meantime, organic baby food provides parents with an added measure of safety," Wiles added.

http://www.ewg.org/node/20168

Imported fruits and vegetables can be laced with chemicals not approved for use on U.S. food and not tested by FDA inspectors.

The effects:

Although dozens of pesticides have been routinely detected in human tissues, we still know little about their effects on the body. The few pesticides that have been studied in people, like neurotoxic organophosphate compounds used on some fruits and vegetables, find increased risks for neurological problems in children.

Many pesticides now illegal for use on popular fruits and vegetables have been replaced by new pesticides that claim emerging safety concerns. One new class, neonicotinoids, has been restricted in numerous countries because the compounds are toxic to honey bees in miniscule quantities and are implicated in the global die-off of these vital plant pollinators (EPA 2010). Recent laboratory research suggests that these pesticides are toxic to the brain and nervous system. EPA is slated to reassess neonicotinoids for safety in 2012. In the meantime, the agency has approved six of these pesticides for use on U.S. foods, and the compounds now widely contaminate produce, including apples, peaches, broccoli and blueberries.

The bottom line: Americans need to eat more fruit and vegetables to be healthy. What should we do?

The EWG has published two lists: the “dirty dozen” and the “clean fifteen.” These lists tell you the worst offenders and the cleanest examples in the produce department. When looking for items on the “dirty dozen,” try to go organic. If your grocer doesn’t carry those items in their organics section, request them. Stores would rather carry what you want to buy.

The Full List: 49 Fruits and Veggies

Rank	Fruit or Veggie
1 (Best)	Onions
2	Avocado
3	Sweet Corn (Frozen)
4	Pineapples
5	Mango (Subtropical and Tropical)
6	Sweet Peas (Frozen)
7	Asparagus
8	Kiwi Fruit (Subtropical and Tropical)
9	Cabbage
10	Eggplant
11	Cantaloupe (Domestic)
12	Watermelon
13	Grapefruit
14	Sweet Potatoes
15	Honeydew Melon
16	Plums (Domestic)
17	Cranberries
18	Winter Squash
19	Broccoli
20	Bananas
21	Tomatoes
22	Cauliflower
23	Cucumbers (Domestic)
24	Cantaloupe (Imported)
25	Grapes (Domestic)
26	Oranges
27	Red Raspberries
28	Hot Peppers
29	Green Beans (Imported)
30	Cucumbers (Imported)
31	Summer Squash
32	Plums (Imported)
33	Pears
34	Green Beans (Domestic)
35	Carrots
36	Blueberries (Imported)
37	Lettuce
38	Grapes (Imported)
39	Potatoes
40	Kale / Collard Greens
41	Cherries
42	Spinach
43	Sweet Bell Peppers
44	Nectarines
45	Blueberries (Domestic)
46	Apples
47	Strawberries
48	Peaches
49 (Worst)	Celery

You can find a pocket-sized printable of the “dirty dozen” and the “clean 15” at the link below.

http://static.foodnews.org/pdf/EWG-shoppers-guide.pdf

You can also get an app for iPhone with the two lists to help make shopping easier.

My advice:

The effects of pesticides are felt most by our youngest. Current American safety guidelines are written for adult exposure. As adults, we take 1000 mg of acetaminophen when we have a fever, but we would never give that much to our toddler. Not only is the exposure level different, but babies and young children are in a crucial developmental time when their brains are growing and changing by leaps and bounds. The likelihood of something "going wrong" is much greater at this time. They need to be protected from harmful agents.

So how do we eat more fruits and veggies, protect our children, AND balance our grocery budget?

If you're buying an item on the "dirty dozen" list, try to find an organic source for it. Tell your grocery store manager that you would like for them to carry it, or look up a local farmers' market. Pick fruits and veggies from the "clean fifteen" in your regular, non-organic produce isles. You can save money there and not worry about large exposure to pesticides.

If you are fortunate enough to have outside space, why not plant a fall garden? We are much more likely to eat and appreciate our food if we put the effort into growing it ourselves.

Avoiding pesticide exposure is important for everyone. Babies, young children, and pregnant women are the most susceptible to neurological effects. I hope that I've provided some food for thought.

