By Colleen, age 11
This week Mom asked me to research the dirty dozen and clean 15 to help us figure out which organic fruits and veggies to get in our Green Bean Delivery order.
Did you know that everything on the dirty dozen list had at least 47 different chemicals and some had as many as 67? (That is what it said of pbs.org.) That is gross and also scary! It is like eating a chemical cocktail.
I am surprised that apples are on the dirty dozen. I would have thought they were clean 15-ers because they have a skin. Berries, I can see why they are on the list — no skin. But apparently I was wrong. I guess the problem is because you eat the skin.
So here is the list, Mom. Now you have to remember to customize our Green Bean order. (I will remind you since you always forget everything!)
The dirty dozen
- celery
- peaches
- strawberries
- apples
- domestic blueberries
- nectarines
- sweet bell peppers
- spinach, kale and collard greens
- cherries
- potatoes
- imported grapes
- lettuce
The clean 15
- onions
- avocados
- sweet corn
- pineapples
mango- sweet peas
- asparagus
- kiwi fruit
- cabbage
- eggplant
- cantaloupe
- watermelon
- grapefruit
- sweet potatoes
- sweet onions
90in9 
Wow, I didn’t realize they had that many chemicals on them. The sad thing about the list is that kids eat so many of those foods. Apples, grapes, blueberries. My youngest used to eat 2 apples a day for years.
She wasn’t so big on sweet onions!
Thanks for the new information.
When I was losing weight I’d always want a snack right after leaving the grocery store, and frequently I’d eat some fruit before I had a chance to wash it. I suppose that was better than eating junk food, but it grosses me out now to think of it.
The sad thing is, I don’t think anyone has done any research on how this stew of chemicals works in our systems. How could they?
The variety of chemicals and concentrations are too many to study. The fact that we don’t have some sort of toxic reaction in our bodies and die is remarkable. (well, atleast not die immediately)
I don’t have any good solutions. Even if you eat all organic, there are many other sources of bad stuff in our environment.