Fruit and Vegetable Wash

The Clorox bath (it must be Clorox) is 1/2 teaspoon per gallon of tap water. Soak produce between 10 and 30 minutes depending on the thickness of the skin.
. Leafy veggies 10 to 15 minutes
. Root or thick-skinned veggies 20 to 30 minutes
. Berries, peaches, thin skinned fruits 10 to 15 minutes

Triple rinse to remove all residual Clorox, which is 100% water soluble (this is why the finest labs in the world clean up with Clorox).

In the early 80's a client at Complete Health Services decided to put the Clorox bath to the test. She organized a before and after Clorox bath experiment at Sommer Frey Lab in Milwaukee (est 1900). She knew from her research that commercial peaches were exposed to chemicals containing mercury. (Interesting that peaches are currently at the top of the list of chemically contaminated fruit.) The people at the lab thought it was a cute idea promoted by some health nuts but quickly changed their demeanor after the Clorox bath consistently removed 70% to 75% of the mercury. The average was 72%. We passed out the report in all future cooking classes, Love at First Taste, which we taught for 20 years from 1978 to 1998.

Then, in the mid 90's a client I was working with moved to Seattle. We stayed in touch and she mailed me an extensive study performed by a holistic community magazine in Seattle that promoted local alternative services. This publication ran a series comparing the purity of organic and non-organic produce by meticulously testing for chemical contamination.

Shockingly, organic produce sometimes tested as contaminated as commercial produce.

Personally, I was slow to accept the Clorox bath. The chef in our cooking class, Roger Ullenberg -- owner and chef of Au Natural Restaurant, loved the Clorox bath and insisted on teaching it to students. During class he demonstrated it's effectiveness on bananas.*

Roger learned about the Clorox bath from an icon in natural health; Dr. Hazel Parcells, a well known naturopathic healer who lived to 106. Dr. Parcells based her work on radionics using pendulums and other devices, but she did not delve into the chemistry. During class I was so impressed with improvement in the quality of the produce washed in Clorox I couldn't help but be won over, even against my will (which was definitely the case). Later, when the Sommer Frey experiment was done, I became fully aware of how right-on this technique is.

To this day our household uses it on commercial produce, and maybe we should on organic items as well. However, I now trust the purity of organics more than in the past.

If you try it you'll be impressed.

*Class Experiment: Roger would take bananas from the same bunch and separate them into two groups -- one group went into tap water and the other into the Clorox bath (1/2 teaspoon per gallon of tap water). Only Roger, Karen and I knew which was which. After 15 to 20 minutes in the Clorox bath (bananas are thick skinned) they were triple rinsed, peeled and cut into bite size pieces. Everything was kept separate -- one platter of Clorox washed bananas and another platter of tap water washed bananas. So, the taste test was on.

Each platter was passed around the class and without fail in every class for over 20 years virtually every single student specifically preferred the Clorox washed bananas. Why? Because they didn't have the metallic after taste so common with bananas. It was very distinct. I could tell the difference every time. This was a fun way to introduce a serious subject. Give it a try. I think you'll be convinced.

Jim Ehmke, CN
Provided by Biotics Research Corporation