The “Dirty Dozen”: Reality or hype?

Last week, I bought a 4-pound carton of strawberries for under $5, or about $1.25 a pound. A couple days later, I visited a trendy new grocery store and saw organic strawberries priced at $2.99 a pound.

Granted, most people who shop at that upscale store can probably afford to pay an extra $1.75 a pound for organic strawberries.

And sometimes, shoppers are willing to spend more because they have heard celebrity doctors or chefs make unscientific claims that organic fruits and vegetables are better for you.

But let’s face it, family budgets are tight. With the price of everything from gas to clothes to movie tickets going up, it’s tough to shell out more money for groceries.

Fortunately, you don’t have to spend extra for organic fruits and vegetables if it doesn’t fit your budget.

Research shows that conventionally raised produce is just as a safe and nutritious as organic produce, says Catherine Strohbehn, a registered dietician and food safety specialist at Iowa State University Extension.

In fact, Strohbehn says the actual risk of pesticide exposure from fruits and vegetables is extremely low.

Yet that hasn’t stopped the activist Environmental Working Group (EWG) from releasing its “Dirty Dozen” list earlier this month.

According to the EWG, the fruits and vegetables on its list carry the highest amounts of pesticide residues in the produce aisle. And guess what? My beloved strawberries ranked No. 3 on the list.

Yet what the EWG glosses over is that the pesticide residues found on fruits and vegetables sampled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture are well below government thresholds.

According to the researchers at the University of California, an average-sized woman could eat 2,042 servings of strawberries a day without any effect from pesticide residues. For children, the number is 1,508 servings of strawberries a day.

Now I eat a lot of strawberries. But after the first two servings, I’m ready to stop eating, or at least switch to bananas.

As a dietician, Strohbehn says she’s concerned that the headline-grabbing antics like the “Dirty Dozen” list are discouraging people from consuming the recommended five servings or more of fruits and vegetables each day.

The health benefits of eating fruits and vegetables far outweigh any potential risk of pesticide exposure, Strohbehn says.

No matter what types of produce you buy at the grocery store – organic or conventional – be sure to wash it before serving to your family, Strohbehn stresses. And don’t forget to wash your hands, too, when handling food.

To read an expert’s take on pesticides exposure from fruits and vegetables, visit the Best Food Facts website: http://www.bestfoodfacts.org/main/food_for_thought/0/42.

Written by Teresa Bjork
Teresa is a features Writer for the Iowa Farm Bureau.

Seeing through the hype as “food experts” carp about food choice

Had a carp steak lately? How about a helping of carp fillets or maybe a heaping basket of carp fritters?

I’m betting the answer is a resounding “no” for most of us. And we’d all be pretty surprised to discover that there was a government campaign launched about a century ago to get Americans to eat more carp. The ugly fish filled up lakes and streams at the time and were viewed as an economical source of protein.

Obviously the “Eat the Carp” campaign was a flop. Carp may be a delicacy in some parts of the world, but didn’t catch on here. There are just so many other delicious and affordable sources of protein, like pork, beef and lamb, which make a lot more sense for American palettes.

But the fishy food campaign of the early 1900s does show how food recommendations come and go over the years. It’s also a good example how American consumers over the years have been able to cut through the hype and use good common sense to choose a nutritious and balanced diet.

Nobody that I know of is pushing carp these days, but there is no shortage of people on television, in magazines and everywhere else who are telling Americans how to eat. Celebrity chefs take cheap shots at everything from eggs to chocolate milk. Activists falsely accuse corn sweeteners of being the prime source of obesity in America. And groups like the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS continue to push their anti-meat agenda with events like Food Day, which is scheduled for this October. It goes on and on.

Basically, these folks are trying to shame consumers into giving up their choice of foods.

There was a recent cartoon that caught my eye. It showed a few poor consumers shackled in stocks, the kind the Puritans used to shame lawbreakers. The offenders’ crimes: eating salt, carbs and whatever else the food police determined was forbidden.

I chuckled at the cartoon, but there’s a lot of truth to it.

Today’s farmers are producing an almost endless variety of foods that offer consumers affordable, healthy choices: choices that our ancestors could hardly imagine.

Yet many so-called experts today seem determined to shame consumers into feeling guilty about choosing.

In the end, we’ve got to hope that today’s consumers see these food campaigns for what they are: attempts to keep consumers from making their own choices of nutritious foods for themselves and their families.

It didn’t work with carp, did it?

Written by Dirck Steimel
Dirck is the news services manager for Iowa Farm Bureau.