Is it time to remove foods stored in cans and plastic bottles from your diet?
Why not? There?s a wide variety of foods kept in glass bottles and jars, and glass is recyclable. And glass doesn?t have the chemical bisphenol A (BPA) as part of its makeup ? which may keep you, and your loved ones, a whole lot healthier.
Nearly all can liners contain BPA, and this chemical leaches into the foods contained within. BPA can leach out of polycarbonate plastic water bottles, as well.
The can and bottle industry insist that BPA is perfectly safe ? in the levels that are present in these leached out foods. Tests were conducted in the 1980s, on lab rats, to verify toxicity levels, and found them to be safe.
However, some scientists disagree. According to Frederick vom Saal, Ph.D., a developmental biologist at the University of Missouri, for example, BPA mimics naturally occurring estrogen, a hormone that is part of the endocrine system, the body’s finely tuned messaging service. “These hormones control the development of the brain, the reproductive system and many other systems in the developing fetus.? Endocrine-disrupting chemicals can duplicate, block or exaggerate hormonal responses. “The most harm is to the unborn or newborn child.?
Vom Saal points out that hormone disruption can occur with low doses of BPA, which is why the tests conducted in the 1980s don?t tell the whole story.
BPA is omnipresent. Indeed, ninety-five percent of Americans (who were tested) were found to have this chemical in their urine in a 2004 biomonitoring study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
While tests are continuing to attempt to settle the controversy once and for all, the fact remains that BPA could be harmful to newborns. Why take that chance? Switch over to glass containers today.
