How To Stay Healthy By Avoiding Toxins in your Food – Part 1

Last updated: May 2026

There are two separate, yet integrated, pathways to staying healthy. The first looks like adding positive things to your life: exercise, healthy food, sunlight, sleep. The second is often overlooked, but for a truly complete approach to health, adding the positive is not enough. True health also calls for the removal of negative factors — exposure to chemicals, toxins, and pollutants that quietly undermine your wellbeing over time.

This four-part series focuses on that second pathway: how to stay healthy by eliminating pesticides, chemicals, and other harmful substances from your daily life. Toxins enter the body through three primary doorways: what we eat, what we drink, and what we breathe. We also need to think about what touches our skin daily — bathing and personal care products. To explore each properly, we've broken this into four articles. This first article focuses on food. Read the rest of the series here:

• Part 2: Avoiding toxins in your water
• Part 3: Avoiding toxins in your home and air (our passion: organic mattresses and natural bed frames)
• Part 4: Avoiding toxins in body products

The Hidden Pesticide Problem in Our Food

Over the last century, agricultural science has developed advanced methods to dramatically increase food production through the extensive use of chemicals. While farmers of the past dealt with reduced crop output from pests or poor soil nutrition, modern farmers can eliminate these problems chemically: insecticides kill bugs that chew through crops, herbicides wither out weeds that would otherwise overrun fields, and synthetic fertilizers boost yields.

These chemical treatments inevitably end up in our food, in the form of pesticide residue. And unfortunately, while pesticides are designed to kill pests, the evidence shows they can also harm humans.

How Pesticides Affect Human Health

The harm pesticides can cause humans falls into several categories: irritation to eyes and skin, effects on the nervous system, carcinogenic (cancer-causing) effects, and disruption of the endocrine system. That last one — being an endocrine disruptor — should sound scarier than it might at first.

Your hormones regulate your entire body: energy levels, fertility, growth and development, mood, mental clarity, and physical performance. Disrupting your hormones means not feeling as well as you should. Energy levels drop. Mood suffers. Mental focus slips. Physical performance declines. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a method for evaluating pesticides for carcinogenic potential, as well as an endocrine disruptor screening program where they continue to study how chemicals affect the body.

How "Safe Limits" Actually Work (and Why They Should Worry You)

To regulate pesticide use in food production, the EPA determines the amount they consider "safe" for consumption and then sets a tolerance for pesticide residues in food. This is the amount they've determined won't harm a person if it remains in the food after application. Pesticides have to be registered, and tolerances are set for most of them.

Here's the critical nuance: it is not a question of whether the pesticide is safe for human health (none of them are). It is a question of at what level it becomes obviously dangerous to human health. Do you trust that the pesticide tolerance in one food is within a safe limit? If you do, can you trust that all of the pesticide residue in all of the food you eat is within a safe limit? I don't.

The "Cocktail Effect": Why Single-Pesticide Limits Miss the Bigger Picture

One study found a single sample of raspberries to contain 39 different pesticide residues. Each one has its own EPA tolerance — but there is no overall tolerance for all pesticides combined. Research is granular and looks at the danger of single pesticides at a time. It doesn't address the reality that we are potentially eating residues of hundreds of different pesticides across most of our daily diet (reportedly, 75% to 85% of food contains pesticide residues).

Lately, glyphosate has gotten growing attention in the media because of research linking it to cancer, endocrine disruption (especially fertility issues), liver disease, kidney disease, microbiome disruption, and increased risk for ALS. Over 80% of the population tested positive for glyphosate in their urine, and over 90% tested positive for some pesticides in urine or blood.

The good news: switching to an organic diet can quantifiably reduce the amount of pesticides detected in your urine. People who eat an organic diet have also been associated with a significantly lower risk of cancer.

The Smart Approach: Where to Spend on Organic (and Where Not To)

Eating a fully organic diet is more expensive than a conventional diet, and often not completely practical. But not all foods are equally doused in pesticides. The most effective strategy is to buy organic when the conventional variety is known to be heavily treated, and stick with conventional for foods that aren't. Here's how to leverage your grocery budget while prioritizing your health.

Animal Products

Beyond produce, livestock production is responsible for 37% of total pesticide application. Choosing organic meats and dairy not only reduces pesticide exposure, but also avoids the hormones and antibiotics commonly used in conventional animal products. If your budget allows for prioritizing organic in just one category, animal products are arguably the highest-impact swap.

Produce: The "Dirty Dozen"

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) publishes an annual "Dirty Dozen" list of produce with the highest levels of pesticide residue. It typically includes strawberries, spinach, kale, peaches, pears, nectarines, apples, grapes, peppers, cherries, blueberries, and green beans. These are the most important to buy organic.

Produce: The "Clean Fifteen"

On the other end of the spectrum, the EWG also publishes a "Clean Fifteen" list of produce with the lowest pesticide residue. It typically includes avocados, sweet corn, pineapple, onions, papaya, sweet peas, asparagus, honeydew melon, kiwi, cabbage, mushrooms, mangoes, sweet potatoes, watermelon, and carrots. These are the items where it may not be worth paying organic prices, since the conventional versions carry significantly less pesticide load.

Grains and Starches

Oats, soybeans, rice, and wheat are among the crops most heavily treated with pesticides. Since grains are a staple in most diets and consumed in large quantities daily, organic versions are worth prioritizing when possible.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is organic food really worth the extra cost?

For heavily sprayed crops (the Dirty Dozen, grains, and animal products), yes — multiple studies show measurable reductions in pesticide residue in your body after switching to organic in these categories. For low-pesticide foods (the Clean Fifteen), the difference is smaller and probably not worth the premium.

What is glyphosate, and why is it concerning?

Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup and one of the most widely used herbicides in the world. Research has linked it to cancer, endocrine disruption, liver and kidney damage, microbiome disruption, and increased ALS risk. Over 80% of people tested have glyphosate in their urine, indicating widespread exposure through food and water.

Does washing fruit and vegetables remove pesticide residue?

Washing can remove some surface pesticide residue, but it doesn't remove pesticides that have absorbed into the produce itself (called systemic pesticides). For heavily sprayed crops, buying organic is significantly more effective than washing.

What's the difference between "organic" and "natural" labels?

"Organic" is a regulated certification that requires growers to follow strict standards on pesticide use, GMOs, and processing. "Natural" is largely unregulated and can mean almost anything. Always look for the USDA Organic seal or equivalent certification rather than relying on "natural" claims.

Can children be more affected by pesticides than adults?

Yes. Children eat more food relative to their body weight, their organs and nervous systems are still developing, and they're more vulnerable to endocrine disruptors. Many health experts recommend prioritizing organic food for kids whenever the budget allows, especially in the Dirty Dozen categories.

Up Next in the Series

If you're interested in other ways to reduce toxins in your life for optimal health, read on. Part 2 of this series covers avoiding toxins in your water. Part 3 dives into avoiding toxins in your home and indoor air (our specialty: organic mattresses and natural bed frames). And Part 4 wraps up with avoiding toxins in body products.