Spider in the Smoothie
Hello Friends and Happy Tuesday
Now that we are halfway through the first month of 2014, you are either continuing your resolution to get healthy or have ditched it all together and have a freezer full of Talenti Gelato!
So let’s just say for the sake of argument that you are maintaining a healthy lifestyle, eating right, exercising and starting each day with a delicious and nutritious green smoothie.
You have a new Ninja Bullet and have stocked up on your healthy greens, kale and spinach, your fiber, Chia and Flaxseeds and fresh fruits, apples, mangos, berries, kiwi, pineapples and bananas.
One morning, still a little groggy you grab a banana from the bowl and begin to peel it only to notice a small white blotch. Upon closer inspection you realize that spot is a cocoon, a cocoon filled with baby spiders! Your first reaction…”what the what?… eeeew… gross…” and then fear takes your breath away!
The fear that you might have eaten one previously not noticing the white blotch that are now infested with spiders…ok I’ll stop.
No, that couldn’t happen in the US could it? We have the FDA regulating our imports right…oh, forget about that pesky little government shutdown thingy, that wouldn’t have affected my local produce – right?
Probably not, but unfortunately it did occur in the UK and it was reported by the Huffington Post (here). What should you do to ensure the fruits and veggies you are buying to keep healthy won’t make you sick?
WASH IT BEFORE YOU EAT IT!
Sounds simple right, but there are a lot of people including my husband who doesn’t wash fruit before he eats it. Fortunately for him that’s the first thing I do after we unpack the grocery bags. Sure there are products on the market made specifically for washing fruits but I wonder if they too could leave a contaminant on the fruit.
You could use a spray bottle or submerge the fruit in a mixture of water and white vinegar. Your best bet is to simply wash them under cold running water using a vegetable brush or rubbing briskly with your hands then blotting them dry with a fresh paper towel.
I know there’s nothing like biting into a freshly picked apple or peach at the Orchard or a few fresh berries from the field. Just remember to bring along a bottle of water to rinse them before you eat them, it’s better to be safe than sorry!
Do you wash ALL your fresh fruits and veggies before eating them?
Stay Blessed – No Stress in the New Year!
