[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/bone-nutrition\/pesticides\/#Article","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/bone-nutrition\/pesticides\/","headline":"Check the 2017 Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen from the Environmental Working Group","name":"Check the 2017 Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen from the Environmental Working Group","description":"Print PDF eBook Facebook Twitter Gmail LinkedIn Pinterest With farmer\u2019s market season upon us, it\u2019s a good time to remember to be careful when choosing your fresh fruits and vegetables. I recommend seeking out organic produce for one simple reason: chemical pesticides and herbicides are toxic. \u00a0While the amounts you eat may be tiny, their […]","datePublished":"2017-06-15","dateModified":"2026-04-06","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/author\/brownbetterbonesgmail-com\/#Person","name":"Dr. Susan E. Brown, PhD","url":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/author\/brownbetterbonesgmail-com\/","identifier":72,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8e08d87bd45250c6616e1752933a6576aba077f335d97ee337a0cde5e435cbd3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8e08d87bd45250c6616e1752933a6576aba077f335d97ee337a0cde5e435cbd3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Center for Better Bones","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Better-Bones-AMP.png","url":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Better-Bones-AMP.png","width":150,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/2017Dirtydozencleanfifteen.png","url":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/2017Dirtydozencleanfifteen.png","height":512,"width":1024},"url":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/bone-nutrition\/pesticides\/","video":{"@context":"http:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"VideoObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=8VrhiLnomkQ#VideoObject","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=8VrhiLnomkQ","name":"How to Avoid Pesticides in Your Produce","description":"Dr. Susan Brown of the Center for Better Bones explains why you should avoid pesticides in your summer produce and how you can use the EWG's Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen guides to find healthy fruits and veggies that fit your budget.\n\n\u2192 Want to learn everything you need to manage & reverse your osteoporosis\/osteopenia naturally in one inspiring weekend with Dr. Brown? Join our bone health retreat & workshop! Learn more here: https:\/\/shop.betterbones.com\/pages\/love-your-bones-love-your-life-virtual-retreat\n\n\u2192 If you are interested in working with Dr. Brown to develop a personalized natural bone health program, read more about consultations here: https:\/\/www.betterbones.com\/consultations\/help-osteoporosis-osteopenia-fracture-healing-bone-health-concerns\/\n\n\u2192 Would you like your questions answered by Dr. Brown?  Comment below and she may address them in a future video!\n\nCheck out our website! \u2192 http:\/\/ www.betterbones.com\n\nWant to connect with Better Bones on social media?\nLike on Facebook \u2192 http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/betterbonesbetterbody\n\u200bFollow on Twitter \u2192 http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/drsusanbrown\n\u200bFollow our Instagram \u2192 http:\/\/www.instagram.com\/betterbonesbetterbody\n\u200bCheck out our Pinterest \u2192 http:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/betterbonesbetterbody\n\n#osteoporosis #osteopenia #bonemass #bonehealth #weightandbonemass #womenshealth #drsusanbrown #betterbonesbetterbody #preventosteoporosis\n\nExercise for bone health: patreon.com\/betterbones\n\nTranscription:\nhi everyone this is Susan Brown at the\nCenter for better bones I'm really happy\nto be with you again on Thursday for our\nFacebook live chats we're going to try\nto do these chats as many Thursday's as\npossible 12:30 Eastern Standard Time so\nthat you have a chance to personally ask\nme your questions and also it's an\nopportunity for me to review some new\nresearch often I'm going to have a\nlittle discussion about what we spoke\nabout in the blog and in fact this week\nwe're going to talk about this whole\nidea of how to get the cleanest possible\nfruits and vegetables you know and this\nis very important to us because here at\nthe Center for better bones it's been\nreally two decades now that we've been\ndeveloping the better bones better body\nprogram this is the most comprehensive\nprogram that there is really in the\nworld on building bone health naturally\nand it's actually our mission to explore\nthe potential for everyone to maintain\nstrong bones all of their life and to\nactually begin rebuilding bone at any\nstage of their life a central part of\nthe better bones better body program is\nthe diet those of you who know of my\nwork know that we champion the alkaline\ndiet I written a book on it now see that\nlittle book over there that books\ntranslated into many languages a very\npopular topic because people all over\nthe world know that pH balance makes a\ndifference to their health and it makes\na very big difference to bone so the\nalkaline diet is a really big part of a\nbetter bones program the alkaline diet\nconsists of lots of vegetables in fact\nwe always say 2 cups of vegetables for\nlunch 2 for dinner\nsignificant fruits if you can do it and\nyou can use a low glycemic fruits like\nberries and citrus and that but\nsignificant fruits nuts and seeds herbs\nand spices and what we call some of\nthese smaller lentils some of those\nsmall pulses and of course those are all\nalkalizing now of course you're going to\nhave some protein which is acid form and\nyou're going to have some\nrains probably so they're always going\nto be acid-forming things but we put the\nmajority of our food to alkalizing and\nthe way you can tell start with those\ntwo cups of vegetables for lunch and\ndinner a few servings or fruit lots of\nnice spices nuts and seeds and how you\ncan see if your diet is actually\nalkaline you remember those of you who\nfollow my work probably know you can\nactually measure your pH and you can use\nthis little simple pH strip a little\nsimple pH strip and you can measure your\npH and you look for a first morning\nurine of 6.5 to 7.5 this is so important\nthat we've produced the whole pH test\nkit that you can just learn about the\ndiet you can learn how to test your own\npH it has my book and all that you can\nfind that all on our website at better\nbones comm but today I want to talk\nabout that challenge of getting\nvegetables that are the least\ncontaminated the purest the most\nwholesome as possible the alkaline diet\nis really a high vegetable diet so we\nwant to pay attention to the vegetables\nthis