Hello and welcome to the Nutrition Diva podcast, a show where we take a closer look at

nutrition news, research and trends so that you can make more informed decisions about what you eat.

I'm your host, Monica Reinagle.

And in the past couple of weeks, two well-publicized studies are causing some concern about chemical exposure

from foods that we would normally consider healthy. But I think the media

coverage may have created a somewhat distorted impression.

In both cases, the risks are being presented without important context that allows you to weigh the comparative risks and benefits.

The first of these was a Consumer Report study on pesticide residues in commonly eaten produce.

About 20% of the 59 different types of commonly eaten fruits and vegetables that they analyzed

were found to pose a risk of exposure to potentially unsafe levels of pesticide residues.

Organic produce generally showed significantly lower levels of pesticide residue.

However, even some of the organic items were found to contain residues of pesticides that are not approved for organic farming.

Imported produce, in particular from Mexico, posed a higher risk compared to U.S. grown produce.

However, it should be noted that the Consumer Reports investigators

set their own standards for safety,

and as a result result exposure levels that the

Environmental Protection Agency considers to be safe were categorized as

risky and furthermore a vegetable was deemed to be a high risk even if only a tiny

proportion of the samples were found to have what consumer reports deemed to be

unsafe levels.

The other study that I want to talk about today was much more narrow, both in its scope and

in its findings.

...