Anyone who knows me knows I love to cook. I love to do it with family and friends or what I call “my framily”. I have a solid core of framily in my life who also love to prepare fabulous food and share it to create amazing bonds and memories. And of course, we try our best to make food that is healthy and nourishing!
Healthy food helps us fight the diseases that we are facing with the increasing assault of harmful chemicals in our bodies. So when I read reports of the same chemicals we are fighting to ban in toys, cosmetics, and other stuff winding up in the very food we eat, it drives me nuts!
Just this month, two new studies found fluorinated chemicals that can leach into food in fast food packaging, take-out packages, and french fry boxes, and in microwave popcorn bags.
These two studies add to a growing body of research finding harmful chemicals hidden in our food supply. These chemicals include cancer-causing perfluorinated chemicals and hormone-disrupting phthalates. Even toxic flame retardants can end up in food.
Some of these chemicals get into the food because they are purposely applied to food packaging or are in the equipment used to process the food. Some may enter the food supply because they are in the soil, water or air used to grow the food.
We have more than enough to worry about these days. We should absolutely not have to worry about nasty chemicals unnecessarily contaminating our food and making us sick.
That’s why Toxic-Free Future is expanding our issue focus to fighting for toxic-free food! Companies who sell us food have a responsibility to keep unwanted harmful chemicals out of their products and policymakers should restrict the presence of toxic chemicals in food.
Already this year, we supported a bill in the state legislature to ban perfluorinated chemicals in food packaging. The bill received a public hearing but unfortunately won’t be advancing this year.
We’ll also be launching some exciting initiatives over the next few months that we can’t wait to tell you about. In the meantime, read about what else we’ve been up to on this blog.
1. Bisphenol A and similar compounds
Bisphenol A (BPA) is a chemical that used to be found in the plastic containers of many common foods and beverages and in the lining inside metal cans (for instance, those used for canned tomatoes).
However, studies have shown that BPA can leach out of these containers and into the food or beverage inside (1Trusted Source).
BPA is believed to mimic estrogen by binding to the receptor sites meant for the hormone. This can disrupt typical hormone function (1Trusted Source).
What’s more, studies in pregnant animals have shown that BPA exposure leads to problems with reproduction and increases the future breast and prostate cancer risk of a developing fetus (2Trusted Source, 3Trusted Source).
Some observational studies have also found that high BPA levels are associated with insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and obesity (4Trusted Source, 5Trusted Source).
However, while animal studies have found an association between BPA and weight gain and insulin resistance, few human studies have studied the association between markers of BPA exposure and diabetes (4Trusted Source, 5Trusted Source).
Fortunately, most plastics and cans are now BPA-free. However, BPA has been replaced in many products with very similar compounds such as bisphenol S, which may have similar effects (6Trusted Source).
In fact, one review notes that BPS may be more toxic to the reproductive system than BPA (6Trusted Source).
To reduce your exposure to these potentially harmful compounds, avoid plastic dishware as much as possible — including bottled water. Use glass and stainless steel drinkware instead of plastic, and look for foods that are packaged in glass rather than aluminum cans.
Artificial trans fats
Artificial trans fats are made by pumping hydrogen into unsaturated oils such as soybean and corn oils to turn them into solid fats. They used to be in many processed foods, such as margarine, snack foods, and packaged baked goods.
However, animal and observational studies have repeatedly shown that trans fat consumption causes inflammation and has negative effects on heart health (7Trusted Source, 8Trusted Source, 9Trusted Source).
For this reason, the use of artificial trans fats has been fully banned in the United States since January 2020 (10Trusted Source).
Some animal-based foods may contain some naturally occurring trans fats, but these don’t have the same negative health effects as industrial trans fats
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