Good alternatives include broccoli, romaine lettuce, or carrots among many others. Spinach is rich in vitamins, iron, folate and carotenoids. It is also high in DDT, permethrin, chlorthalonil and other cancer causing pesticides. Other greens such as kale, swiss chard, mustard greens, collard greens are good nutritional substitutes, but have a roughly equivalent pesticide contamination profile. For raw spinach, romaine lettuce is far less contaminated alternative that is relatively high in carotenoids.
Cherries are a marginal source of vitamin C, but have little other nutritional value.
Cherries from the United States, in contrast to their imported counterparts, are heavily contaminated with pesticides. Nutritious substitutes with far lower pesticide residues are blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, kiwis, oranges, watermelon, and a host of other fruits rich in vitamin C. Peaches provide low amounts of vitamins A and C, and negligible amounts of carotenoids. They also deliver a heavy dose of the cancer causing fungicides captan and iprodione, and the neurotoxic pesticide, methyl parathion. Many fruits with lower and less toxic pesticide loads provide the same or better nutritional benefits. To avoid cantaloupes with high pesticide residues, hold off on this fruit during January through April, when imports from Mexico are at their peak.