question for everyone - to wash or not
I'm curious to hear your opinions on fruit and vegetable washing. I come across plenty of articles online about this topic and the consensus seems - wash your produce. So do you wash your apples? Wash and peel carrots? Lettuce? Do you wash regularly, or let a peach sneak through once in a while? Do you live on the edge and eat your grapes without washing them? Let me know!
5 comments:
I do, if only because I hate the taste of dirt.
Never.
It depends:
No wash/soak: Fruits like banana or things like garlic or onions.
Quick rinse: Mushroom, zucchini, carrots (it will be peeled anyway), et al.
Running water for a moment: Tomatoes, oranges, broccoli, gai-lan, et al.
Soak: Spinach, watercress, salad type leafy greens, et al.
Depends what it is. If I am peeling, no wash, same goes for if I grew it and it wasn't on the ground (my "organic" raspberries), but yes if it is covered in lots of dirt (my carrots), might have lots of bugs (spinach when the slugs come out), or if I bought it from the store and it was likely covered in chemicals its entire growing life.
Thanks everyone. Thought I would add some twitter comments I received as well;
quickly rinse everything. don't peel carrots for the most part... just rub dirt off the root veggies.
quick rinse for most stuff. I'm pickier w/loose insect-hiding things (eg romaine). I've read eating a bit of dirt is healthy.
Which then led me to the NY Times article - Babies Know: A little dirt is good for you. (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/27/health/27brod.html?_r=1) Interesting thoughts to spur the conversation maybe.
I personally have mixed approach. After eating pretty dirty food while I lived in a shack in the Guatemalan jungle, I don't have any concerns about my food and what's on it. I do realize though, the food we get in the west has a lot more chemical saturation - something that probably wasn't there in the jungle.
I do however clean most vegetables and fruits accordingly (akin to you Kim) when I have/feed company. I have no problem eating an unwashed apple, carrot, grape etc..but know and respect that most people wouldn't be too happy.
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