and the award goes to.... the apple!

I try to feed my family as organic as possible, however, it's not always an option to buy everything organic. After doing some research, I found a helpful list of foods that use the most pesticides in farming and the apple is the clear winner with 42 different pesticides used. Some other offenders - peaches, bell peppers, celery, nectarines, strawberries, cherries, lettuce, imported grapes, pears, blueberries, spinach and potatoes. Obviously, you also want to try and buy organic meat and dairy products. I've also heard from different sources that there are a lot of pesticides used on wheat in the various stages of processing, so I buy organic bread and pasta.

Pesticides make me so nervous. I feel that they are so overused. My mother told me the story of one of her friend who grew up on a farm and he was the youngest in the family, so he never had to work in the fields. His sister was the oldest, so she was inside taking care of the household chores everyday. The other three siblings all worked in the fields and all three of them died of cancer. The other two are healthy to this day. I think the best thing you can do is avoid pesticides as much as possible. Don't spray your lawn, don't have the pest control spray your house for bugs and buy as many organic groceries as you can.

Speaking of cancer, I read an interesting article last night regarding a study where cancer cells were grown in a petri dish. They both thrive on glucose and fructose, however, the cancer cells reproduce more rapidly when given fructose. Here's a link to the article:

Fructose and Cancer

More on harmful sweeteners next time!

One last note - last week I talked a lot about dairy. I wanted to make it clear that I am a breastfeeding mother, so I had to cut dairy out of my diet completely because everything you eat ends up in your breastmilk. Additionally, reflux is not the only symptom of a dairy allergy. Some other symptoms include skin problems (eczema, rosacea, acne) diarrhea, constipation, ear infections and arthritis.