A Guide to Organic Fruits and Veggies

Fruits and Vegetables
When it comes to fresh fruit and veggies, the best thing you can do is to eat more of them -- organic or not. "If you're not eating enough fruits and vegetables overall, then buying organic is like worrying about pennies but not dollars," says Suzanne Havala Hobbs, DrPH, RD, clinical assistant professor in the department of health policy and administration at the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Joel Fuhrman, MD, author of Eat to Live and Disease-Proof Your Child, agrees. "Pesticides are not the main factor in determining things like cancer, heart disease and diabetes. The main factor is that the American diet gets less than 10 percent of calories from fresh fruits and vegetables, beans, nuts and seeds."

That said, "there is some justifiable concern that chemicals are potentially harmful," says Dr. Fuhrman, "but you don't have to eat completely organic. If you avoid the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables, you can eliminate more than 90 percent of your pesticide exposure."