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40 Top Paleo Recipes - Quick and Easy Paleo Diet Recipes

Why you must wash your pre-washed salad

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If you buy a pre-washed ready to eat bag of salad leaves, do you tip straight out onto a plate – or do you thoroughly wash it first? The whole idea of bagged salad mixes is convenience, so it’s no surprise most people don’t wash.

40 Top Paleo Recipes - Quick and Easy Paleo Diet Recipes

But how do they wash the salad before they bag it? Well it turns out diluted chlorine is commonly used. The chlorine is used to kill any harmful bacteria to ensure the lettuce is safe for our consumption. Seemingly even organic produce is allowed to use a weak chlorine solution for this purpose. Whilst there is supposed to be no trace of the chlorine 24 hours after treatment, do you trust your salad to be chemical free?

With outbreaks of e-coli and salmonella, it’s not surprising the salad growers are keen to sanitise their product. With salad available all year round the pressure is on to produce a cheap product – often meaning growers don’t provide sanitary conditions for their workers – hence the contamination risk. Unfortunately sanitising salad doesn’t remove the risk of contamination, it just makes it less likely.

So what’s the answer? If pre-washed salad could still be contaminated and could contain traces of chlorine is it worth paying the price premium?

Wash your own

A far better option is to spend a fraction of the cost buying fresh, unpackaged greens. Get rid of any wilted, torn or bruised leaves and let them sit in a sink full of ice cold water for 20 minutes. Use a salad spinner to get rid of the water and roll in paper towels to get the rest of the water out. If you store in plastic bags with paper towels to absorb any remaining water, they should remain fresh for over a week in the fridge.

How to you wash yours?

Clean 15 the dirty dozen organic fruit vegetables pesticides paleo network-min

Clean 15… and the dirty dozen (updated list)

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Unfortunately so much of the fresh produce we eat isn't subject to the growing conditions we'd like. Toxic chemicals, such as fertilisers, sewage sludge, pesticides and herbicides can be used during the growing process. Pesticide use is widespread in conventionally grown produce and certain fruit and vegetables are found to have particularly high levels of pesticide residue.

Even washing your fruit and veggies before eating won't get rid of all traces of pesticide residue. With ADHD, fertility problems, autoimmune issues, thyroid problems and certain cancers possibly linked to intake of pesticide residue, it's definitely something to be avoided.

Clean 15 Dirty Dozen Paleo Network Organic Pesticides-min

Of course, if we could we'd all grow our own produce, or at the very least buy everything organic… but in the real world it's not always possible. Every year pesticide residue levels are meausres and an updated Clean 15 and Dirty Dozen list is published. The Dirty Dozen list (which has actually now grown to 18 items!) is the high pesticide level produce – and the Clean 15 is the produce with the lowest levels of pesticides. If you have to buy non-organic, try to avoid the Dirty Dozen and pick from the Clean 15 list.

And of course, if you're buying imported produce, remember the country of origin may have a completely different pesticide regime – so try to buy local!

Here's the updated lists:

Clean 15

Asparagus
Avocado
Cabbage
Eggplant
Grapefruit
Kiwi Fruit
Mangoes
Mushrooms
Onions
Pineapple
Rock Melon
Sweetcorn
Sweet Peas
Sweet Potato
Water Melon

Dirty 18

Apples
Blueberries
Broccoli
Capsicums
Carrots
Celery
Cherries
Cucumber
Grapes
Kale
Lettuce
Nectarines
Peaches
Pears
Potatoes
Spinach
Strawberries
Zucchini

If you're on a tight budget, I can't recommend farmers markets enough – go at the end of the day and you should get some good deals on local, organic produce. Better still, start a small veggie patch – that way you'll know exactly what you're eating.

The Dirty Dozen clean 15 organic fruit vegetables paleo diet-min

The Dirty Dozen

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I’d love to grow all of my own organic fruit and vegetables.  Failing that, I’d love to buy everything organic from a really good local source.  Sadly, in the real word, financial constraints mean I can’t afford to buy all of my produce organic.  I prioritise my spending towards very good quality, grass fed, organic meat, as I feel that this is extremely important.  When it comes to buying fruit and veg, this means I just cannot buy everything organic.  I therefore have to choose a few items to buy the more expensive organic versions of, with the remainder being the cheaper non-organic versions.

Why Organic?

Organic farming is a more natural approach, free of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO’s) and synthetic chemicals (such as herbicides, growth promoters, hormones and pesticides).  Crops are rotated and naturally good soil promoted – this produces far more nutritious produce with higher levels of vitamins, minerals, enzymes and antioxidants.  The chemicals used in non-organic farming may also remain on the fruit and vegetables we eat – some of these chemicals have been linked to cancers and nervous and endocrine problems.  These chemicals and farming methods are not Paleo or optimum for our help.  The purpose of the chemicals is to make farming more profitable.

Dirty Dozen Veggies

How to Choose?

Initially, I’ll shop around to see where I can find good quality produce at good prices.  Often certain suppliers will have good offers, or end of day reductions.

I often use the “dirty dozen” rules to decide what I should buy the organic version of – and what I am more likely to be able to get away with eating the non-organic version for.

The dirty dozen is based on testing in the US on a wide range of fruit and vegetables.  The items were tested for residual amounts of pesticides and compares, to provide a “dirty dozen” list of items that frequently contain high levels of chemicals.  The list also includes items which consistently tested with very low levels of residual chemicals.  Whilst this list was compiled in America, I think it is still of value in Australia and New Zealand, as pesticide absorption seems to be based on the structure of the plant and how porous and thick the skin is.

The Dirty Dozen

The dirty dozen produce seems to vary slightly depending on where you look, but these are commonly featured: –

  • Apples
  • Pears
  • Peaches
  • Nectarines
  • Grapes
  • Strawberries/ Blueberries
  • Cherries
  • Capsicum
  • Celery
  • Spinach
  • Lettuce
  • Potatoes

Fortunately, not eating starchy tubers, I don’t eat potatoes.  I also don’t eat much fruit, as I'm trying to minimise my sugar consumption.  This makes my “must by organic” list quite reasonable.

How much of your intake is organic?  How do you prioritise what to buy organic?

The Dirty Dozen clean 15 organic fruit vegetables paleo diet-min