Let me tell you about my morning regimen.

As soon as I get to the office, I prepare my breakfast of coffee, and berries topped with high-protein Greek yogurt and Fiber One cereal. Then I start my computer begin start going through the dozens of emails that have accumulated from the evening before.

Given that I teach a class this term of 2,136 students, there are questions about course material and various excuses for missed exams ranging from “I just forgot” to a multitude of illnesses and family emergencies. Then there are questions from the public. This particular morning, there were several about whether eating spinach should be avoided. The Environmental Working Group had just released its annual list of the “Dirty Dozen” fruits and vegetables that have the most pesticide residues. Leading the list was spinach as having more pesticide residues by weight than any other type of produce.

I have written several times about this, so I answer by attaching my previous columns explaining that what matters is not how many different pesticides are detected but how the amounts compare with the maximum residue limit (MRL) that has been established by rigorous studies.

My conclusion is that you can safely follow Popeye’s advice to eat lots of spinach, although I always like to point out that Popeye never said it gives you strength because spinach contains iron. He said it was because it contains vitamin A. This vitamin has many functions, but it has nothing to do with strength. Furthermore, spinach doesn’t even contain Vitamin A. It contains beta carotene that the body converts into Vitamin A.

Blueberries also made it onto the Dirty Dozen list, but that twaddle does not........

© Montreal Gazette