The Best Produce Money Can Buy?!
To maximize the nutritional benefits from produce and to decrease exposure to pesticide residues and toxic metals, choose organic produce whenever you can. A challenge to buying organic produce is that it’s generally more expensive than conventionally-grown(1). The Environmental Working Group has generated a list of produce with the highest pesticide residues called, “The Dirty Dozen.” Here’s the link to their 2020 list: https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/dirty-dozen.php. If you have financial constraints, focus on purchasing the organic fruits and vegetables with the highest pesticide residues. Remember, the benefits far outweigh the risks even when consuming conventionally grown fruits and vegetables. So, organic when you can, wash like heck when you can’t.
Background
The 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends that adults consume 1.5-2 cups of fruit and 2-3 cups of vegetables per day.(2) And yet, according to a recent report from the CDC(3), about 90% of adults fall far short of meeting these recommendations. The CDC maintains it’s important because fruits and vegetables have many positive health benefits, which when enjoyed in the context of a plant-slant diet, have been shown to reduce the risk of many chronic diseases, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, some cancers and obesity.
Given the health imperative to increase fruit and vegetable intake, does the nutritional quality of produce depend on the kind of produce, organic vs conventionally-grown, or where it’s purchased, conventional grocery stores or natural/health foods stores or local farmers’ markets?
Organic vs conventionally-grown produce
Organic produce must be grown without synthetic pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, irradiation, sewage sludge, hormones, antibiotics or genetically modified organisms, per USDA guidelines.(4) Conventionally grown produce, in contrast, can and more often than not, does use the above mentioned items. There appears to be no significant difference in their vitamin and mineral content.(5) However, according to a recent systematic review(6), a wide range of antioxidants were found to be substantially higher in organic crops; many of these compounds have been linked to reduced risk of common chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and neurodegenerative disease.(7) Furthermore, a higher frequency of organic food consumption has been shown to be associated with a decreased risk of developing non-Hodgkin lymphoma and postmenopausal breast cancer.(8) Also, pesticide residues were 4 times higher in the conventional crops, which also contained significantly higher concentrations of the toxic metal, cadmium.(6)
Conventional grocery stores vs natural/health food stores vs local farmers’ markets
The bulk of produce sold in conventional grocery stores is conventionally-grown. However, with the increasing demand for organic produce(9), organic food sections are expanding in conventional grocery and health food stores. Local farmer’s markets are public and recurring assemblies of farmers or their representatives selling the food they produced directly to consumers.(10) Sale of organic produce is increasing there as well,(9) however, you’ll often need to ask individual sellers if their fruits and vegetables are organic.
US Department of Health and Human Services; US Department of Agriculture. 2015–2020 dietary guidelines for Americans. 8th ed. Washington, DC: US Department of Health and Human Services; US Department of Agriculture; 2015. https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/guidelines/
Barański M, Srednicka-Tober D, Volakakis N, et al. Higher antioxidant and lower cadmium concentrations and lower incidence of pesticide residues in organically grown crops: a systematic literature review and meta-analyses. Br J Nutr. 2014;112(5):794–811. doi:10.1017/S0007114514001366
Del Rio D, Rodriguez-Mateos A, Spencer JP, Tognolini M, Borges G, Crozier A. Dietary (poly)phenolics in human health: structures, bioavailability, and evidence of protective effects against chronic diseases. Antioxid Redox Signal. 2013;18(14):1818–1892. doi:10.1089/ars.2012.4581
Baudry J, Assmann KE, Touvier M, et al. Association of Frequency of Organic Food Consumption With Cancer Risk: Findings From the NutriNet-Santé Prospective Cohort Study [published correction appears in JAMA Intern Med. 2018 Dec 1;178(12):1732]. JAMA Intern Med. 2018;178(12):1597‐1606. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2018.4357
https://farmersmarketcoalition.org/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMInZatyKn66AIVjSCtBh1FngfeEAAYASAAEgIVd_D_BwE
