Not too long ago many news outlets contained broadcasts and articles about the presence of BPA, a hormone-disrupting chemical, in plastics and how people, especially pregnant women, should avoid eating out of containers containing BPA.
Today we read an article about a study that found a link between the consumption of canned foods and elevated levels of BPA in humans. According to the study’s findings, people who ate canned soup regularly had much higher levels of BPA in their urine than people who ate soup made with fresh ingredients.
People who ate a serving of canned soup every day for five days had BPA levels of 20.8 micrograms per liter of urine, whereas people who instead ate fresh soup had levels of 1.1 micrograms per liter, according to the study. BPA is found in many canned foods — it is a byproduct of the chemicals used to prevent corrosion.
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“We are concerned about the influence of [hormone-disrupting] chemicals on health in general, and BPA is one of them,” Michels told MyHealthNewsDaily.
The study is published online today (Nov. 22) in the Journal of the American Medical Association. ( source )
So there you have it, folks: A good, solid reason to support farmers in your area by purchasing your foods fresh from grocery stores that buy local.
As far as BPA in plastics goes, we will say only that plenty of companies now use BPA-free materials in their containers so the risk of ingesting BPA from plastic containers is one that most of us can easily avoid – if we choose our plastic containers carefully.
Replace older plastic containers
… with newer ones bearing the BPA-Free badge. Oh, and if you routinely use old margarine tubs, cool whip tubs or other plastic tubs (like we do!) you should swap them out for tubs manufactured more recently, too.
And don’t forget to properly recycle the plastic items you decide to get rid of! We don’t want them ending up in landfills where they could possibly leach their BPA content into the environment over time!
