Paul Savage MD breaks down the 2025 EWG Dirty Dozen and Clean 15 lists to show which produce needs organic and which doesn't. He walks through vinegar soaks and scrubbing techniques, flags arsenic in rice-based baby food, and gives a concrete action plan for cutting pesticide exposure.
Questions this video answers
95%
48
"chloroprofum" (as stated in the source transcript)
Soak 5–10 minutes in a 1 to 3 vinegar:water ratio
Almost 60%
Chapters
Shopping clean shouldn't feel like a chemistry exam. In this video, I'm going to show you exactly what to buy organic, the things that you can skip, and how to wash produce so you cut the pesticides without blowing your budget. Each year, EWG analyzes USDA data in Flags 2 lists. So the first list is the Dirty dozen. These are the produce with the highest amount of residues. And then the second One is the Clean 15, which are the produce with the lowest amount of residues. So in 2025, the latest study, it showed that 95% of the dirty dozen samples actually had detectable pesticides. And then, you know, you had blackberries over here that were showing 48 different pesticides that were picked up. And then potatoes often show chloroprofum, which is actually banned in the EU. The 2025 Dirty Dozen included these types of produce. You had spinach, strawberries, kale, mustard greens, and collard greens. You had grapes, peaches, cherries, nectarines, pears, apples, blackberries, and, and new this year are blueberries and potatoes. So for kids, people on detox programs, supporting your hormones and preventing and just avoiding all these toxins, you have to prioritize these and get organic whenever you can. So the 2025 list of the Clean 15 produce is where conventional is generally low risk. So almost 60% of these types of producers had no detectable residues. So that list includes pineapples, sweet corn, avocados, papaya, onions, frozen sweet peas, asparagus, cabbage, watermelon, cauliflower. And the new to this list are bananas, mangoes, carrots, mushrooms, and kiwi. So as you're thinking about shopping, how do you actually do it? So step one, always make sure that you're picking up that dirty dozen list in the organic section. Step two is fill the rest of your cart with the Clean 15 conventional to save money and keep your exposure low. Now, when you get back home, you gotta wash like a pro, okay? So you gotta soak your produce 5 to 10 minutes in a simple 1 to 3 vinegar to water ratio. Then you're gonna scrub pretty gently with a vegetable brush. You're gonna rinse, and then you're gonna dry, ideally with filtered water as well. And then you want to store all this clean produce and dry it and properly put it in a place where it's going to avoid moisture, any kind of molds, and recontamination. So a quick myth check. Washing isn't actually going to erase all of the systemic pesticides, but it can meaningfully reduce the surface residuals that you're going to find on your produce. So every little reduction lowers your daily toxin load and is perfect for avoidance, which is something we should all be doing. So the big truth is also that hidden toxins live in pantry staples too. Over 65% of rice based baby foods contain arsenic, so you gotta be selective with the grain produce, especially for your kids. Pesticides are literally part of the toxin fingerprint that's driving up things like fatigue and immune stress and even inflammation of all parts of your body. Food is something daily that you got to put inside your body and it's completely controllable. So you got to make sure you're cleaning up all the inputs that you're putting into your body so you're going to function better and have a lot more vitality. All right, quick action plan for you here. So I want to make sure that you have these lists screenshotted somewhere on your phone. So it's easy when you're out there shopping. So make sure to either screenshot parts of this video or go to the blog post listed in the description where you can see all this written out. Know what your dirty dozens are. So you're always buying the dirty dozen produce in the organic form and then also on the other side for the Clean 15, make sure you're getting those at least in the conventional form. You could save some money that way. Also remember to wash your produce in that vinegar soak and then peel whenever it's possible. So if you actually want to know what's happening in your body and understand your current toxin burden, these are the things that make up with pesticides, plastics, heavy metals, molds. Then you got to really have a real plan. This is the time where you want to book a free consult with MD lifespan.com they also have a toxin test that you can do and this is how you're going to start to learn about your own results. You can figure out how to modify your diet and how to actually build a specific protocol for you that fits in your life. All right, let me know in the comments of what you're doing to avoid these types of pesticides in the world. Like and subscribe to this if you want to see more of them. And check out our other videos where we dive deeper into toxins, into other protocols that you can do right now for your health. Sa.
