by Morning Has Broken recently shared the importance of using a “vegetable wash” rather than relying on tap water alone to remove pesticides, etc. from produce. I just happened to be in a health food store that same week, and decided to buy some. Grape Seed Extract, to be precise, also called: GSE.
I love this new approach to health! I swear our veggies and fruits taste much better! According to the instructions, I fill my clean kitchen sink with cold water, add 30 drops of GSE and start cleaning my fruits and veggies. The added bonus, is we no longer have to wash individual pieces of fruit/veggies at breakfast or snacktime, and my long-shelved Tupperware is finally getting used as refrigerator storage! 🙂 I transfer my big bags of apples to two-gallon ziplocks and we’re good to go!
Here is what Morning Has Broken said in a reply comment to her post “A salad a day…”
You can get vegetable scrubs at many health food type stores such as The Vitamin College, Whole Food Markets, Wild Oats, if you have any of those near you. Unfortunately, we don’t here, so I stock up when I get the chance. Anyway, these washes clean the vegetables better than plain water and should get off some of the junk they spray on them when you can’t buy organic. Any vegetable with high surface area and thin skin like broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, spinach, apples…you get the idea will absorb more of the pesticides, etc.
Now the lady at the health food store, and also, the link I shared above to the GSE info page, stated that they also wash their meat in a sinkful of this GSE water! I haven’t done that yet, mostly because I’m a bit too frugal wrap my mind around doing this every time I fix meat for a meal. But being able to wash all my veggies and fruits at once seems like a good deal. I know the option is there to spray your foods with this, that may be the way I’ll go concerning meat.
You really should check out that link. GSE can be used for many thing other than washing food. Toothbrush cleanser, cutting board disinfectant, orally for sickness…
Some sources say warm water and vinegar will get most of the residue and that whatever method you use, certain chemicals will not wash off. If you can afford to buy organic, do it. Otherwise, wash and hope for the best, or peel everything! If you think this is a little over the top, read up on the huge amount of pesticides consumed by America’s children, and how it ups their chances for childhood diseases like leukemia!
Wow! I thought washing my lettuce and other veggies with hot water would help. That’s scary.
Mary, thank you!
You’re welcome! My thanks go to Deborah, because otherwise I’d still be washing in tap water alone!
It’s funny, because several years ago I’d read that Emilie Barnes (Christian author of non-fiction) washed all her lettuce/green veggies in a mesh bag in her WASHING machine on the spin cycle! At the time I thought: weird! But it’s kind of bothered me ever since…wondering why she went to such lengths! Now I know! (Thanks, Deborah!)
Well…I haven’t resorted to washing veggies in my washer…yet. I’d be a little afraid of the residue left from the detergent, etc.! Not to mention…what cycle is that?! Things might come out a little bruised. But, thanks for quoting that from my comments.
Yes, it might be good for washing off bacteria on meats…but unless you’re buying organic meat or raising it yourself without growth hormones, antibiotics, etc. the meat has probably worse things INSIDE. The cooking will probably do in the bacteria, but not the other stuff!
thanks for visiting my blog
interesting post
Thanks, Jen!
Are the fruit washes expensive? Shaklee has a product called Basic H that we put (diluted)in a spray bottle and just pray, rinse and eat our fruits and veggies. Though it’s hard to believe it’s getting the gunk off when you can’t see it.
My bottle of Nutribiotic GSE liquid concentrate was around $8 I think…for 4 fl.oz. It sounds tiny, but it still feels full…using it drop by drop added to water really makes it go a long way. The info that came with it said it could be added to water in a spray bottle and used the way you mentioned. Your Shaklee sounds like it has something for everything! What is the main ingredient in the Basic H?
Not sure the ingredients, probably should look into it, but it’s a concentrated organic cleaner. We use it to clean our counters and such. It contains linear alcohol alkoxylates, no phosphates or nitrates. The sulfactants (cleaning agents)are biodegradable and break down naturally to simpler compounds which is better for the environment.
If I find out more, I’ll let you know. If you’re interested in trying Shaklee, all you do is join the membership club (I can set that up for you) and you buy what you need. We’ve used only Shaklee cleaning products, and most of their vitamins for years and we’ve been pretty healthy, so we’re sticking with it!
Is there an annual membership fee? I’m interested, but financially probably won’t be able to take it too far at this point.
My GSE also can be used to clean counters, etc. It’s a bioflavenoid derived from grapefruit, completely organic, etc.
When I use my fruit and vegetable wash, I usually spray it on, let it sit a couple minutes and then fill a big bowl with cold tap water and swish everything around. I then wash the rest of the vegetables in the same water and I do rinse. For those of you that wonder if your vegetables are getting clean…my bowl of water is always VERY dirty. Much more so than just plain water. I make a huge salad just about every day, so I wash them like this.
Thanks for sharing that, Deborah…it does get dirty.
Btw,we had strawberries the other night, cleaned the new way, and just like you said…there were never better tasting strawberries! Wow!
Hello You did a great job with this blog. I loved o Wash Veggies at Home-Steeped Hope
Hey! You did a great job with this blog. I loved o Wash Veggies at Home-Steeped Hope
Thanks!