While I don’t want to eat pesticides, I also don’t want to eat insects. I had a little fright when I began to make my green juice this morning and discovered the only downside to organic produce (aside from the price):
   
Gross.
I know that in reality I probably consume many more bugs than I realize. And I’d rather eat bugs than eat pesticides. I just don’t want to SEE the bugs and have it in my mind that I am eating them. Blech. The celery went into the garb.
I remember Ruth Reichl saying that organic produce isn’t what it used to be in the seventies when there were insects and worms crawling in the apples. But of course we have to realize that when there aren’t pesticides, there WILL be pests. My friend Melanie found me this lovely chart. Enlighten yourselves:
| Are Bugs A Part of Your Diet? | |
|---|---|
| Product | Action Level |
| Apple butter | 5 insects per 100g |
| Berries | 4 larvae per 500g OR 10 whole insects per 500g |
| Ground paprika | 75 insect fragments per 25g |
| Chocolate | 80 microscopic insect fragments per 100g |
| Canned sweet corn | 2 3mm-length larvae, cast skins or fragments |
| Cornmeal | 1 insect per 50g |
| Canned mushrooms | 20 maggots per 100g |
| Peanut butter | 60 fragments per 100g (136 per lb) |
| Tomato paste, pizza, and other sauces | 30 eggs per 100g OR 2 maggots per 100g |
| Wheat flour | 75 insect fragmnets per 50g |
| Source: The Food Defect Action Levels: Current Levels for Natural or Unavoidable Defects for Human Use that Present No Health Hazard. Department of Health & Human Services 1989. | |
Like I said, I’m OK eating insects when I don’t have to actually SEE them. Moving on.Â
I had lots more to report on but my mind is a fuzzy hazy fog. My eyes are burning. I hate Excel. And also, this Michael Jackson news? Wow…. I feel very weird. It is so strange and sad at the same time.
