The hidden cost of convenience strikes again! As I have come to realize, all forms of convenience come at a deep and widespread cost. Plastic, the modern day “metal” may be highly resourceful but is very dangerous to our health and our planet. The general environmental concerns with plastic – requiring petroleum to produce and rarely being biodegradable – are just the tip of the iceberg. Though, as a blog concerned with food and its corrupted industries, let’s focus on the ‘nutritional’ implications of plastic. Specifically, I want to discuss the latest controversy in food safety, the breakthrough study that found measurable levels of Bisphenol A (BPA) in 19 common food containers.

Before reading the stream of articles on BPAs in the last week, I had come across this chemical once before. While student teaching last spring, a group of students in a science class had completed a report on BPA found in hard plastic containers, i.e. nalgene bottles. Like many cynical Americans, I took the news of another toxin in my food supply with little consideration. Sometimes it seems like everything is messed up and giving up on modern life and becoming a homesteader is the only reasonable decision. So at the time, I thought about this issue but worried more about the next day’s lesson plan. Now, 7 months later, the spread of this new study done by Consumer Reports for their December issue (see link above), leaves me not only worried but considering a new plan of action.

For those of you (like myself) that are just learning about BPA, let me share what I have learned thus far. Bisphenol A:

• A chemical found in the lining of cans and in polycarbonate plastic, i.e. sports bottles, food-storage containers and baby-bottles.
• Its been restricted in Canada and some U.S. states due to its linkage to a wide range of health problems, i.e. reproductive abnormalities, higher risk of breast and prostate cancer, diabetes and heart disease.
• We can prevent the intake of BPA by limiting our consumption of canned foods and use glass and metal containers for drinking water and eating food.

The fact that another toxic chemical appears in processed food is not too surprising, but I think the fact that canned goods representing an array of consumer options have measurable levels is disturbing. (BPA levels were found in “BPA-free” and “organic” containers.) As much as I consider myself to be a thoughtful consumer, here comes another curve ball. It seems that any considerate mean of modern food preservation has some sneaky externalized cost. Every time another study is published I feel like I have to change my lifestyle. In this case, over the weekend my wife and I made a step in the right direction. While exchanging a gift at Crate & Barrel, we used some leftover gift card money to buy two glass food containers. The queasy feeling I have when microwaving a plastic tupperware container can finally dissipate. My one glass food container has saved the day!

Beside the container, it is also important to purchase whole foods when possible. As we should assume at this point, all processed foods are bad. If, every couple months, another study comes out proving the safety or health of processed food items, it’s only a matter of time before we have to grow and kill our own food just to stay sane. (Hence the trend towards homesteading.)

For those of us that do ingest canned goods on a regular basis, the study is of heightened concern. Beyond the need to eat whole foods or grass-fed meats, we must now also question the containers that hold our food. (To read more on the specific health implications of the study, read this and this.) Once you have absorbed the data on BPA amounts and its hazards to our health, you can swallow the darkest element of all – the Federal Drug Administration’s refusal to ban BPA.

It turns out that the FDA knows about BPA levels in our food. And yet, like a good government agency, it relies on industry-financed studies to influence their decision-making. Of course the American Plastics Council will research in their own favor, that’s how democracy works in this country! Call it “Knowledge for the Masses,” funded by every corporation in America. (Yes I am cynical and I have every right to be.)

Maybe this new health scare will push us one step closer to spending more money on whole foods, more time in the kitchen, and pursuing our long-term health needs over short-term consumer pleasures.

Related posts:

1. Health Eating, Healthy Junk Food?
2. Serving Size Matters
3. The Truth About Agave Nectar
4. Grocery-free Living
5. To Tax or Not To Tax? Obesity is the Question.

Tags: FDA, Food Politics, food safety, Nutrition