Even though plant foods are not as bad of a problem as animal foods, it is still a concern to think about. When you cook food you kill most contaminates that could be on it. Bacteria's, viruses, little critters, etc. etc. etc. When you eat it raw, what else can you do to it to kill and get rid of those possible things without heat? I don't think water is enough. Do you use anything special? Hydrogen peroxide, oregano oil, garlic juice, veggie wash soap? Anything? In nature, even though we don't wash first, I suppose it's the reason why animals eat certain herbs etc. to kill those things they frequently ingest etc.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/27/2008 07:25PM by nik.

I don't do anything special. If there are just a few bugs on my lettuce, I'll brush them off. If there's an infestation, I'll rinse the lettuce under water. But other that that, I don't wash my produce unless I see dirt on the produce.

And for years, I have not had any problems with bacterial issues.

nik,

You could try a light dilution of true colloidal silver and water. Even the ionic silver distillation you buy at the health food store is good enough to kill many common bacteria. If you're worried about pathogens in manure, etc. just wash the produce really well. I do wash my produce with running water; I've watched hands in the fields and they aren't necessarily sanitary in their handling of crops. Luckily, we were taught in cooking school that the mere rushing of the water over produce physically flushes microscopic critters away. I think there's a tendancy to believe these germs have, like, suction cups on them to stick to stuff, but that's just not true. The evils of watching Lysol commercials on TV from an early age--makes one paranoid!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/27/2008 10:36PM by Tamukha.

Non-organic produce I rinse. Organic produce I don't rinse. I'm happy to eat the odd bit of earth - good for B12 microorganisms! I've had no tummy upsets in two years of raw.

If I eat the organic veggies I grow, I rinse them to get any surface dirt or chunky insects if needed. I am not too particular as long as they aren't gritty from dirt and I would prefer not to bite into a big, juicy worm. The eggs I am happy to eat for the B12.

However, if I buy produce at the grocery store, be it organic or not, I always wash it. You don't know who has been touching that stuff and what is on their hands. Most test done on public surfaces like that have measurable amounts of human feces on them. I am not interested in eating my own fecal matter much less that of anyone else.

I have city water (which I never drink) but it is too expensive and burdensome for me to wash my produce in the water I cart from the water machine in gallon glass jugs. I do have a very good shower filter though.

Leaf greens from the store often have dirt in them as do root vegetables. I always run these under the kitchen faucet and scrub root vegetables or whatever I think might need it with a plastic scrubber I only use on produce. After that process and for any store bought produce, I then get my really large stainless steel bowl and fill it with water from my shower filter. I add a few drops of grapefruit seed extract, which is a broad spectrum anti-microbal and has been shown to be effective against most food born illnesses. I let my produce sit in that for about half an hour and then I continue from there.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/28/2008 10:46PM by Meditating.