Thanksgiving Series: Let’s Start with Cranberries!

Thanksgiving is a time when we are all thinking about food. Wandering the aisles of three different grocery stores Monday, I saw the seasonal array of items – cans of cranberry sauce and pumpkin filling, turkeys and stuffing, mashed potato flakes and pies. What I also noticed was a much larger selection of organic options for these items. Why bother with organic versions?

Let’s start with cranberries. Throughout the rest of the week, the Protect Our Breasts research team will share about many of our other traditional holiday choices. Today, I will start by guiding you to one of my favorite websites in a hunt to discover more about cranberries.

http://www.whatsonmyfood.org is a project of the Pesticide Action Network where you will find a searchable database of pesticide information found on our foods. According to the USDA Pesticide Data Program, there are 13 pesticide residues found on cranberries – three are known or probable carcinogens and six are hormone disruptors. How often are these pesticides found? Two of the more concerning ones are Chlorothalonil (a known carcinogen) found on 56% of the fruits in tests, and 1-Naphthol (a suspected hormone disruptor) on 47.6% of the fruits. That is too often for me!

Thankfully, I found both organic fresh cranberries and organic cranberry jelly in a box (Emily will share with you tomorrow about the endocrine disruptor Bisphenol-A in cans). This Thanksgiving, my guests will be glad to have two organic choices, and I’ll know I have protected them from some of the chemicals that contribute to breast cancer!