We explored the depths of relegating your microwave to the junk pile (or the basement...or to Salvation Army) in the last challenge. Onward and upward...today we forge our path toward (bum ba da baaaaaa) pesticide reduction.
Pesticide reduction? What the heck for? My direct and unfiltered answer: do you want cancer? Are you trying to make your kids totally inept and spazzy? Are you supporting the death of honeybees that make it possible for us to eat piles of produce? Do you even care about poisoning the land beyond recognition so that your offspring will have a world devoid of any nutrients and health whatsoever? (Like I said, unfiltered.) Consuming vast swathes of insane poisons sprayed all over your absorby food is straight up a TOTALLY INSANE IDEA that we blatantly overlook for no good reason. Just think about this for like two seconds. We spray things that kill living beings (no, I'm not on a specific "save-the-bug" bus here, I'm just pointing this out) all over our food (HELLO?) and then ingest it, thinking this is totally normal and nothing to worry about.
After all, the FDA and the USDA approve it, so it must be perfectly fine.
(If you believe that, step a little closer so I can slap your forehead for you.)
What if I told you that there was a nice quick and dirty (well, actually, maybe I should say "clean") way to avoid the bulk of pesticides?
There is.
The EWG is the Envoronmental Working Group (find them at ewg.org). They test every kind of fruit and veg you can imagine for pesticides and report it out to the public. Unfortunately for those of us in the United States, we have pathetic standards for what is safe (couldn't be from all of the lobbyists who beg for loose restrictions so that they can make buckets of money) and trail behind the standards of the countries of Europe. (Hello, Americans? Get up that competitive spirit and let's get in first place here!)
They have compiled a list of fruits and vegetables that contain the most pesticides so that if you were to purchase and consume them organically, you would automatically reduce your pesticide load by more than 90%. This is what they call the "Dirty Dozen". It is the top twelve fruits and vegetables that if you could buy organically, you really ought to.
What are they? Well, they change yearly (although they do have many of the same homies populating the list year after year) because they test yearly.
For every year I've looked at the Dirty Dozen, I've always seen the top two as they are this year: apples and strawberries. Those puppies are just LACED with junk.
Here is the Dirty Dozen, in order:
1. worst place: apples
2. strawberries
3. grapes
4. celery
5. peaches
6. spinach
7. sweet peppers (red peppers)
8. imported nectarines
9. cucumbers
10. cherry tomatoes
11. imported snap peas
12. potatoes
In each of those cases, you are chowing down on the outside of the fruit/veg where toxic chemicals have been directly sprayed.
The EWG also puts out the "Clean Fifteen" - the fruits and veggies that contained the least amount of pesticide residue. If you're on a budget and just can't buy everything organically, here are ones that you could best get away with doing so.
The Clean Fifteen, cleanest first.
1. avocados
2. sweet corn
3. pineapples
4. cabbage
5. frozen sweet peas
6. onions
7. asparagus
8. mangoes
9. papayas
10. kiwi
11. eggplant
12. grapefruit
13. cantaloupe
14. cauliflower
15. sweet potatoes
So. Will you consider reducing your pesticide load by perhaps switching to organic on some of these fruits and veggies? I know that this does have a cost component, but I would encourage you with two things. First, how much is your health worth? You know what Joel Salatin says, right? "If you think organic food is expensive, have you priced cancer lately?" That. Secondly, don't buy any prepackaged foods and you can save yourself enough money to put in the organic food basket. Prepackaged foods are devoid of nutrition and are sucking your life out of you, anyway, so it's a win-win.
I'm not here to boss you around and tell you you stink if you don't buy organic fruit. I'm here to encourage you to take a look at what you're doing. Don't just go on like a cog in a machine and go with the flow because everybody else is doing it (everybody else is also sick). You are not like everyone else. God made you special, sista/brotha!
The point is that it's just insane to look around at so much sickness and think if we just cross our fingers and throw salt over our shoulder we'll try to dodge that bullet. Do something about it. Today.
Your health is not a roulette game. Every move you make walks you toward or away from wellness. Just think about it.
Here is a very practical, instant, do something about it now change you can make.
Peace, love, and smell the delicious organic apples,
Ms. Daisy
It was a dark and stormy night... No. Actually, it just felt like a dark and stormy night. It felt like the worst day ever. How could they do this to me? How could I not see it before?
It was horribleness wrapped up in an innocent bow and the devastation of the truth of it made me question pieces of my very person.
What, pray tell, you ask?
Pesticide tea.
Wha? Yes. Pesticide tea. I have been drinking pesticide tea. AND I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW IT.
Now for some of you, you're thinking, "Big deal! Just get some new tea. Solved."
Yes. I know. And I did. BUT. You do not understand my relationship with tea. I love tea! Tea and I hang out every morning. We are homeboys. I have a teeny kitchen and I have dedicated an entire cupboard to my teas. I put less used kitchen items out of my kitchen into the basement while tea stood proudly by, showing its importance and priority and sticking out its tongue at the pie plate. And I totally let it.
People come over to my house and when we sit down for some dessert or for a chat, I bring out The Tea List. People say to other people, "Have you been over to Ms. Daisy's house for tea? She has a tea list!" I have organized my teas into category (black, green, white, herbal, rooibos, pu-erh, oolong, etc.) in descending order of caffeination groups. The bottom of the sheet has an explanation of the process of how various tea types are made (dried, withered, pan fried, fermented, etc.) in a handy-dandy flow chart.
Then, of course, I obey the proper temperature rules for each type of tea to serve up the perfect cuppa.
