#Healthy Eating: The Cons of Fruits & Veggies & Dealing with Them

You are probably wondering how there could be any “Cons” in healthy eating, but the reality of it is that trying to eat all the right things comes with a number of hidden negatives.

First, there is the cost of all those fresh fruits and vegetables that will improve your diet and provide the nutrients and fiber that you require for staying healthy.

When it comes to the cost, there are some ways to keep the costs down. First, buy seasonal. Second, buy local. Fruits and vegetables that are both seasonal and local will be much cheaper than those which are being shipped in from overseas. In addition, because they’ve had a shorter trip to the shelves, they will be fresher. That will help them stay fresh longer once you buy them. Plus, you’ll be helping the local economy.

Of course, there is my issue: I buy at the big box store and it’s hard to eat that many berries, pears or lettuce in a week. Or at least it is for me and it’s upsetting to see them go bad and have to be thrown out.

Next, there is the risk of contamination in fruits and vegetables. According to the Wall Street Journal eating leafy vegetables accounts for 23% of food borne illnesses and eating fruits and nuts sicken more people than tainted meat products.

Despite that, there are things you can do to protect yourself. First of all, do a thorough cleaning of yourself and your fruits and vegetables. You can click here for some FDA guidelines.

You can also understand which are the best and worst in terms of contamination.

You can click here to see a list of the dirties fruits and vegetables. Sadly, most of my favorites are on this list.

You can click here to check out a list of the least contaminated fruits and veggies.

One thing that may help with both the costs, spoilage and contamination is actually a quite simple practice: Use one part vinegar (either white or apple) to ten parts water mix in your clean sink. Dump in your assorted fruits and veggies. The vinegar will help wash off any coatings and kill mold spores and other bacteria on the surface of the fruits and veggies.

I hope you’ve found these tips helpful today! Of course, what do you do with all those fruits and veggies? You can click here to check out my Pinterest board of recipes or visit the Cook’s Treat section of the website for more!