Plastics in your food and in your body; how to know if you have this toxic burden and what to do about it
Testing and how to remove this toxic burden
The news of widespread plastic contamination in food products has been shared in mainstream news and other outlets.
You may not be surprised by this finding, but hopefully, it raises awareness to consumers to eat more whole foods, less packaged, processed, and fast food and for the food industry to make changes.
From Consumer Reports
That unexpected ingredient is something called a plasticizer: a chemical used to make plastic more flexible and durable. Today, plasticizers—the most common of which are called phthalates—show up inside almost all of us, right along with other chemicals found in plastic, including bisphenols such as BPA. These have been linked to a long list of health concerns, even at very low levels.
Consumer Reports has investigated bisphenols and phthalates in food and food packaging a few times over the past 25 years. In our new tests, we checked a wider variety of foods to see how much of the chemicals Americans actually consume. The answer? Quite a lot. Our tests of nearly 100 foods found that despite growing evidence of potential health threats, bisphenols and phthalates remain widespread in our food.
The findings on phthalates are particularly concerning: We found them in almost every food we tested, often at high levels. The levels did not depend on packaging type, and no one particular type of food—say, dairy products or prepared meals—was more likely than another to have them.
For example, we found high levels in, among other products, Del Monte sliced peaches, Chicken of the Sea pink salmon, Fairlife Core Power high-protein chocolate milkshakes, Yoplait Original French vanilla low-fat yogurt, and several fast foods, including Wendy’s crispy chicken nuggets, a Chipotle chicken burrito, and a Burger King Whopper with cheese. Organic products were just as problematic: In fact, the highest phthalate levels we found were in a can of Annie’s Organic cheesy ravioli.
Yet some products had much lower levels than others. A serving of Pizza Hut’s Original Cheese Pan Pizza, for example, had half the phthalate levels of a similar pizza from Little Caesars. Levels varied even among products from the same brand: Chef Boyardee Big Bowl Beefaroni pasta in meat sauce had less than half the level of the company’s Beefaroni pasta in tomato and meat sauce.
The problem is that phthalates are ubiquitous in our environment and can contaminate food even if it isn’t wrapped in plastic.
The CR article breaks down each product tested and the phthalate amount. I wish they tested more than a few organic products. But the bottom line is that phthalates are found in organic and non-organic products, which means that avoiding phthalates may not be attainable.
There are numerous common phthalate compounds found in plasticizers such as DEHP (diethyl hexyl phthalate), DBP (dibutyl phthalate), DEP (diethyl phthalate), DiNP (di-isononyl phthalate), DiDP (Di-iso-decyl phthalate), BBP (Butyl benzyl phthalate), MEHP (mono-2-ethylhexyl phthalate), DiBP (di-isobutyl phthalate) and DnOP (dioctyl phthalate).
The Harms Caused by Plastic Exposure
A study by Trasande et al. (2024) evaluated the literature on plastic contaminants such as phthalates, bisphenols, and PFAS (perfluoroalkyl substances), then computed estimates of attributable disease burden and costs due to plastics in the U.S.
Trasande et al. (2024) concluded that plastic does increase disease burden and the costs associated with it for people in the U.S., accounting for 1.22% of the gross domestic profit.
Phthalates have been found in breast milk, may delay puberty onset, decrease fertility, lead to endocrine disorders, and contribute to allergies and asthma, shorter pregnancies, and endometriosis.
If you have a chronic health condition or symptoms that no one can figure out and little to no resolution as of yet, looking into your toxic load may be beneficial.
How to Know if You Have a Toxic Burden
The environmental toxins test in my lab shop will test for 39 toxins, including phthalates, BPA, and glyphosate. Some lab tests will test for more substances, and if you are interested in an even more in-depth test, contact me, and I can add it to the lab shop. This test offered is a very comprehensive test at a reasonable price.
Please note the test price is fixed, and I do not receive any money from the test cost, only for the consult to review and discuss how to reduce the toxic burden, if any.
It is odd and confusing that most people do not want to pay out of pocket to see a nutrition professional or run these tests because of the cost.
Yet recently, I learned that a blow-out at a dry salon runs around $50 for a 45-minute blow dry, a hair treatment such as coloring and cut can cost over $100, getting a nail manicure can cost $80 to $100, and a semi-nice dinner can cost easily a $100 per person.
And the ironic thing about the above mentioned costs is that they all increase your toxic exposure. Walk into a nail or hair salon, and one sniff of the air can tell you it is a toxic environment, and then you are putting toxins directly onto your skin, where it gets absorbed.
A nice dinner does not mean it is a healthy dinner. By the time you have finished the meal, you most likely consumed rancid, oxidized oils, confined animal factory meats filled with antibiotics, fed GMO corn and other inflammatory grains, and consumed vegetables sprayed with herbicides and pesticides.
Eating out for a nutritionist is no fun.
So you spend money on increasing your toxic burden but will not spend the time or the money on reducing it? It does not make sense to me.
How to Reduce Your Toxic Load to Reduce the Plastic Exposure Harm
One way to reduce the toxic burden is to minimize packaged foods (organic and non-organic) and consume more whole foods. I see more produce store sections offering brown bags over plastic to place your fruit and vegetables in.
Consume filtered water, stay hydrated, and avoid plastic water bottles. Hydration is essential since the main clearance pathway is primarily via urine output.
Support your detox pathways. This includes incorporating movement and exercise into your day, sweating, consuming fiber-rich foods, and keeping your bowels moving daily.
Zeolite products “may” have the ability to detox not just the gut but toxins that get into other bodily tissues.
From Cytodetox
Zeolite is formed from volcanic ash mixing in seawater and fossilizing to create a honeycomb porous cage structure with a natural negative charge.
Cytodetox site goes on to state that advancements in the field of zeolite have led to greater internal benefits beyond the mouth, stomach, and colon.
The two zeolite brands with the greatest reputation are Touchstone Essentials and Cytodetox, but I cannot vouch for them until I see before and after environmental test results. I did not locate any studies using zeolite products or phthalate testing, which would be helpful.
Bottom Line: Doing what you can to stay healthy is very important because many toxins are unavoidable. Also, what toxins do we pass down from one generation to the next, and is this setting infants up for a difficult start in life?
Have you had environmental toxin tests done? If so, please share your general results and what steps you took, and more importantly, did you notice any difference after the steps you took?
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