The Dirty Dozen: Top 12 Foods to Eat Organic

#1 Meat. Raising animals with conventional modern methods often means using hormones to speed up growth, antibiotics to resist disease on crowded feed lots, and both pesticides and chemical fertilizers to grow the grain fed to the animals. Not to mention the animals being fed 90% GMO corn diets.

#2 Milk. Cows raised for dairy production are given hormones to make them produce more and more milk. Udders are pushed to their limits and blood and pus are excreted into the milk. Then they are routinely given antibiotics to combat frequent infections. These hormones and antibiotics are then passed on to you. Studies are linking early puberty to the hormones.

#3 Coffee. Many of the beans you buy are grown in countries that don't regulate use of chemicals and pesticides. Look for the USDA Organic label to ensure you're not buying beans that have been grown or processed with the use of potentially harmful chemicals.

#4 Peaches. Multiple pesticides are regularly applied to these delicately skinned fruits in conventional orchards.

#5 Apples. Like peaches, apples ar typically grown with the use of poisons to kill a variety of pests, from fungi to insects. Scrubbing and peeling doesn't eliminate chemical residue completely so it's best to buy organic when it comes to apples. Peeling a fruit or vegetable also strips away many of their beneficial nutrients.

#6 Sweet Bell Peppers. Peppers have thin skins that don't offer much of a barrier to pesticides. They're often heavily sprayed with insecticides.

#7 Celery. Celery has no protective skin, which makes it almost impossible to wash off the chemicals that are used on conventional crops.

#8 Strawberries. If you buy strawberries out of season, they're most likely imported from countries that use less-stringent regulations for pesticide use.

#9 Leafy Greens. Leafy greens are frequently contaminated with what are considered the most potent pesticides used on food.

#10 Grapes. Imported grapes run a much greater risk of contamination than those grown domestically. Vineyards can be sprayed with different pesticides during different growth period of the grape, and no amount of washing or peeling will eliminate contamination because of the grape's thin skin.

#11. Potatoes. America's popular spud ranks high for pesticide residue. It also gets the double whammy of fungicides added to the soil for growing.

#12 Tomatoes. A tomato's easily punctured skin is no match for chemicals that will eventually permeate it.

Click here to read a list of 10 foods you don't need to buy organic.