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The Chemistry of Taste

Being a scientist by training gives me a unique perspective in the kitchen. You see, for me, the kitchen is like my own little laboratory. Chemical and physical changes take place, homogeneous and heterogeneous mixtures are formed, colloids are used, I mass things and measure volume, and I even time reaction rates. Sounds like a chemistry lab, right?

My own curiosity about why things work has led me to create a new section on my blog dedicated to educating my readers about the science of cooking. I think that is why I love cooking so much. Cooking is both art and science. It is my form of creative expression, yet it feels comfortingly enough like science. I promise to bring you enough information to be helpful and interesting, and I will try not to bore you with too much detail. So here goes the first topic!

The sense of taste is the result of a chemical reaction between compounds in foods and receptors in our tongues. Our taste buds on different regions of the tongue are sensitive to different types of tastes. You can think of it as a lock and key situation. Flavor molecules have specific shapes and fit into receptors on the tongue that are shaped to receive them. But that is not the end of the story. These flavor bearing molecules must be released from the food by being dissolved in something. That’s the tricky part. First, let’s learn a little bit about molecules.

Most of the things we eat were alive at some point in their past. It doesn’t matter if you’re a vegetarian or an omnivore, you’re eating something that is a carbon-based life form. The simplest form of carbon-based molecule is the hydro-carbon. Putting it simply, a hydro-carbon is a chain of carbon atoms that is surrounded by hydrogen atoms. The hydrogen outer layer acts like a shield against polar molecules such as water. In a water molecule, there is a positive charge center near the Hydrogen end and a negative charge center near the Oxygen end. So it has two poles: + and -. Because simple hydrocarbons are not polar molecules, they cannot be dissolved by a polar molecule. Oil and water don’t mix. So these flavors need the presence of fats or oils to dissolve them and release their flavors. Did you ever wonder why “low fat” versions of your favorite foods were severely lacking in flavor? If there is no fat or oil in the food to release the fat-soluble flavor molecules, you will not be able to taste them.

Now there are some more complex hydrocarbons that are not simple chains. They contain benzene rings and other structures and are known as aromatic hydrocarbons due to their strong odor. This tends to give a slight polarity to the molecule, so it will be partially dissolved by water. Like dissolves like. Vanillins, including Vanilla of course, are a prime example of this type of molecule. They are light molecules, so the readily evaporate and are easily smelled. They are also dissolved by water so are easily tasted.

Most easily dissolved by water are polar, inorganic compounds such as salts. The salts dissociate, or break, into separate ions when dissolved in water. They are easily delivered to receptors on our tongues to be tasted. That’s why food that is too dry is less flavorful than moist food.

And yet there is another way to release flavor. Some molecules are soluble in alcohol. Molecules like capsaicin are soluble in oil and alcohol. Capsaicin is a fatty molecule with a long hyrdo-carbon tail that repels water. Capsaicin is responsible for the burn when you eat hot peppers. Capsaicin opens a door in the cell wall that allows Calcium ions to flood in. That triggers a pain signal which is passed to the next cell. The same thing happens when cells are exposed to heat. The solubility of capsaicin explains why drinking water after eating a hot pepper doesn’t work. If you want to dissolve the molecules and wash them away, have a cold beer or margarita. Or better yet, have a glass of milk. The casein in milk loves fat and will wash the fatty capsaicin molecules away.

Cooking meat with alcohol is a common and popular practice for this very reason. Using red wine when cooking beef will dissolve flavor molecules that are untouchable by water and oil. That’s why the depth of flavor is so shocking (and delicious). Glutamic acid is found in beef and in many other flavors that pair well with it. When two of these flavor compounds are together, the flavor effect can be eight times as intense. These flavors include aged cheeses, red wine, bacon, mushrooms, soy sauce, and tomatoes to name a few. Think of your favorite dishes that pair some of these ingredients. Alone, they are good, but together they are fabulous. It’s all in the chemistry of taste!

I hope I've given you something to think about as you cook. Play around with water-based liquids, fats, and alcohol in your cooking and see what delicious flavors you can unlock!

Keep lovin' and keep cookin'.