The Dirty Dozen: 12 Fruits and Vegetables That You Should Buy Organic

When making the switch to organic foods, it can be pricey.  I recently read EWG’s Dirty Dozen list of fruits and vegetables that have the most pesticides and should probably be purchased in the organic section of your grocery store.  Switching to organic foods was not an easy decision for our family, but necessary, considering three out of four in our family had major health issues such as diabetes, asthma, and anemia. (Make sure to pin the image above to save it).

Once we made the switch, we started purchasing most of our organic food at our local Aldi. We were able to buy many organic foods that had USDA organic labels at a fraction of the cost of other stores. In fact it was about the same price for organic spring mix at Aldi than for non-organic at another big box store.

EWG even has an awesome app you can download so you can make smart shopping choices while you are at the store. I keep this handy, and I have it open on every shopping trip where I’m buying product.  It gives you food scores so you know when it’s better to spend for health and when you should save by buying non-organic.

When our family switched I thought our grocery budget would go through the roof, and instead we have spent less overall in our budget, because we are starting to make other ecological and economic lifestyle choices. So, yes, in a sense our food budget did go up, but our heating expenses have gone down with our Nest thermostat, wool dryer balls, and homemade essential oil products. So eating healthy and organic actually saved us money in the long run.  Now for the list of foods….

The Dirty Dozen

12 Worst Foods Containing Pesticides

• Peaches
• Apples
• Sweet Bell Peppers
• Celery
• Nectarines
• Strawberries
• Cherries
• Pears
• Grapes (Imported)
• Spinach
• Lettuce
• Potatoes

 12 Foods Containing the Least Amount of Pesticides

• Onions
• Avocado
• Sweet Corn (Frozen)
• Pineapples
• Mango
• Asparagus
• Sweet Peas (Frozen)
• Kiwi Fruit
• Bananas
• Cabbage
• Broccoli
• Papaya

Comment below and let us know if you have switched to organic.