Washing fruits and vegetables
Many people do not properly clean up their fruits and vegetables before consumption. It is especially important to clean the fruits and vegetables that are going to be eaten raw to rid them of residual farm material, bacteria, and possibly parasites. This applies both to conventional and organic produce.
It is easier to clean the larger, firmer produce. These can be rinsed under running water and brushed thoroughly with a produce brush, but how about things like leafy vegetables, grapes, or other similar produce?
There are a few different ways of cleaning soft or small produce. I like one that uses the anti-bacterial power of hydrogen peroxide. A good procedure is given by Paul Pitchford in healing with whole foods. To clean produce, soak them in a solution of 1 TBSP of hydrogen peroxide to one gallon of water for 20 minutes and then rinse them thoroughly.
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Do you think that the pre-washed bags of greens are not safe to eat directly out of the bag?
wow hydrogen peroxide to clean my fruits and veggies?!?! that sounds a bit extreme to me. don't you think all this hyper-sensitivity to cleanliness is only making our immune systems weaker? e.g. antibacterial soaps, using antibiotics for the smallest sniffel, cleaning and cleaning and cleaning our homes and our kitchens and wiping our childrens hands with antiseptic wipes and carrying around all this hand sanitizer crap... our parents didn't do any of this non sense. i think it's all hype and brainwashing from companies with strong marketing campaigns. it's a simple scare tactic that the media always uses when they want you to do something or watch their program. advertising is evil and we don't even realize it.
malini, i say eat your triple washed greens straight from the bag! i do
I think you are a bit confused. Excessively using antibiotics and antibacterial soaps are not good and in fact have the opposite effect. However, removing pesticides and other farming supplies, as well as parasites and bacteria from produce is just good practice. I guarantee that your parents washed their food before they ate it, they had a lot more sense in the old days.
The real brainwash is when someone blindly trusts the "washed" label on food when just last year a bunch of people got infected with E.coli from bagged spinach.
I do agree that hyper sensitivity to cleanliness makes our immune system weaker, but the answer is moderation, not the opposite extreme. If you don't take reasonable action to protect yourself, you don't improve your immune system, you just get sick a lot.
agreed.... everything in moderation. i do wash my veggies and fruit, but i bet the spinach in the salad bar at whole foods and giant in not washed after it's taken from it's bag.
just great - now i'm second guessing eating from the whole foods salad bar. do you think its clean?
I think it is always a risk when you eat out....but I would rather eat at the Whole Foods salad bar than any other salad bar. Once I was given fruit (cantaloupes and melons) from the "Giant" salad bar and when I took my first bite, it tasted like some sort of meat! Obviously, the fruit was cut on the same cutting board or with the same knive as the meat.....but this is the risk you take when you eat out....anywhere! But you have to live life....and you will be surprised how immune your body is!
On a second note, I would limit the use of "anti-bacterial" soaps/wipes......as it does get rid of the bad bacteria....you are also killing the good bacteria your body needs! The good, old-fashioned way of using regular soap and water is the best to clean hands!
As for fruits and vegetables, I would definitely clean with water, at a minimum, eventhough the container states that it has been "triple-washed".
The best thing we can do with regard to the food we eat is to prepare it ourself, or have a loved one prepare it for us.
Cleanliness of the food we eat is a very important factor. The food we eat should be clean. But this is not the only factor.
The state of mind of the person who prepares our food affects our state of mind when we eat that food. So if the person preparing our food is happy, if they are calm, if their attention is on something positive when they prepare that food, then it will also benefit us when we eat that food. Eating that food will have a calming effect on us.
If, on the other hand, the person preparing our food is angry, then that anger will get passed and also affect our balance.
We know where our attention is when we are preparing our food. And we trust that our loved ones also will focus their attention appropriately when preparing our food. But we don't know very much of the state of mind of the person working at a restaurant or grocery store who is preparing our food.
For that reason, it is better that we prepare our own food or have a loved one prepare it for us. And our attention when we prepare that food and when we eat that food should be on something positive.
Having said that, understand that this is an ideal. We can strive for this ideal, but we must also understand what is practical for us in each of our situations.
If we can prepare our own food each day, that's great. But we have many responsibilities, many priorities in life. Sometimes, it is not possible for us to always prepare our own meals. Sometimes, we don't have the luxury of having a loved one prepare our food for us. So we have to make appropriate choices.
Choosing to eat at a place like Whole Foods is probably better than many other choice we could make.
Having made that choice, let us try not to over-analyze the situation. Let us try not to worry whether they are cleaning the food before they prepare it. The reason that we are eating at the Whole Foods salad bar and not getting a salad from Denny's is that Whole Foods is more aware of healthy food preparation than Denny's. This is evident in the presentation and selection in their salad bar.
If we cannot let go of that worry, then perhaps it is better for us to not continue to eat there and make other arrangements for our meals.
I hope this helps your second guessing.
Happy eating!
I see your point, and without trying to sound obsessive...The world that our parent lived in was different, the microbes were different... the rate at which they mutate and evolve is very high. This can be seen based on the rate at which they develop resistance to drugs. A few years ago Penicillin effected individuals very differently than it does today even at higher doses. Am I suggesting freakin out.. no, but I believe there is merit to the statement of greater attention to cleanliness. I see us fighting a stronger opponent.
i disagree. i think the more clean we try to make our lives, the weaker our immune system gets and the more battles we'll lose against our stronger opponent. i say let the kids play in the mud and eat the dirt, it won't kill them but will make them stronger!
i agree our parent's generation was different. and the more i think about it, the more i want to do things the way they did.... e.g. my dad said to use baking soda to brush teeth 25 years ago and we laughed at him, he also put a label on the box of white sugar my mom used for chai that read "sugar - slow poison" and we laughed again.....they bought produce that were not genetically modified.... they didn't have anti bacterial soap and they didn't carry purel with them....
i'm going back in time...
If that was the case, then school age children would have rock solid immune systems and never get sick since they are always around many other kids that are sick or carry germs. But that is not the case.
perhaps they are not eating enough dirt. ;-)
LOL! good one...
I'm okay with eating greens out of the bag, however I do normally wash the rest of my produce by filling up my sink and letting it soak for a few minutes. I've not added hydrogen peroxide to it as I just feel that it taking it a bit to the extreme, but then I think about that product that you add to the water to wash your produce, Flit I think. That seems to be a big seller here. I think it also depends on the grocery store you choose. There are a few in my town that I only go to only in the case of an emergency and wash everything after I get it home. Then there is another that I've watched them opening the cartons and washing the fruit and veggies themselves before they put it out for sell. It is the more expensive store in my area, but well worth it I think.
Hi,
Try a water-vinegar spray, as suggested here. You could also fill rinse your fruits and vegetables in a more diluted combination. Vinegar is a wonderful product in the kitchen.
except it stinks!! any suggestions on getting around that?
indeed, vinegar isn't exactly thought about as aromatically pleasant. but you can rinse with water after cleaning with a vinegar-water solution :-).
hey, if you dont mind me asking, which store is it where they wash the produce before putting it out?