What is the Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen?

Hello!! This is a loooong overdue post but, I wanted to come on here and explain what these lists are!!

The dirty dozen and clean fifteen lists are updated every year since 2004 by the Environmental Working Group (EWG). This is a corporation that has a mission to promote "clean" products ranging from personal care, food, cleaning supplies, etc.

Personally, I use the EWG's app all the time to verify if the skincare products I use have allergy concerns or not.

These lists were recently released for 2022 and as the names imply, the dirty dozen focuses on those fruits and veggies with the highest pesticide residue and the clean fifteen, those who have the lowest pesticide residue.

Dirty dozen list for 2022:

1. Strawberries

2. Spinach

3. Kale, collard and mustard greens

4. Nectarines

5. Apples

6. Grapes

7. Bell and hot peppers

8. Cherries

9. Peaches

10. Pears

11. Celery

12. Tomatoes

Clean Fifteen for 2022:

1. Avocados

2. Sweet corn

3. Pineapple

4. Onions

5. Papaya

6. Sweet peas (frozen)

7. Asparagus

8. Honeydew melon

9. Kiwi

10. Cabbage

11. Mushrooms

12. Cantaloupe

13. Mangoes

14. Watermelon

15. Sweet Potatoes

So my job as a dietitian is to always provide clients/viewers with the most accurate information and help understand these kinds of topics. It is important for me to stay up-to-speed with these topics as more research comes up.

With this blog post all I want to do is teach you and help you understand what is out there so you're not confused and know what is best for you! I don't want to discredit anyone but just guide you towards your best path.

Now that you know what these lists are I want to clarify what this means and why they were created. We all know that in order to grow fruits and veggies, pesticides are used to prevent bugs and plagues to grow on them.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) evaluates these pesticides to verify which ones are toxic for consumption. They do state that all the pesticides used in conventional produce are below the dose that would be considered toxic. However, they test each pesticide separately and not the potential effects from the mixture of these pesticides. The EWG is always questioning this statement as we are not exposed to only one but a mixture of these pesticides.

Recent systematic reviews have reported that a lot of the research available is done with small populations, on a short term basis and usually the subjects in the organic food/produce group are health conscious people who tend to workout often, follow a vegan/vegetarian diet. All of this is worth mentioning since the potential health benefits that are noted may be associated with the lifestyle they have rather than just the consumption of organic food.

Recent studies have been implementing new things like including the measurement of pesticides in urine. Comparing subjects who consume organic food only vs. subjects who consume conventional foods. It was interesting that the subjects who consume conventional foods do show an increase in these substances in urine while subjects who consume organic foods was substantially low. Unfortunately, this was not correlated to anything that translates to a clinical aspect in order to create recommendations.

What I mean with this is that measuring these substances in urine is not that helpful if you are not identifying that these levels when they exceed a specific amount in urine can cause x, y or z problems. Just knowing that these levels are higher in subjects who consume conventional foods means nothing. Only that people are eliminating these substances from their bodies, which can be considered positive too.

TAKE HOME MESSAGE! As long as we don't have enough information to determine whether these pesticides cause specific conditions, we can't recommend everyone the consumption of organic foods. It is beneficial for everyone's health to consume fruits and veggies on a regular basis as they contain fiber, antioxidants and micronutrients.

As a clinician my job is to adapt nutrition recommendations to everyone, if organic products are not within your means, definitely go for the conventional ones. My purpose is for you to extract those health benefits from food rather than avoid fruits and veggies only for the pesticide residue and its "potential" harm.

If this information leaves you uneasy about pesticide residue and still can't spend more on organic produce feel free to clean your produce with an alkaline solution. Depending on the volume of produce to wash mix:

• 1 cup (8oz) of water with 1/8 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 gallon of water with 3 tablespoons of baking soda

Mix them well and soak your fruits and veggies with this water. This can eliminate the majority of pesticides in your produce.

If you have more questions, feel free to reach out to me! I am happy to help you!

References:

1. https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary.php#dirty-dozen. Accessed on April 20th, 2022.

2. https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/about.php. Accessed on April 20th, 2022.

3. Vigar V, Myers S, Oliver C, Arellano J, Robinson S, Leifert C. A Systematic Review of Organic Versus Conventional Food Consumption: Is There a Measurable Benefit on Human Health?. Nutrients. 2019;12(1):7. Published 2019 Dec 18. doi:10.3390/nu12010007