Beware of Killer Convenience Foods!

It happens almost every time I go grocery shopping. I stand in the produce section, shopping list in hand, and compare prices between organic fruits and vegetables and those that were grown using chemical pesticide sprays. The organic versions usually win out, even though I might have to adjust my list to accommodate the higher prices.

But it’s not only fresh fruits and vegetables that retain dangerous pesticide and herbicide residue. Many of the packaged foods we eat are loaded with chemicals. According to tests conducted regularly by the FDA, this is the unhealthiest handful:

Bread. Grains of all kinds are routinely sprayed with insecticides. In its most recent analysis, the FDA detected malathion on most samples of bread (rye, white, and whole wheat), as well as on flour tortillas and crackers.

Breakfast cereals. Wheat-based cereals harbor the same bug-killer residue that bread does. Beyond that, most popular breakfast foods are made from corn, soy, and/or sugar derived from sugar beets — three crops that are genetically engineered to withstand massive doses of pesticides.

Ketchup, spaghetti sauce, and salsa. Commercial farmers spray the heck out of tomatoes in the field, so these three and other tomato-based foods retain significant pesticide residue. The most common is 2-chloroethyl linoleate, which has been linked to nerve and liver damage.

Frozen dinners. It’s no secret that these convenience foods are laced with heaps of sodium, artificial flavorings, and other nasty junk. But some of them — particularly frozen lasagna and burritos — have been found to contain organophosphate pesticides in the same class as DDT.

Snack foods. Pretzels and crackers — especially butter crackers, graham crackers, and saltines — contain high levels of organo-phosphate pesticide residue. And potato chips are notorious for their supply of a nerve- and liver-damaging pesticide called chlorpropham. It’s widely used on safflower and soybeans, the source of the oils in which many chips are fried.

The takeaway? If you’re going to use these convenient ready-to-eat foods, fork over a little more money for the organic versions!