I do not collect ANYTHING...except for tea cups and tea pots. I would probably throw out my plates before I would throw out a tea cup. And I think the general idea of collecting is for ninnies who wish to one day graduate to a full-fledged hoarder, so it is with great love that these things get by in this house.
And so, Friday was rather disturbing to say the least.
I was reading on Food Babe's blog and laughing at her hilarious conversation with Lean Cuisine regarding their use of GMOs, while claiming that their product is "100% natural". (I'm glad I'm not the only one who calls companies to ask them questions like this.) Then, I ventured over to read about Trader Joe's and how even though they claim they are non-GMOers, that they don't disclose any information to prove it. This is also disturbing, but the last one put me over the top.
The side bar tempted me with, "Do You Really Know What's In Your Tea?"
"Oh no." I thought. "No, not tea too! Isn't anything sacred anymore!? What could there possibly be with tea? Do I even want to know?"
I thought I was pretty good. I thought I had a mostly clean lifestyle. I make my own laundry detergent, lotions, deodorant and pick only EWG safe makeup to avoid putting the chemmicals on my body. I eat organic fruits and veggies, and when possible, choose local organics (even if they're not certified - I just ask the farmer what they're doing, and if it passes the standards, it's in.). I drive crazy distances to get eggs from someone's free-ranging back yard, get grass fed beef from a farmer I know and milk from the same. I only eat organic chicken (gotta avoid the heavy metals in the conventionally raised ones *cough*cadmium*cough*) and get out to the farmer's markets when I can to get local, free range chicken. The last time I had a sip of pop was over a decade ago, and we go out to eat about 4 times a year (it would be zero, but there are other people in the house who like it on occasion). The vitamins we eat are from organic food-based sources. I make kombucha, for cyring out loud! I got rid of the microwave, I never use plastic with food and I've cut the use of white sugar and flour almost 100% in our house. I mill my own grains to bake bread with and can the veggies that grow in the garden.
But THIS! This! I overlooked it! HOW could I overlook it? I don't know.
But I did.
Until last Friday. Sad Friday. Sad eyeball-opening truth Friday. I thought I was safely out of the last frontier and then this one came about.
ARGH!
I clicked on it, hoping it wasn't quite so bad.
I was totally el-wrong-o.
Let's start out with the fact that most tea isn't washed off before it is bagged up and almost all tea is sprayed with pesticides. 91% of Celestial Seasonings teas were tested by a third-party and found to be over the allowable pesticide limit. Their Sleepytime Kids Goodnight Grape Herbal contained a pesticide called propachlor (at 0.26 ppm), a known carcinogen under California's Prop 65. Their Wellness teas contained propargite, another carcinogen and developmental toxin. Wow. What wellness you have there, Mr. Fox.
I went to the cupboard and pulled those out. Bummer. That was like 9 boxes. But I did get it from the grocery store, so I figured my loose teas would be safe. After all, I got them from Teavana.
Guess what tea brand Food Babe exposed next? Yep. Teavana.
I would think they would be a bit better than Celesital Seasonings, however.
HOWEVER.
Let's try worse. One hundred percent of all Teavana teas contained pesticides. ONE HUNDRED PERCENT. Every single one. Every beautiful canister. 100%. All. As in, if you've got Teavana in your stash, you've got pesticides. 62% of their teas contained endosulfan, a pesticide that was banned in the U.S., China, the E.U. and 144 countries because of its danger to the unborn. It has been linked to impaired fertility and harming unborn babies. Monkey Picked Oolong (the super expensivest one) tested positive for 23 different pesticides.
Glad we paid a bit more for poison. Not.
They also throw in artificial flavors. That's not very high-end of them.
Then you've got to watch out for GMOs in your tea. Some teas (like Trader Joe's) contain soy lecithin. Others contain corn starch. Warning, warning, warning. (That's the red lights going off in your head.)
Well, maybe you don't care too much about sticking pesticides into boiling water and drinking it, so let's talk about the other danger with tea - their bags. You've either got the cheap papery-type or the fancy "silky sachets" (which sometimes are advertised as "biodegradable". You'd think the silky sachets are uber high end and you're safe. Hello, didn't we already learn that lesson with Teavana?
Silky sachet bags are either made from plastic (hi, BPA!) or (GMO likely) corn. If they're made from food grade nylon, then we have to deal with PET (polyethelyne terephthalate). Stick that in your boiling water and leach it. Plastic breaks down at those higher temperatures. If it is there, it's getting in your tea.
Well, then, phew. Paper bags must be a-okay. WRONG. Most of the paper tea bags are treated with something called epichlorohydrin. This is an ingredient in epoxy resins and is a fantastic multitasker as a pesticide. Bad news. When it comes into contact with water (HELLO?), it changes to 3-MCPD, which is a carcinogen, causes suppressed immune function and kills male sperm cells.
So, what to do?
Buy organic. Call tea companies you love and ask them what kind of crack they're on. If you have an organic tea and it is in a toxic bag, cut open the bag and steep your tea in one of those little stainless steel mesh thingies.
Buy teas that don't contain GMOs.
Tell your friends and family and save their lives. Serve them the good stuff.
For me, I sat on the kitchen floor like a sad puppy while I checked brands and pulled them all out of the cupboard. I put the 40+ teas into a bag and gave them away (even though I warned people that I was giving them away because of pesticides...). I went to the health food store and bought a small pile of organic teas and have been trying them out. I am sad about missing my favorite tea, Typhoo, but perhaps one day they'll all come around.
Until then, I've got to work up a new collection and organize and formulate a new and improved tea list.
Peace, love and sippa cuppa clean tea,
Ms. Daisy
