Avoiding the downward spiral
Last fall, the bisphenol A situation went from bad to worse, when the FDA released a report which concluded that "an adequate margin of safety exists…at current levels of exposure from food contact uses." And things just continued on a downward spiral from there… According to an article I just read, researchers from the University of Rochester found that bisphenol A (BPA) actually remains in the body much longer than experts previously believed. Until now, it was thought that the chemical was eliminated from the system relatively quickly through the urine. To test that assumption, "the researchers tracked how urine levels of BPA declined based on the length of time a person had fasted. But they found that people who fasted for 8.5 hours, for example, had about the same BPA levels as those who fasted 24 hours." The problem here is that the longer BPA remains in your system, the more likely it is to cause damage. As Dr. Wright mentioned in the July 2006 issue of Nutrition & Healing, this chemical has been linked to increased risk of type 2 diabetes and cancer. So avoiding it as much as possible appears to be more critical than ever. Unfortunately, eliminating your exposure to it entirely is next to impossible, since it is one of the 50 top-produced chemicals in the world. But every little bit helps. And since BPA is the building block of most plastic products, and is one of the primary ingredients in the resins used to line over 100 billion different canned products, avoiding foods packaged in either of these materials is in the best interest of your health and the health of your whole family. Source:
"Plastic chemical may stay in body longer: study," Reuters Health (www.reutershealth.com), 1/28/09 | 
