1. Canned Tomatoes 

The resin linings of tin cans contain bisphenol-A, a synthetic estrogen that has been linked to ailments ranging from reproductive problems to heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. Acidity -- a prominent characteristic of tomatoes -- causes BPA to leach into your food.

3. Microwave Popcorn

Chemicals, including perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), in the lining of the bag, are part of a class of compounds that may be linked to infertility in humans. In animal testing, the chemicals cause liver, testicular, and pancreatic cancer. Studies show that microwaving causes the chemicals to vaporize -- and migrate into your popcorn.

Root vegetables absorb herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides that wind up in soil. In the case of potatoes they're treated with fungicides during the growing season, then sprayed with herbicides to kill off the fibrous vines before harvesting. After they're dug up, the potatoes are treated yet again to prevent them from sprouting.

Nature didn't intend for salmon to be crammed into pens and fed soy, poultry litter, and hydrolyzed chicken feathers. As a result, farmed salmon is lower in vitamin D and higher in contaminants, including carcinogens, PCBs, brominated flame retardants, and pesticides such as dioxin and DDT.

Milk producers treat their dairy cattle with recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH or rBST, as it is also known) to boost milk production. But rBGH also increases udder infections and even pus in the milk. It also leads to higher levels of a hormone called insulin-like growth factor in milk. In people, high levels of IGF-1 may contribute to breast, prostate, and colon cancers.

If fall fruits held a "most doused in pesticides contest," apples would win. And increasing numbers of studies are starting to link a higher body burden of pesticides with Parkinson's disease.

The reality is that most food nowadays is far from pure. Pesticide residues have been detected in 50 percent to 95 percent of all commercially grown U.S. foods, and that is only one type of toxin.

The list above is a great starting point to cleaning up your diet, but focusing on organically grown, biodynamic whole foods is really the key to success here. 

According to Consumer Reports’ testing, just a couple of servings of canned food can exceed the safety limits for daily BPA exposure for children. The current US federal guidelines put the daily upper limit of “safe” exposure at 50 micrograms of BPA per kilogram of body weight. You should know, however, that even low-level exposure to BPA can be hazardous to your health, and Consumer Reports’ testing found that eating popular canned foods may expose you to excessive amounts of BPA:

Grass-Fed is the Healthy Choice for Beef  

Grass-fed beef is vastly superior to grain-fed beef, and in fact it’s the clear beef of choice you should be eating. It is far more important to choose grass-fed than to choose organic, as most grass-fed beef are also organic 

Not only is it raised in a more sustainable way for the environment and a more humane way for the animal, but it’s the superior choice for your health. Grass-fed beef, for instance, is lower in fat than regular beef and, more importantly, contains higher amounts of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), a fatty acid. Grass-fed animals have from three to five times more CLA than grain-fed animals. CLA has been making headlines for its extreme health benefits, which include: 

Fighting cancer and diabetes , Helping you lose weight , Increasing your metabolic rate, a positive benefit for promoting normal thyroid function , Helping you maintain normal cholesterol and triglyceride levels , Enhancing your immune system.                                      

What You Need to Know About Milk            

I strongly recommend you avoid milk that has the added growth hormone rBGH. Dr. Epstein points out that rBGH milk is “supercharged with high levels of a natural growth factor (IGF-1), excess levels of which have been incriminated as major causes of breast, colon, and prostate cancers.” But that’s not all.

"This milk is qualitatively and quantitatively different from natural milk," states Dr. Epstein. "In addition to the issue of increased IGF-1 levels, these differences include: 

• Contamination of milk by the GM hormone rBGH 
• Contamination by pus and antibiotics resulting from the high incidence of mastitis in rBGH-injected cows
• Contamination with illegal antibiotics and drugs used to treat mastitis and other rBGH-induced disease Increased concentration of the thyroid hormone enzyme thyroxin-5'-monodeiodinase
• Increased concentration of long-chain and decreased concentration of short-chain fatty acids A reduction in levels of the milk protein casein.

You very well may be drinking rBGH milk and not know it, as no labels are required. This is despite the fact that nearly every American wants it labeled, but the government, as usual, bowed to industry lobbyists and, amazingly, does not require this on the label. However, as increasing numbers of people and dairies choose to avoid rBGH, you can find labels that say “rBGH-free” or a similar variation. Organic milk is also rBGH-free. This is certainly preferable to milk that contains this dangerous hormone.                                  

The Most Important Foods to Buy Organic

Most fruits and vegetables contain unacceptable and unsafe levels of pesticides, so it’s a wise choice to buy organic produce as often as you can.

However, if you need to pick and choose which foods to buy organic, the most important foods to buy organic are animal products -- not produce. This is because animal foods, which are raised on pesticide-laced feed, tend to have higher concentrations of pesticides. Non-organic meats have up to five times more pesticides than non-organic vegetables. Non-organic butter can have up to 20 times as many pesticides as non-organic vegetables.

Guidelines for Healthy Food          

Whatever food you’re looking to eat, whether imported organic or locally grown, from either your local supermarket or a farmer’s market, here are the signs of a high-quality, healthy food: It’s grown without pesticides and chemical fertilizers (organic foods fit this description, but so do some non-organic foods) 

• It’s not genetically modified It contains no added growth hormones, antibiotics, or other drugs 
• It does not contain artificial anything, nor any preservatives 
• It is fresh (if you have to choose between wilted organic produce or fresh conventional produce, the latter may be the better option) 
• It did not come from a factory farm 
• It is grown with the laws of nature in mind (meaning animals are fed their native diets, not a mix of grains and animal byproducts, and have free-range access to the outdoors) 
• It is grown in a sustainable way (using minimal amounts of water, protecting the soil from burnout, and turning animal wastes into natural fertilizers instead of environmental pollutants) 

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