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| Painting by Matthis Grunsky |
Why You Should Serve
Organic Fruits and Vegetables to Children
By Jacqueline AsteteClose your eyes and imagine yourself in the comfort of your employer’s kitchen, making the kids lasagna. Imagine you are just about to add your final ingredient, the pièce de résistance, a tomato. Now, take a bottle of Windex and generously spray the tomato with the blue glass cleanser. Next, take another tomato and don’t spray it with glass cleaner.
With just one tomato to add to your lasagna, which tomato would you choose? Which tomato would you eat or serve to the children in your care?
Obviously, you would choose the tomato without window
cleaner on it. Whenever you reach for a
fruit or vegetable (to eat yourself or to serve to children) I urge you to
remember this image of Windex being sprayed on the fruits and vegetables you
are about to serve.
Organic foods are produced using methods that do not involve synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers, do not contain genetically modified organisms, and are not processed using irradiation, industrial solvents, or chemical food additives.
Some synthetic pesticides have been linked to causing
cancer. When farmers spray carcinogens on their fruit and vegetable crops,
those chemicals are later served to the children in our care. If you wouldn’t
serve a tomato with Windex sprayed on it to a child, why would you serve foods
with carcinogens on them to children?
“The Dirty Dozen” is a popular term for the 12 fruits and vegetables found with the most synthetic pesticides on them. With Earth Day coming up this Sunday, April 22, 2012 I urge you to consider making one simple change this week. Just consider choosing organically grown fruits and vegetables this week, especially those listed as the Dirty Dozen below.
The Dirty Dozen:
- Apples
- Celery
- Strawberries
- Peaches
- Spinach
- Nectarines
- Imported Grapes
- Imported Sweet Bell Peppers
- Potatoes
- Blueberries
- Domestic Lettuce
- Kale/Collard Greens
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