brings us to the blog topic for\nthis week which was this whole question\nof the Dirty Dozen you're probably all\nsomewhat familiar with this idea that\npesticides are abundant in our\nenvironment there is each human each of\nus Americans have 29 different\npesticides in the body a single apple\ncan be sprayed 30 different pesticides\nand what did I see a strawberries the\nrecent strawberries tested up to 6\npesticides in them actually all in all\nmore than 1 billion pounds of pesticides\nare used in the US and a lot of that\ngets back into","thumbnailUrl":["https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/8VrhiLnomkQ\/default.jpg","https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/8VrhiLnomkQ\/mqdefault.jpg","https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/8VrhiLnomkQ\/hqdefault.jpg","https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/8VrhiLnomkQ\/sddefault.jpg","https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/8VrhiLnomkQ\/maxresdefault.jpg"],"uploadDate":"2017-07-26T12:23:37+00:00","duration":"PT19M13S","embedUrl":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8VrhiLnomkQ","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCm6Zry9uGdrZpm05sQLIxMw#Organization","url":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCm6Zry9uGdrZpm05sQLIxMw","name":"Dr. Susan E. Brown","description":"Dr. Susan E. Brown, PhD, is a medical anthropologist, a New York State Certified Nutritionist, and the author of Better Bones, Better Body -- the first comprehensive look at natural bone health. Dr. Brown specializes in osteoporosis, osteopenia, bone health regeneration, and auto-immune disease. She is also famous for her natural approach to bone health; check out her Better Bones programs and products.","logo":{"url":"https:\/\/yt3.ggpht.com\/ytc\/AIdro_m0l08uY9k8RO1FbN8-VsYIOa8fiq9BtocNNM_k3xw7a7s=s800-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj","width":800,"height":800,"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=8VrhiLnomkQ#VideoObject_publisher_logo_ImageObject"}},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=8VrhiLnomkQ#VideoObject_potentialAction","target":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=8VrhiLnomkQ&t={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"},"interactionStatistic":[[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=8VrhiLnomkQ#VideoObject_interactionStatistic_WatchAction","interactionType":{"@type":"WatchAction"},"userInteractionCount":631}],{"@type":"InteractionCounter","@id":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=8VrhiLnomkQ#VideoObject_interactionStatistic_LikeAction","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":9}]},"about":["Bone Nutrition"],"wordCount":545,"keywords":["dirty dozen","clean 15"],"articleBody":" Print PDF eBook\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFacebook\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTwitter\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGmail\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLinkedIn\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPinterest\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWith farmer\u2019s market season upon us, it\u2019s a good time to remember to be careful when choosing your fresh fruits and vegetables. I recommend seeking out organic produce for one simple reason: chemical pesticides and herbicides are toxic. \u00a0While the amounts you eat may be tiny, their effects are likely cumulative. Science is just now starting to find ways to identify how trace effects change the body (Curl et al., 2015). But I say it\u2019s better to limit exposures to harmful chemicals, no matter how tiny, than play Russian roulette and hope for the best.But I\u2019m realistic! \u00a0I know buying all-organic may be out of reach of many people\u2019s budgets. So it pays to be savvy about what you buy from organic farmers, and what you get from conventional sources.Several years ago, I wrote about the Environmental Working Group (EWG) and their popular list they call the Summary, which identifies foods found to be high in pesticides even after washing or peeling.2017 Dirty Dozen & Clean Fifteen The Dirty Dozen list keeps changingI like to remind you about the Dirty Dozen because it\u2019s not something to check once in a while \u2014 you should review it every year, because the rankings change on a regular basis. For instance, apples had the highest level of chemical residues in 2012 \u2014 and stayed at the top of the list for three more years until strawberries took over. This year, strawberries are still the #1 most contaminated food, but apples have slipped to #4. Meanwhile, spinach \u2014 ranked #8 in 2016 \u2014 is now #2 on the list. And there are new entries as well: pears, ranked at #22 in 2015, have climbed all the way up to #6 as of 2017 because EWG found\u00a0that the amount of residue and the number of pesticides and fungicides more than doubled in those two years.In our global economy, your fruits and vegetables could come from down the road or the other side of the planet. You can\u2019t assume your grocery store is sourcing its produce from the same places all the time, or even that the farms\u2019 pest-control practices are the same from year to year. \u00a0If you have the ability grow your own fruits and vegetables, perhaps the EWG Dirty Dozen list can offer guidance on what to plant \u2014 but if you can\u2019t, let it help you determine which foods you should select from organically grown offerings in your supermarket. By the way, another annual list from the EWG is the Clean 15 list describing the 15 plant foods least likely to contain even trace amounts of chemicals. These are foods you can buy from conventional growers without much concern \u2014 though you should still make sure they\u2019re fresh and wash them before eating! ReferencesEnvironmental Working Group. EWG\u2019s 2017 Shopper\u2019s Guide to Pesticides in Produce™. Available at Summary (Accessed June 6, 2017).Curl C.L., Beresford S.A.A., Fenske R.A., et al. Estimating pesticide exposure from dietary intake and organic food choices: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). Environmental Health Perspectives 2015;123(5):475-483. doi:10.1289\/ehp.1408197.  Dive deeper into bone nutrition with our detailed guide to complete bone health nutrition guide.Read our evidence-based review of science-backed supplements for stronger bones."},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Bone Nutrition","item":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/bone-nutrition\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Check the 2017 Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen from the Environmental Working Group","item":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/bone-nutrition\/pesticides\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]