BoomerGirl Diary

When Nancy O’Connor is giving nutrition education classes, she often is asked which foods are most important to purchase from the organic shelves.

Sometimes people can’t afford to buy both the organic papaya and the organic celery.

“The price tag is a little higher,” says O’Connor, outreach and education director at the Community Mercantile in Lawrence, Kan. “So sometimes they have to make a decision.”

A recently released study aims to give shoppers some practical advice when it comes to buying organic.

The Environmental Working Group, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy organization, released its new version of “The Shopper’s Guide.” The guide uses U.S. Department of Agriculture data from tests on fruits and vegetables to determine which, on average, have the highest and lowest amounts of pesticides and other chemicals on them.

The fruits with the highest levels of pesticides — deemed the “dirty dozen” by EWG — include peaches, apples, sweet bell peppers, celery, nectarines and strawberries.

The fruits with the lowest levels of pesticides were onions, avocados, frozen sweet corn, pineapples, mangos and asparagus.

The best, worst

Organic food — the type grown without pesticides and other chemicals — generally is more expensive than conventionally grown produce. A University of Arizona study found organic food was 44 percent to 90 percent more expensive than its conventional counterparts.

“People can’t always afford to buy organic,” says Jovana Ruzicic, a spokeswoman for the EWG. “And if you live in some necks of the woods, there might not be as many organic options as you have here in Washington, D.C.”

In general, foods eaten after they’ve been peeled carry less pesticides than those eaten with the peel. That’s because the peel acts as a barrier for the chemicals.

Ruzicic says the idea for the guide is for shoppers to prioritize which fruits and vegetables they should buy from the organic section.

“We’re by no means saying, ‘Never buy a nonorganic apple,’” she says. “A contaminated apple is still better than fries and a burger.”

The guide’s recommendations were based on 43,000 tests on produce done by the USDA between 2000 and 2004. The analysis showed consumers could cut their chemical intake by almost 90 percent by avoiding the most contaminated fruits and vegetables.

Case-by-case

Sharon Dobesh, pesticide and integrated pest management coordinator for Kansas State Research & Extension, says it’s difficult to generalize too much about the pesticide content on particular fruits and vegetables.

That’s because how much pesticide is on a particular apple in the grocery store is dependent on a variety of factors, including where the apple is from, what time of the year it is, how soon before harvest the apple was sprayed and how it was transported to the store.

Still, Dobesh thinks there is value to tracking the pesticide levels over time.

“It’s not a one-shot deal,” she says. “The produce they’re recommending consistently doesn’t have pesticide levels in them.”

Dobesh says more producers are getting involved in “integrated pest management,” which gives shoppers another option. IPM uses some traditional organic techniques such as planting trap crops, which are crops that are more attractive to pests than the cash crop. But it also gives farmers the option of using pesticides — usually the least harmful varieties — as a last resort if the other measures don’t work.

Either way, Dobesh says there’s an easy way to take care of most of the pesticide problem.

“It depends on how the consumer handles it when they get home,” she says. “Are they good about washing produce when they’re going to use it? Or do they just cut it up and use it?”

Here to stay

O’Connor says she generally tells people to buy organic foods that have higher fat contents, since the fat can harbor more chemicals. That includes meats and dairy products.

She notes that interest in organic products is growing, with larger supermarket chains adding organic sections.

“When big players like Wal-Mart start selling organic, it’s not a trend anymore,” O’Connor says. “The whole issue of organic is big right now, and its position in the mainstream market. Consumers, in their zeal to change their diets for better health, are bombarded with all sorts of seemingly conflicted information.”

That includes use of terms like “sustainable,” “local” and “natural.” If you’re confused about the terms, O’Connor suggests seeking out local producers who can tell you exactly how their foods were grown.

“You can have dialogue with the grower,” O’Connor says. “It’s another place you can make a choice to control what does and doesn’t come into your diet.”