Blackberry Chia Smoothie

Fresh fruits and vegetables should be organic.

This reduces a number of toxic chemicals that can cause harm to humans. When you are required to eat gluten free, you will need to reduce all unnecessary stress on your stomach, so that it has a better chance of healing. Using organic fresh fruits and vegetables will go a long way to achieving this.

Each year a US report is created by the EWG (Environmental Working Group) listing the most and least pesticide contaminated common produce in the US. It is useful to know where to put your initial focus on what to buy organic and what can be lower on your priority list. I'd suggest that if a crop is not on the EWG "Clean 15" list on the below listed site, that you buy organic.

Consumer Reports has also published a report. They have a nice summary of residues on both conventional and organic produce. This is a good place to start if this is a new topic for you, and it gives good detail, but in a readable format.

They found that all organic produce has consistently been tested to show low or very low levels of residue. This can make you confident that organic is a good way to go. A link to their summary page on pesticide residues is linked below.

For anyone who really wants to dig into the full datasets of the EPA residue testing, they can find that at the bottom link below. This will include the most recent reported data.

Blackberries and black raspberries have not been tested by the EPA for pesticide residue. Red raspberries have been tested, and they are midway between the least and most residue contamination. Red raspberries rank 23rd. Since organic produce for other fruits and vegetables have consistently had less residue, you should buy only organic blackberries and black raspberries.

Pineapple are on the EWG Clean 15 list of the least contaminated produce. They rank 3rd on their list. However, they have not been tested since 2002. That is a LONG time ago. At the time 90 percent of conventional pineapples had no detectable pesticide residues. Only five different pesticides were detected on more than 350 conventional pineapple samples. Due to the fact that the testing was so long ago, you should only buy organic pineapple. There will be pink pineapple arriving soon on the market that is genetically modified, so you will want to avoid that when it shows up.

Bananas are not on the EWG "Clean 15" list (2018). They rank 30th out of 48 for contamination. They should be purchased as organic.

Check out these 4 articles. The first 2 show this year's EWG report on pesticide contamination, and will be updated automatically based on the current year. The third article is the Consumer Reports summary page for pesticide residue on produce, including conventional and organic, and domestic and imported. The fourth article is the direct link to the EPA residue testing site, where you can do further research:

• EWG's 2018 Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce
• EWG's 2018 Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce - Full List
• Consumer Reports - Pesticides in Produce
• USDA EPA - Pesticide Data Program

You want to purchase only organic nuts and seeds.

This greatly reduces the pesticide residues on them. Non organic nuts and seeds are also often treated with radiation, which is not done to organic nuts and seeds.

It is more difficult to find truly raw nuts and seeds in the US, unless you are buying directly from the grower. Several US laws require varying levels of heat treatment for nuts and seeds, both traditionally grown and organic. However, nuts and seeds can still be something good for most people.

To read more about almonds, check out this article on our site:

• Almonds

Check out this article to learn a bit more about nuts and seeds:

• Mercola - What Are the Best Nuts and Seeds?

You want to look for a fresh organic coconut, that still contains liquid inside of it.

Canned, boxed or packaged coconut water is not suitable. It is a cooked product, which degrades many of the benefits of drinking coconut water. Coconut milk also is NOT the same as coconut water. Coconut water looks almost like water, with just a hint of cloudiness, and varying degrees of sweetness and coconut taste.

Only if you absolutely cannot get fresh coconuts would this be a suitable occasional item to use. If you do buy it, be certain it contains nothing besides organic coconut water. Many of the additives in beverages cause digestive problems.

Buying organic reduces a number of toxic chemicals that can cause harm to humans. When you are required to eat gluten free, you will need to reduce all unnecessary stress on your stomach, so that it has a better chance of healing. Using organic fruits and vegetables will go a long way to achieving this.

Consumer Reports has also published a report. They have a nice summary of residues on both conventional and organic produce. This is a good place to start if this is a new topic for you, and it gives good detail, but in a readable format.

Check out this article on the benefits of organic:

• Consumer Reports - Pesticides in Produce

Coconut milk should be homemade from a fresh organic coconut.

Alternatively, you can purchase organic unsweetened coconut milk that does not contain additional ingredients. It should only contain coconut milk, coconut cream, ground coconut and water or coconut water, or some combination of these ingredients.

Nut milk should be homemade from organic nuts and water.

Alternatively, you can purchase organic unsweetened nut milk that does not contain additional ingredients. It should only contain nuts and water. The many additives in many brands of nut milk are simply used to make water look and taste like nut milk, with a little bit of nuts thrown in for good measure.

The issue of what type of milk is best is far too broad of a topic to cover in depth here. Whether you want cows milk, nut milk, coconut milk, or some other type of milk will be a personal choice.

However, here are some general guidelines to help you when choosing your milk. You can research further if it's an area of interest to you.

Dairy milk - Raw organic is best. Non-homogenized, organic is preferred if you don't have access to raw. Never buy Ultra High Temperature (UHT), or Ultra-Pasteurized milk; you will need to carefully check the label, as it's not always obvious.

Non-dairy milk - Most of these are really just fake food. Most only exist because people are used to white stuff to put on cereal and in coffee, etc.

Very few things in nature look and behave like dairy milk. They have to create unnatural compounds that look and behave like milk.

This category of products is quite challenging to find products that are made out of real ingredients. You will need to really read a lot of labels to find something that is not loaded with food additives, flavorings, binders, fillers, etc.

Many of these additives are very tough on anyone with any sort of digestive problems, which those who must eat gluten free do have.

Soy milk is not even remotely natural, or normal. White liquid does not come out of a green soy bean in any natural way. Large amounts of additives are added to it to make it resemble milk.

Rice milk should only have rice and water.

If you really want these, many of them can be made fresh at home, and you can completely control the ingredients that go into them. Check out You Tube for tons of videos.

Check out the following 4 articles to help you find the best type of milk for your personal taste:

• Food Renegade - Healthy Milk: What to Buy (Dairy)
• Food Renegade - Just Say No to UHT Milk
• Empowered Sustenance - Avoid These 6 Additives In Your Non-Dairy Milk
• Empowered Sustenance - 10 Reasons to Never Ever Drink Soy Milk