Pesticides provide vitamins with toxic side effects

Fruits and vegetables are important components of a healthy and balanced diet. But often they contain pesticide residues. Pesticides on fruits, vegetables or berries can easily get into the human body and make healthy natural products a risk factor. Some of the pesticides approved in Europe are suspected to be carcinogenic, to damage nerve cells, to disrupt the hormone balance or to damage fertility. The vast majority of pesticides are considered less dangerous, but they are not harmless either.

What are pesticides?

Pesticides are plant protection products that are used in the cultivation of fruit and vegetables against weeds, insects or fungi. To avoid risks for consumers, there are limit values for residues in the ripe fruit (Maximum Residue Limit (MRL). However, this residue limit is repeatedly exceeded or circumvented by the use of different pesticides, of which the individual no critical quantities can be demonstrated. But all this leads to a multiple toxic load. Science is not yet clear how dangerous such a pesticide cocktail is. Hundreds of possible combinations simply lack the data for a reliable judgment.

Parsley, basil, mint or chives are often “the icing on the cake” with many dishes. While only a few pesticides are allowed in the cultivation of herbs, in product tests, non-permitted substances and contaminated herbs are regularly found. Therefore, preferably buy herbs from organic cultivation or grow them yourself.

Vines are sensitive to many pests. That is why various pesticides are used in cultivation: against weeds, against fungi, against insects, against spider mites and against snails. The individual substances hardly give an overdose, but several residues together can lead to an excessive burden.

Lemons, oranges and grapefruit are hardly treated during the growth, but after the harvest they are regularly given a direct “pesticide shower”, among other things as a preservative against fungi. Some even get a wax layer to protect against moisture loss. If you don't eat the skin, you hardly need to worry. But anyone who bakes a lemon cake or squeezes orange juice should make sure that the fruit is untreated after harvest. But some producers also spray their resources on the fruits before harvest.

Who doesn't like to bite into a nice sweet strawberry or nibble on juicy blackberries? But due to their high juice and sugar content, they are also popular with fungi. To protect the sensitive berries against fungal infection, they are treated with a variety of fungicides.

Soft juicy lettuce leaves, especially those of Rucola, are a treat for aphids. And in some varieties, such as oak leaf lettuce, the insects can establish themselves well. When we harvest the lettuce in the garden, we take animals for granted. However, with lettuce from the refrigerated sections of the supermarket, we do not like lettuce louse. The producers also know this and that is why they treat the lettuce with pesticides. Rule of thumb: the more sensitive the leaf, the more pesticides are used.

Remnants of pesticides are also increasingly found in our violet stone fruits. The taste of plums pleases not only fungi but also small worms, which like to eat their stomachs before they grow into butterflies.

Cherries should be sweet, juicy and real vitamin bombs: they contain almost all B group vitamins and vitamin C, as well as valuable minerals such as iron and potassium. Unfortunately, they are often contaminated by pesticides. Because to keep worms and cherry fruit flies away, fruit growers are reaching for an abundance of sprays.

“An apple a day, keeps the doctor away” say the English. Unfortunately, these crunchy fruits are not always free from pesticides. Apple plantations are often sprayed several times per season, which leads to multiple loads. And with apples stored locally during the winter months, pesticides in the dark and cool environment also degrade less quickly and thoroughly.

Wash vegetables and fruit thoroughly Pesticide residues adhering to the surface can be significantly reduced when they are washed, preferably with warm water. Unfortunately, you don't get rid of pesticides inside the fruit this way.

Anyone who peels an apple or cucumber before use loses most of the pesticides. This method has one major drawback: vitamins and other valuable substances that occur in high concentration in the peel are lost.

Products grown outside the season in greenhouses often have a higher exposure to pesticides. The same applies to imported goods from southern countries. Instead, resort to regional products directly from the land.

Anyone who has varied fruit and vegetables also runs less risk of absorbing pesticides if a species is regularly more heavily exposed.