I’m trying to decide between Quinoa and Amaranth, since both are similar and healthy grains. I know that Amaranth contains more nutrients, but Quinoa is usually pesticide free because it naturally deters pests. Is Amaranth the same, or is it full of pesticides?
Well if Quinoa deters pests then it’s full of pesticides too, by definition.
Synthetic pesticides are safer than ‘natural’ pesticides by weight. 99.99% of the pesticides we consume are ‘natural’ (Ames is a personal hero of mine)https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2397847320940561
And applied synthetic pesticides are more easily washed off since they are applied to the surface of the plants, rather than being expressed within the plant tissue itself.
Check out some of the nasty compounds nature produces in common cabbage: https://jameskennedymonash.wordpress.com/category/infographics/chemistry-of-everything/
You can’t you grow a meaningful amount of food without pesticides. Just because Quinoa is possible to grow without added pesticides, doesn’t mean that is actually done.
Pseudo grains, including Quinoa, are more likely to have higher levels of residual pesticide than refined cereals. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8382516/
Finally, the Quinoa boom has resulted in massive amounts of overly contaminated Quinoa with pesticides, as more and more inexperienced farmers attempt to grow it to cash in. https://aesengagement.wordpress.com/2020/06/30/scandal-blame-and-the-politics-of-contamination-in-perus-quinoa-bust/
Probably not the feel good answer your looking for. But if you choose pseudograins over regular refined grains then you are choosing to eat more pesticides. Similar deal with unrefined brown rice- bad idea.
I’d love to hear anyone’s rebuttal to these points or on natural vs synthetic pesticides on general. Since these types of posts tend to be down voted to hell on these types of subs.