TTC Living in a Toxic World – Do You Know What Fruit & Veg Not to Eat?

 

Are You Trying to Conceive After Covid and Struggling?

Heard of the Dirty Dozen?

 

What many people don’t realise is that fertility today is not the same as it was for your great-grandparents.

 

Your not so distant ancestors were eating food that was, by default, organic.

No mass spraying.

No chemical load.

No cumulative toxin exposure from everyday produce.

 

Fast forward to now, and you are trying to conceive in a world where fruit and vegetables are often over-farmed and heavily sprayed with herbicides, fungicides and pesticides.

These chemicals do not just “wash off”.

They accumulate.

 

When researchers test produce, they consistently find that certain fruits and vegetables carry significantly higher levels of these residues than others.

 

This is where the Clean 15 and Dirty Dozen becomes essential knowledge

  • The Clean 15 are your safer options if you are not buying organic. They tend to have lower pesticide residues
  • The Dirty Dozen are the ones to avoid unless they are organic. These are consistently found to carry the highest toxic load

 

The Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen are published annually by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), using pesticide residue data from large-scale testing programmes.

Now, here is the deeper piece that most people miss.

There is a strong link between fertility challenges and gut health.

Your gut is not just about digestion. It plays a central role in:

  • hormone regulation
  • detoxification
  • immune balance

 

What damages gut health faster than almost anything?

Not just antibiotics or food poisoning.

But the daily, low-level exposure to herbicides, fungicides and pesticides on non-organic produce.

These chemicals disrupt your gut microbiome, weaken your detox pathways and create internal stress that directly impacts your hormones and your ability to conceive.

Research links pesticide exposure and endocrine-disrupting chemicals with gut microbiome disruption, hormone imbalance, poorer sperm quality, reduced IVF outcomes, longer time to pregnancy and reproductive conditions such as endometriosis.

This does not mean one strawberry causes infertility. (Although strawberries hold the most toxins and are naturally high in histamines which causes inflammation, so strawberries – even organic ones – are not a fertility food).

It means that, when trying to conceive, reducing your everyday toxic load is a wise and evidence-informed strategy.

 

If you are not buying everything organic, then at the very least:

  • prioritise organic for the Dirty Dozen
  • use the Clean 15 as your safer non-organic options

 

You see, every choice you make is either supporting your fertility or working against it.

 

This is just one of the many foundational principles taught inside my 90-day Fertile Lifestyle Course, (which has been helping women have happy healthy babes for over 10 years) and where you are guided step-by-step on how to reduce your toxic load, rebalance your hormones and create the optimal internal environment for faster fertility success.

 

You can read more here:
www.awakeningfertility.com/fertile-lifestyle-course

 

Supporting Evidence of the Aforementioned Claims

Caporossi et al. (2021) — Endometriosis and pollutants
Review linking environmental pollutants, including pesticides, with endometriosis risk
Source: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/2/532

Chiu et al. (2015) — Pesticide residues and sperm quality
Higher intake of high-pesticide-residue produce associated with lower sperm count and morphology
Source: https://academic.oup.com/humrep/article/30/6/1342/616110

Chiu et al. (2018) — Pesticide residues and IVF outcomes
Higher pesticide exposure associated with lower probability of pregnancy and live birth
Source: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5814112/

Environmental Working Group (EWG) — Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen
Annual ranking based on pesticide residue testing data
Source: https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/methodology.php

Fabozzi et al. (2022) — Endocrine disruptors, gut microbiota and reproduction
Links endocrine disruptors with reproductive health via gut microbiome disruption
Source: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9654651/

Gálvez-Ontiveros et al. (2020) — Endocrine disruptors in food and gut microbiota
Systematic review on EDCs, food exposure and gut health
Source: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/12/4/1158

Hampl et al. (2020) — Endocrine disruptors and gut microbiome interactions
Explains how EDCs alter microbiome composition
Source: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8603731/

Hu et al. (2018) — Pesticide exposure and time to pregnancy
Higher pesticide exposure linked with longer time to conception
Source: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6108871/

Kazemi et al. (2025) — Pesticide residues and ovarian reserve
High pesticide intake associated with reduced ovarian reserve
Source: https://jn.nutrition.org/article/S0022-3166(24)01255-0/fulltext

Laws et al. (2021) — Endocrine disruptors and reproductive disorders
Pesticides identified as endocrine disruptors affecting fertility
Source: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9743013/

Mendola et al. (2008) — Environmental contaminants and female reproductive health
Links environmental toxins with poorer reproductive outcomes
Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0015028207043154

Mesnage et al. (2022) — Dietary pesticide exposure and gut microbial metabolism
Evidence that pesticide exposure disrupts gut microbial activity
Source: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12940-022-00860-0

Pan et al. (2024) — Endocrine-disrupting chemicals and female infertility
EDCs linked with ovarian dysfunction, endometriosis and hormone imbalance
Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/endocrinology/articles/10.3389/fendo.2023.1324993/full

Stephens et al. (2022) — Endometriosis, fibroids and endocrine disruptors
Environmental toxicants may contribute to reproductive disorders
Source: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8832054/

Tricotteaux-Zarqaoui et al. (2024) — EDCs and female fertility
Links pesticide exposure with IVF outcomes, ovarian function and uterine health
Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2024.1466967/full