For a healthy nutrition without pesticides!

My son running in an organic blueberry field in Outaouais (Québec, Canada) during the summer of 2020

We were all looking forward to it, the Environmental Working Group EWG’s 2023 Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce™ was just published. And it's with surprise and disappointment that we can now find on the dirty list blueberries, many's favourite berry fruit mainly for its antioxydant properties.

What are the Clean Fifteen and the Dirty Dozen?

Each year since 2004, EWG publish a new guide that classifies 46 popular fruits and vegetables based on their contamination level to pesticides. The guide is based on the results of tests conducted by the United States Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on more than 46,000 product samples. It is important to note that the samples are tested for pesticides by the USDA and the FDA after being prepared for consumption. This means that the product has been thoroughly washed and, if necessary, peeled. After these preparations, pesticide residues are still detected on many fruits and vegetables.

The guide two main list:

• The list of the 12 most contaminated food based on their high level of pesticides found on them that can cause health issues (Dirty Dozen).

• The list of the 15 cleanest food on which we find none or very few traces of pesticides (Clean Fifteen)

EWG's 2023 lists

In the Dirty Dozen™ list, starting with the worst one, we can find:

1. Strawberries

2. Spinach

3. Kale, Collard and Mustard greens

4. Peaches

5. Pears

6. Nectarines

7. Apples

8. Grapes

9. Bell & Hot peppers

10. Cherries

11. Blueberries

12. Green beans

In the Clean Fifteen™ list, starting with the best, we can find:

1. Avocado

2. Sweet Corn

3. Pineapples

4. Onions

5. Papayas

6. Sweet peas

7. Asparagus

8. Honeydew Melons

9. Kiwi

10. Cabbage

11. Mushrooms

12. Mangoes

13. Sweet Potatoes

14. Watermelon

15. Carrots

The conclusion of the guide is clear: too many pesticides are still found in too high quantities on too many products that millions of people consume every day.

Even though the guide is based on foods grown in the United States, we can still refer to it here in Canada considering that our grocery stores have a lot of American products on our shelves. In addition, many pesticide practices in Canada are similar to those in the United States.

Why should we care about the level of pesticides in our food?

Any exposure to pesticides is a problem, given what researchers know so far about the ways they can harm humans. But the findings are of particular concern for children, who are particularly vulnerable to pesticide exposure.

Being exposed to a variety of pesticide-free foods is especially important during pregnancy and throughout childhood, experts say. Developing children need good nutrients, but are also hit harder by contaminants such as pesticides.

By their nature, pesticides are toxic. They were created to harm living organisms that are thought to plague our cultures, and this inherent toxicity has implications for the health of children, including potential risk of hormonal dysfunction, cancer and damage to brain development and nervous system.

And it's never better explained with a little touch of humor than in this interaction between father and son from the movie Strange World, my children's new favorite movie on Disney+. The father, Searcher Clade, realizes that his son hasn't done one of his chores on the land and says to him, "Looks like someone forgot to weed the north field" And his son, Ethan, replies:

Father, what is a weed, other than a plant growing somewhere that you find inconvenient

If it's approved by Health Canada and the FDA, shouldn't this then be okay for human consumption?

This is what we would like to be true but unfortunately this is not always the case. The main pesticides used in agriculture are insecticides, fungicides and herbicides. For more than 40 years, our governments have known about the harmful impacts on our health and our environment of the use of pesticides. But it's often for reasons of conflicts of interest and corporate interests that nothing changes drastically. Many of these pesticides could easily be avoided. According to Jean-Marc Bonmatin, researcher at the Center for Molecular Biophysics in France and vice-president of the Working Group on Systemic Pesticides:

The vast majority of pesticides are not useful and it is possible to do otherwise.

How to best choose our produce?

In an ideal world, all food would be organic and grown on a bio-dynamic farm, agricultural producers would all use farming techniques in symbiosis with nature to ensure biodiversity and the government would ensure that no chemicals is authorized for human consumption. But we unfortunately no longer or not yet live in this world. The last century has seen the light of day with so many new harmful human practices, it is impossible yet to grasp the full impact on the health of humanity and our environment.

So what can we do? Here are my recommendations:

1. Choose mainly organic products

2. Prioritize organic products especially for foods listed in the "Dirty Dozen"

3. Prioritize local and seasonal foods

4. Meet the farmers in your area (in the farmer's markets, directly on their farm, and encourage their good work)

5. Sharpen your critical sense and refine your knowledge on the subject

How to learn more?

• Follow EWG news by subscribing to their newsletter to always have an up-to-date list of products to watch.

• Subscribe to my newsletter to stay informed about nutrition, plant-based food and health.

• Read the book Pour le bien de la terre from Louis Robert, agronomist for nearly 35 years at the Quebec Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and specialist in soil management.

• Watch the documentary The Biggest Little Farm

• Watch the documentary Merchants of doubt

• Watch in family the movie Strange World to spark a discussion with your kids on environment