KC and Monica Craichy share how you can pick healthy fruits and vegetables for your family.
Audio Transcript
KC: Welcome to Living Fuel TV. I’m KC Craichy. This is my wife, Monica. We come to you today with a subject that should be important to everyone viewing today. It’s regarding how to pick the healthy fruits and vegetables. Most of us know that we’re supposed to eat, at least, five servings of fruits and vegetables and some of the agencies are now saying nine servings of fruits and vegetables. Most of which are vegetables because fruits have a lot of sugar in it. It’s a double edged sword, but nevertheless. So we know to eat these things, and many of us know that pesticides and herbicides are a real problem, and genetically modified foods are also potential issue in our health. But what we don’t know is which fruits are OK and which aren’t, how to recognize organic versus not organic versus genetically modified. So today we’re going to tell you about a code called a PLU code. It’s a price lookup code essentially. As you go to the grocery store, you know that you go through there and they have a little sticker on the, say, apples and the fruits, and they run that across the computer. Each of these fruits may have a number on them, and the number is more revealing than just the price. If you get to look at these numbers; Monica, tell them about the numbers.
Monica: Well, the ones that are conventionally grown, and we’re talking about in the grocery store, when you go and you’re in the produce section there’s the different codes. The first one that I’ll tell you about is the conventionally grown and that means it has been raised with chemicals but for instance a banana would be a 4011. So it’s a four digit code. Now, an organic produce, an organic banana, would have a nine in front of the 4011. Then, the genetically engineered, which, KC, tell them about genetically engineered grow fast. Well, I’ll tell them the code. It has an eight in front of it, 84011. So organic is the nine in front and genetically engineered is the eight. But tell them what genetically engineered is.
KC: Genetically modified foods are genetically modified seed and normally, like you can have a tomato with a gene in it from a salmon, for instance. So that someone who is allergic to fish could actually eat a tomato and end up with an issue.
Monica: But why do they put that gene into the tomato?
KC: Well, the gene is not there for your benefit. The gene is there for the grower’s benefit. So the whole goal of genetic engineering is increased crop yield. So increased crop yield is diametrically opposed to your health.
Monica: And really scientists don’t know the long-term ramifications of what this genetic modification would do.
KC: Absolutely not. There are no studies, as you said, regarding the health implications of genetically modified foods, and 70% plus of the produce on the grocery shelf is genetically modified produce.
Monica: And doesn’t that include all food, even boxed food?
KC: Boxed food, for sure.
Monica: All of it.
KC: So we encourage you to eat organic but one of the questions we always get is, hey, I’m on a budget, how do I eat organic?
Monica: You know what I say? I say you can’t afford not to eat organic. I mean, sometimes the vegetables are not there, depending on the season or whatever, but I think if you pay a little more now, then you’re going to have to pay less in the future towards the end of your life.
KC: It’s very true. But again, you can get in situations where they’re not available. Let’s say you’re on vacation and you see a bowl of apples or a bowl of fruit and you pick it up. The sticker generally is still on it. So what does that sticker mean? Let’s avoid the ones with the eight in the front, the genetically modified produce. Avoid that. In fact, I’d rather you skip a meal than to eat genetically modified produce. Secondly, the chemicals that are put on crops, there’s thousands of chemicals and some of them cause weight gain. Some of them cause all kinds of disorders in people. Some people are more sensitive than others. Kids, pregnant mothers, the fetuses, the babies that are unborn, they’re very susceptible to these pesticides. So again, when you can avoid the produce with the a four, it’s a four digit produce number with the number four in the beginning.
Monica: That’s just the conventionally grown.
KC: Conventionally grown. Now, the nine is organic. Anytime you get nine, praise God, that is awesome, go for it. But now today, recently, a study came out by EWG that actually did a study. Now, we’ve heard for years, here’s the ones you can avoid, here’s the ones you can eat that are non- organic. And so today we’re going to tell you, the ones that you should avoid at all costs from a pesticide perspective. Because pesticide load is a cumulative load for the most part and you get them in a lot of places. The stuff they’re spraying onto your lawn. The stuff they’re spraying on your neighbor’s lawn. The stuff that’s on your vegetables and your produce and so on. So Monica, could you talk to them about what they call the dirty dozen in this study?
Monica: Yes. Well, the thing is, too, when somebody gets their yard sprayed or your neighbor gets it done, you can’t do anything about it. But we want to empower you to do something about what you can do and the choices that you can make. So this dirty dozen is, the worst is celery. The second one is peaches, the second worst. The third worst is strawberries. Then there’s apples, blueberries, nectarines, bell peppers, spinach, kale, cherries, potato and imported grapes. Those you must try to get organic whenever you can.
KC: Avoid those.
Monica: And if you can’t get them organic, then just avoid.
KC: I hate to say avoid vegetables. It’s hard enough to get people to eat vegetables and French fries doesn’t count, guys. So now let’s go ahead and empower them with what you actually can eat that’s not organic that actually has a minimal pesticide load, herbicide load.
Monica: The best one is onions. Number two best is avocado. Then, sweet corn, pineapple, mangoes, sweet peas, asparagus, kiwi, cabbage, eggplant, cantaloupe, watermelon, grapefruit, sweet potato and honeydew melon. So those, that list is the conventionally grown fruits and vegetables that are ok. They’re the least in pesticide load.
KC: Again, they still have a modicum amount of pesticide, some more than others but again, it’s about minimizing the pesticides. You cannot eliminate them. They’re just everywhere. But minimizing the pesticides and herbicides and chemicals that you put into your body. One other thing they want to put on the dirty dozen list or the dirty side list is conventional coffee. If it’s coffee that is conventionally grown, with herbicides and pesticides, it is one of the most sprayed crops on the planet.
Monica: I read somewhere that there was up to like 90 chemicals on that one crop alone.
KC: Right. On coffee crops. So if you’re going to drink coffee, conventional coffee, either check out our SuperCoffee or drink organic coffee. It’s very important.
Monica: And you’ll have to tell them your coffee story at a later time.
KC: Another day. That’s a different story for a different time. But we hope today that you’re able to take this information and use it. We’ll give you a link to the study that we just referenced on the site. So please come back and check it out or check out other shows to continue to empower yourself with information. God bless you and have a great day.
