And why it may not be as clean as we hope.
If you’ve been interested in eating healthier, you may have already heard of the “Clean Fifteen”– an annual list of fifteen fruits and vegetables that have the lowest amounts of pesticide residues. The reason it exists is because pesticides and herbicides are linked to a variety of health problems and many people try to avoid them the best they can. (Ergo, the helpful yearly list.)
Avoiding these chemicals is, of course, a good idea. Fewer pesticides should mean healthier eating and healthier overall wellbeing (and it often does!) but there's a big catch: glyphosate.
Glyphosate is one of the biggest reasons (if not the biggest reason) that simply sticking to the “Clean Fifteen” is most likely not going to cut it if you’re trying to limit your exposure to potentially dangerous chemicals.
What is Glyphosate?
Even if you haven’t heard of glyphosate before, you’ve probably encountered it recently (and you may even be using it without realizing). Glyphosate itself may not be a household name, but it’s the active ingredient in the most popular herbicides around the world, both for commercial agriculture and for domestic use in homes and gardens. (The most famous name you may recognize that uses glyphosate is RoundUp.)
And when we say glyphosate is the most popular herbicide, we do mean popular. It’s so widely used, glyphosate is literally at a detectable level in up to 93% of the population. It’s not hyperbolic to say you can find glyphosate everywhere—our soil, air, water, and it’s even been found in breastmilk.
Okay. Glyphosate is unavoidable. How worried should we be?
Unfortunately, anxiety about glyphosate exposure is not unfounded.
In addition to a myriad of serious health issues and disorders—including liver and kidney damage—glyphosate has the unique distinction of being labeled a probable carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Simply put, this means glyphosate has been labeled as a substance that is capable of causing cancer.
This label is not without merit. Glyphosate exposure has an especially strong link to a massive risk increase (41 to 70 percent!) for non-Hodgkin lymphoma and an increased risk for bladder cancer.
(And sorry to pile on, but glyphosate exposure is bad news for our pets, too. It can cause cancer, vomiting, diarrhea, loss of appetite, excess drool, and fatigue.)
The reason glyphosate is so harmful? Its effect on the gut.
How is glyphosate harmful, exactly? Well, that’s the extra troubling part.
The reason glyphosate is such a problem is that it damages us from the inside out, by directly harming gut health. To put it simply, glyphosate exposure messes with our gut’s ability to properly function. Exposure to glyphosate loosens the tight junctions in the gut lining—the critical part that keeps nutrients in and toxins out.
But the problems really stem from the fact that if your gut can’t function, there’s a cascading effect of possible negative impacts. As your gut’s health is profoundly linked to your overall health—over 70% of your immune system is in the gut, not to mention gut health is also directly linked to heart health, digestion, mental health, mood, and more—any harm to gut health or hindrance to its function can manifest as problems elsewhere in the body.
And since glyphosate is virtually unavoidable, your gut is constantly exposed to a toxin that harms its ability to function properly. This chronic exposure and risk for disruption in the gut is what ultimately leads to an increased risk for inflammation, digestion issues, chronic illness, and cancer.
How Are We Exposed To Glyphosate? (And Why Is It So Unavoidable?)
The nefarious thing about glyphosate regarding our health is how harmful it is to the gut. The nefarious thing about glyphosate in the world at large is that its widespread use means it contaminates everything. Thanks to its ability to easily travel from neighboring farms and agricultural sites onto other locations, even organic farms aren’t safe from glyphosate.
That’s why even “eating clean” can be dirtier than you may think.
Foods with the Highest Risk of Glyphosate Exposure
That’s not to say you shouldn’t try, however, to limit exposure where you can. It’s absolutely worth the effort.
That’s where the “Dirty Dozen”—the companion list to the “Clean Fifteen—is useful. This list is a dozen fruits and vegetables with the highest amounts of pesticide residue. Because of their high amounts of toxic chemical remnants, these should be organic whenever possible.
- Strawberries
- Spinach
- Kale, Collard, and Mustard Greens
- Grapes
- Peaches
- Pears
- Nectarines
- Apples
- Bell and Hot Peppers
- Cherries
- Blueberries
- Green Beans
Foods with the Lowest Risk of Glyphosate Exposure
On a positive note, there’s fifteen (versus just a dozen) fruits and vegetables to include in your diet that have the lowest pesticide and herbicide residue. They are:
- Avocados
- Sweetcorn
- Pineapple
- Onions
- Papaya
- Sweet Peas (frozen)
- Asparagus
- Honeydew Melon
- Kiwi
- Cabbage
- Mushrooms
- Mangoes
- Sweet Potatoes
- Watermelon
- Carrots
How ION* Gut Support Can Help Protect against Glyphosate’s Harm
There is some good news, however. While you can’t avoid glyphosate, you can fight back. (As they say, “The best offense is a good defense.”)
That’s where making ION* Gut Support part of your daily wellness ritual is a game-changer.
All natural and backed by science, ION* is a wellness solution that goes directly where glyphosate does—right down to the cellular level of the gut. Except ION* does the opposite of what the dangerous herbicide does. Instead of loosening your gut junctions, ION* Gut Support keeps them tight, helping protect you from the inside out.
The reason ION* is so exciting for those trying to mitigate harm from glyphosate is because it’s shown to improve gut resilience to glyphosate within 16 minutes. (Yes, minutes. Not hours or days or weeks.)
By making ION* Gut Support part of your daily wellness ritual, you’re fortifying your body’s own defenses against glyphosate—effectively beating it at its own game.
And more good news? The benefits don’t stop there.
Because gut health is so critical to other parts of your health, incorporating ION* Gut Support also improves digestion, immune function, nutrient absorption, and diversifies your microbiome (without adding anything new to your system, unlike probiotics).
With ION*, you can fully enjoy your fruits and veggies with that much less worry, and keep your gut happy and healthy. It’s a win-win for your wellness—and a big win against glyphosate.
Try ION* Gut Support today.
