Carolyn Cihelka is the editor of the Consumer Information Catalog and the writer/editor of the FedInfo enewsletter.

I’d always been too cheap to buy organic, and in too much of a hurry to give my fruits and veggies more than a quick rinse, so I was horrified recently when, as the mother of a child with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), I read about an article in a respected medical journal indicating a possible tie between pesticides on produce and ADHD.

It was particularly upsetting because I’d always felt good about feeding my kids lots of fresh fruit, even if other parts of their diet weren’t necessarily the healthiest. While the article states there’s no evidence that pesticides can actually cause ADHD, it clearly encourages reducing exposure to the chemicals.

The Environmental Protection Agency has been enforcing limits on pesticides in “kids’ foods” for over a decade, and has been requiring additional studies to better understand the effects of pesticides on kids specifically. The EPA encourages healthy, sensible food practices which include washing produce thoroughly under running water and peeling fruits and veggies.

While I can, and have, started following fresh produce safety guidelines,  I don’t load up my shopping basket with strawberries, blueberries and blackberries—my kids’ favorites—the way I used to.  Berries are thin-skinned, and among the produce most likely to absorb pesticides. Now, I buy a couple of boxes of organic berries, and choose watermelon, pineapple and other fruits with thick rinds that are less likely to absorb the bad stuff.

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