DrBill  

5 Ways to Keep BPA Out of Your Food
With new studies linking bisphenol A, a chemical found in the linings of food and beverage cans, to diabetes and heart disease, you may be wondering what you can do to minimize your exposure. Here are some good rules of thumb for reducing your intake of BPA: 1. Buy your tomato sauce in glass jars. Canned tomato sauce is likely to have higher levels of BPA, because the high acidity of the tomatoes causes more of the chemical to leach from the lining of the can. 2. Consume fresh fruits and vegetables instead of canned. In addition to their BPA-free benefit, fresh produce usually has more nutrients, which often get lost in the process of canning. 3. Purchase beverages in plastic or glass bottles Canned soda and juice often contain some BPA. 4. Use powdered infant formula instead of ready-to-serve liquid. An assessment from the Environmental Working Group found that liquid formulas contain more BPA than powdered brands. 5. Think in terms of moderation. Follow a sensible approach, eating less of those foods that are higher in BPA.
Sources:
U.S. News & World Report September, 2008
Journal of the American Medical Association September 16, 2008; 300(11):1353-5
Journal of the American Medical Association September 16, 2008; 300(11):1303-10

It’s finally becoming more common knowledge that plastic is not an inert substance, which is what its manufacturers would like you to believe. Plastic contains chemicals like BPA and phthalates, which mimic hormones in your body. Even tiny concentrations can cause problems, and you’re likely being exposed from all angles. Aside from canned goods, they’re found in reusable food containers, plastic wraps, water bottles, personal care products, you name it. Plastic is used everywhere.

The Many Health Hazards of Bisphenol A (BPA):
Plastic is so prevalent that according to a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) study, BPA was detected in the urine of 95 percent of people tested!
This is alarming when you consider the problems it’s been linked to, including:
• Structural damage to your brain
• Hyperactivity, increased aggressiveness, and impaired learning
• Increased fat formation and risk of obesity
• Altered immune function
• Early puberty, stimulation of mammary gland development, disrupted reproductive cycles, and ovarian dysfunction
• Changes in gender-specific behavior, and abnormal sexual behavior
• Stimulation of prostate cancer cells
• Increased prostate size, and decreased sperm production

I’ve discussed the dangers of using plastic containers before. Anytime you eat or drink something out of plastic, you risk exposure. Plastics that are worn out or scratched leach even more chemicals into your food, as do hot beverages. Just by drinking coffee from a plastic-lined paper cup, you could be exposed to 55 times more BPA than normal. But what about canned goods? Independent laboratory tests conducted by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) detected BPA in over half of 97 cans of name-brand fruit, vegetables, soda, and other commonly eaten canned goods. There are no government safety standards limiting the amount of BPA in canned food, and the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) safety standard is 25 times the dose KNOWN to cause birth defects in many studies. But studies in the past decade have shown that low-level exposures to BPA may actually be MORE dangerous than high-level exposures! Where traditional toxicology asserts that higher doses does greater harm, bisphenol A tests show that low doses can be the most toxic of all, partly because at low levels it can fall below the radar of your body’s natural detox mechanism. For example, one study found that a low dose of BPA produced a 70 percent higher growth rate of prostate cancer cells in lab animals than did higher doses (Wetherill et al. 2002). In another; lower doses of BPA resulted in higher rates of breast cell growth that precede cancer (Markey et al. 2001).

Dr. B
ELITE FAMILY WELLNESS CENTER