You've stocked your fridge with fruits and veggies and are on your way to eating more healthy foods. There's one more important step to take before you prepare your foods to eat -- wash them.

Sure, you probably rinse off an apple before you take a bite, but there's more we can do to make sure we're rinsing off any pesticides that may be lingering.

If you want to avoid accidentally ingesting bacteria, mold, or yeast, you should most certainly adopt these quick cleaning practices before digging into your produce.

Try to avoid nicked fruits and vegetables

It's not always possible to avoid bruised or nicked produce, but if you can, go that route. Pesticides can get inside your fruits and vegetables this way, making it hard to truly clean your produce since it's seeped inside through the cuts.

Always wash your produce, even if you don't eat the skin

You might think that it doesn't matter if you wash your potatoes or carrots if you're just going to peel them. However, pathogens can still linger on them or worse, get inside the parts you plan to eat as you prepare them.

Don't soak your produce

Soaking produce in plain water only makes for a contaminated bath. So if you have strawberries and let them soak, you're only allowing them to fester in any pesticides you wanted to rinse away. Give them a quick wash instead.

Use a fruit and vegetable wash

When you clean your produce with fruit and vegetable wash, you get rid of pesticides, waxes, and other unwanted chemicals on your food. You'll apply it and then rinse it away to have the cleanest version of your food.

But before you reach for a fruit and vegetable wash at the store, those can be pretty pricey! You can easily make one of your own with ingredients you've already got in your kitchen. For one, you can mix 2 cups of cold water with a quarter cup of white vinegar and two tablespoons of lemon juice into a clean spray bottle. Squirt your produce and let the solution sit for a few minutes before rinsing it away.

No vinegar? No problem! Mix a cup of water with a tablespoon of lemon juice and a tablespoon of baking soda. This foamy mixture can be sprayed on, left for 5 minutes, and then rinsed away.

Now you can enjoy the full benefits of your produce without any hidden toxins to slow you down.

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