Lifestyle

Kale is One of the Dirty Dozen, Most Pesticide-contaminated Vegetables

By  | 
Tony Maples Photography

 

Kale has become a powerful dietary staple as of late. However, recently, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) added it to their “Dirty Dozen” list of the 12 most pesticide-contaminated fruits and vegetables in America.

Although it didn’t make the list last year, kale took third place in the “Dirty Dozen” list this year. Some of those who have grown to love the food and incorporate it into salads, and smoothies may soon be considering eliminating it from their diets. Thankfully, there is a bright side. If you want to continue eating it and love how it helps to round out your meals, there’s no reason you can’t grow kale in your own home garden.

Video: YouTube/Burpee Gardens

The video above teaches you everything you’ll need to know about growing kale in your own garden at home, thus negating the fear that you’ll be consuming something that’s slathered in pesticides. Following the 2017 analysis of tests that were performed by the US Department of Agriculture, the EWG reported that the average kale sample contained over five types of pesticides in trace amounts even if each sample was thoroughly washed. Although scientists are only just in the process of determining the possible linkages between disease and the consumption of pesticides, the variety of materials in existence that links them to such things as cancer, autism, and diabetes are growing. It may, at times, seem difficult to grow your own fruits and vegetables in some parts of Texas. However, considering the availability of good quality soil and the concept of eating food that’s been grown at home, under a family’s watchful eye and without the use of pesticides, food from a home garden seems far more appealing than eating something that could result in disease. The best recommendation in this instance is to be mindful of such lists as the “Dirty Dozen” by the EWG, determine what your family consumes, and how best you can grow certain foods at home. You can mitigate the results of consuming something you’re uncertain of if you plant it yourself, maintain it yourself, and prepare it in the fashion of your own choosing.