The last time you bought a can of organic tomatoes you probably were more focused on the “organic” ingredients, not the packaging itself. Yes, buying organic can help balance one’s modern regime of highly processed food, but have you ever thought about the chemicals present in the PACKAGING of the food you buy?
Unfortunately, in a lot of canned foods, a chemical called “Bisphenol A” is still being used as a preservative within the lining. This chemical has been in the spotlight a lot over the past few years for its use in plastic water-bottles, however it is also used in the manufacturing of polycarbonate plastics, adhesives, and the lining of food containers.
New cutting-edge research is suggesting Bisphenol-A can actually attribute to adverse effects on long term human health (even your unborn fetus) in terms of exacerbating the development of OBESITY. It was first discovered accidentally by researchers who fed mice small amounts of these chemicals causing them to get fat. The phenomenon is so striking that the scientific community is assigning these chemicals a class of their own – OBESOGENS.
Obesogens are chemical compounds that disrupt the metabolism of lipids in the body, resulting in obesity. What’s even scarier, is that toxicologists found that smaller doses of bisphenol-A (up to 1000 times below the ACCEPTABLE DAILY INTAKE) were more detrimental to one’s body in terms of pre-disposing obesity when compared to large doses. This is because our endocrine (hormone) receptors are more sensitive to very low levels of hormone and are thus more easily activated, whereas high levels of a chemical may actually cause receptors to shut down altogether, preventing any further response.
GREEN PRODUCT ALTERNATIVES TO BISPHENOL-A?
Bisphenol A is tricky to avoid. In fact, it is even present in very high-concentrations in the ink of receipts! Below are Eco-Savy’s GREEN AND ECO-FRIENDLY solutions:
– Use fewer cans- buy your canned tomatoes or pasta sauce in glass jars (glass jars can also be recycled easier)
– Buy plastic water bottles that are BPA (Bisphenol-A) FREE
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References
– http://m.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/health/conditions/are-chemicals-not-calories-making-us-fat/article4085893/?service=mobile
– http://www.treehugger.com/health/bpa-identified-as-potential-environmental-obesogen.html
– Welshons WV, et al. Large effects from small exposures. I. Mechanisms for endocrine-disrupting chemicals with estrogenic activity. Environ Health Perspect 1118994–1006.1006(2003. http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.5494.
