Pesticide-Laced Food and Cancer

Is it avoidable?

The Dirty Dozen food list

According to the EWG, the following conventional fruits and vegetables have the highest levels of pesticide residues :

1. Strawberries: Conventional strawberries consistently top the Dirty Dozen list. In 2023, the EWG found that 30% of all strawberry samples contained ten or more pesticide residues.

2. Spinach: 76% of spinach samples contained pesticide residues, including permethrin, a neurotoxic insecticide that is highly toxic to animals.

3. Kale, mustard, and collard greens. 86% of all samples of leafy greens were found to contain two or more pesticide residues, including the neurotoxins imidacloprid, bifenthrin and cypermethrin.

4. Peaches: Over 99% of the peaches tested by the EWG contained pesticide residues, with 65% containing at least four.

5. Pears: Over 63% of pears tested by the EWG contained residues from five or more pesticides.

6. Nectarines: The EWG detected residues in nearly 94% of nectarine samples, with one sample containing over 15 different pesticide residues.

7. Apples: The EWG detected pesticide residues in 90% of apple samples. What’s more, 80% of the apples tested contained traces of diphenylamine, a pesticide banned in Europe.

8. Grapes: Conventional grapes are a staple on the Dirty Dozen list, with over 96% testing positive for pesticide residues.

9. Bell and hot peppers: Sweet bell peppers contain fewer pesticide residues compared to other fruits and vegetables. Yet, the EWG cautions that pesticides used on sweet bell peppers “tend to be more toxic to human health.”

10. Cherries: The EWG detected an average of five pesticide residues on cherry samples, including a pesticide called iprodione, which is banned in Europe.

11. Blueberries: The EWG found that 90% of blueberries had pesticide residues, with 80% containing two or more.

12. Green beans: The EWG added green beans to the Dirty Dozen list after finding that 90% of samples contained pesticides, including acephate, a neurotoxin banned by the EPA in 2011.

Why Washing Fruit and Vegetables is Not Enough

"Rather than fostering undue apprehension, the research posits that peeling can effectively eliminate nearly all pesticide residues, contrasted with the frequently recommended practice of washing," study co-author Professor Dongdong Ye said.

According to food scientist and author of 150 Food Science Questions Answered, Dr. Bryan Quoc Le, the pesticides left behind on the skin of produce are fat-soluble, which basically just means they aren't as easy to get rid of.

"Most commercial [produce] operations already wash or rinse their produce for distribution and sale. However, effective treatments for removing the vast majority of pesticides [include] peeling, rinsing in chemical treatments, and blanching," Dr. Le tells Delish. "Other potential methods for reducing pesticide levels are pickling and fermentation, as microorganisms and acids help to decompose pesticides into harmless molecules over time."

If you're not planning to peel your fruit and vegetables, he suggests soaking the produce in a solution of salt, a solution of baking soda, or a solution of vinegar. "[This] will help to remove many of the pesticides found in produce."

The Hidden Health Dangers of Nuts

We all know that their thin skins make berries, peaches and apples amongst the most contaminated fruits when it comes to pesticides. So when I saw bags of organic nuts in the shops, I thought it was a bit of a joke: I mean, have you ever tried to hand crack a walnut or Brazil nut? It’s well nigh impossible without major tools. Their skins are so tough, they’re not even called skins – they’re shells! So it seems like it would be really, really difficult for pesticides to penetrate those, right?

While nuts may not be sprayed with pesticides on the tree when they are growing, guess what? They are sprayed once picked and cracked. And all nuts easily absorb pesticides because of their high oil content, so you really should buy organic, or shell the nuts yourself.

There are also often loads of pesticides and fungicides sprayed on nuts after they’re shelled. Cashews can be sprayed with endosulfan, a chemical which is very harmful to both humans and animals. Pistachios may be treated with phosmat, which, according to a study done by Cornell University, causes liver tumours and carcinomas and is extremely toxic to honey bees. Monsanto’s notorious, cancer-causing pesticide glyphosate may also be sprayed on pistachios to help the shell open, and DDT was found in two samples of nut butter at the last national testing done.

Walnuts normally have a lot of pest issues and so are usually super-saturated with pesticides and more chemicals than any other nut. Macadamia nuts are treated with atrazine, which has been shown to harm aquatic organisms, and there is some evidence that it has a negative impact on human reproduction.

Most nuts also contain traces of inorganic bromide, which is the result of the use of methyl bromide, which is applied to nuts to kill rats, mice and other pests while the nuts are being stored.

Methyl bromide is an ozone-depleting chemical whose use has already been stopped in some countries, as it is considered to be a dangerous chemical to use.

Now let’s talk specifically about the hidden health dangers of nuts that aren’t actually nuts: peanuts. They’re really a legume, not a nut, and grown in the ground where they have ample time and space to absorb loads of the pesticides they’re sprayed with.

Allergies to peanuts have inexplicably increased dramatically over the past few decades. Some claim that it may be because there are more of them in our diets, but that discounts the fact that in some cultures where peanut sauce is common (Indonesia, Thailand) nut allergies are far less.

Others argue that peanut oil used in some vaccinations may be the culprit, or perhaps it’s that we’re not as exposed to healthy, natural bacteria in the soil as we used to be. In any case, nut allergies have only skyrocketed over the past 20 years or so.

Adding to the nut misery is the fact that peanuts – and all nuts, in fact – which are grown in humid areas can potentially grow a mould that produces aflatoxin, a potent human liver carcinogen.

Liver cancer rates are often higher in tropical countries that consume a lot of peanuts and peanut sauces, due to the lack of regulation to kill off the mould. But when the mould is killed off, it’s usually with pesticide, so how can we win? Source

‘Safe’ Levels of Toxic Substances in our Food?

I made a journey to a number of settlements in the Canadian Arctic in 2012. I was told that recent generations of aboriginal people no longer hunted and fished and instead most had discovered the wonders of Chef Boyardee and other highly processed foods. I observed an epidemic of rotten teeth.

Speaking to some of the elders I was told that before the white man’s summer supply ships arrived to stock the shops with Coca Cola and Mars Bars, cancer was unheard of in the far north.

How Much Poison in Food is Safe?

Government agencies responsible for food safety set limits to how much poison can be contained in the foods we eat. Clearly they do not want us keeling over and dying after eating a McDonalds hamburger and fries, which are laced with Glyophosate and preservatives whose names could form an unhackable wifi password.

But are there any safe levels? And if you consume these toxins day and day out, do they not eventually accumulate in your body and cause cancer?

Is this outcome avoidable - and if so how? Answer

Related:

Vaccines are Population Control

The Dumbest Species Ever

A Near Fool Proof Cure for Cancer