How & Why to stay away from BPA....

Today's post: Thursday, 11-6-2008

Last Friday, 10-31-2008 I got an email from Al Sears, MD who often sends useful health information in his periodic emails.

(You can get them free from him at http://www.alsearsmd.com/ .

The chemical bisphenol A (BPA) has been in the news lately. It's been used so widely as a coating in food and drink containers that seven billion pounds of it was produced last year.

Unfortunately if left in contact with food or drink for to long or if it’s heated, it tends to leach into the food or drink. Worse, those two facts combined mean that you likely have BPA in your bloodstream now.

Several studies have found that a high level of bisphenol A in your blood may tend to make you more likely to get heart disease and diabetes.

Apparently bisphenol A (BPA) has a similar molecular structure or effect on your body as having extra estrogen. So any problems extra estrogen or messing up your body’s normal processing or use of estrogen can cause become much more likely if you have high blood levels of BPA.

In his research and in his practice, Dr Sears finds that extra estrogen tends to make you fat, slow, and to feel tired. Extra estrogen tends to lower your testosterone and sex drive, particularly in men. And, having BPA or excessive estrogen in your blood long term tend to help trigger cancer and other diseases. (The list of these Dr Sears found in the studies he’s read is below.)

In one study Dr Sears read, the researchers found high blood levels of bisphenol A may help cause or worsen a very large list of health problems and diseases.

Here’s the list he included in his email:

“Heart disease
Obesity
Type 2 diabetes
Liver damage
Brain damage
Inflammation
Reproductive cancers and abnormalities
Metabolic disruptions
Decreased antioxidant activity
Low-birth weight babies and other fetal abnormalities"

Then he says that the National Institutes of Health did random blood tests which found that the vast majority of Americans had BPA in their blood.

Then he says this:

“Don’t wait for the government to protect you. They won't. You can help yourself and your family by taking a few simple steps.”

I re-worded his list and added my comments.

When possible, choose glass instead of plastic. (BPA may not be the only harmful chemical in plastics. And BPA is beginning to look quite harmful.)

1. For food or drink containers or cooking utensils, use glass or Pyrex, or metal, instead of plastic. This specifically includes containers in which you microwave food. (My daughter found that glass microwave containers are available at reasonable prices on Amazon.com. ) And, this advice includes beverage containers. Worse, it includes baby bottles. Both now often have BPA in them. (Glass baby bottles do cost more. And it’s a mess if they break so you do have to be more careful using them. But they won’t poison your baby or prevent him or her from having kids or healthy kids later. It may also help a bit now to buy baby bottles and any plastic items that a baby will put in its mouth from Canada. Canada has been reported as having already banned BPA from such products according to the news reports I’ve read.)

2. Bottled water in any size plastic container can be a problem, particularly in hot weather. Dr Sears recommends drinking only purified water if you possibly can.

3. Minimize eating animal fat from grain fed animals. Author John Robbins long ago pointed out that people get far more pesticides, herbicides, and industrial chemicals such as BPA in the animal fat they eat where the animals have bioconcentrated it than they do eating produce that has been sprayed with pesticides and herbicides. Dr Sears suggests trimming off any visible fat from meat before cooking and avoiding processed meats where the fat is ground in or mixed with the meat. You can also eat meat less often and choose lean meat and poultry. In addition to that list you can eat beans, nuts, wild caught fish and seafood and beef from animals fed only grass instead of fatty meat from grain fed animals. Dr Sears also added.: “Eat hormone-free food and free range animals whenever possible. “

4. He also recommends eating right in ways that help you avoid foods or drinks that make your body release excess insulin which tends to add to the bad effects of any excess estrogen. Dr Sears suggests avoiding processed carbohydrates such as bread, cereals, and pasta. I’ll add to avoid all refined grain foods and anything whatever that contains high fructose corn syrup and minimize your intake of sugar or noncaloric sweeteners of any kind.

5. Dr Sears recommends eating a lot of high fiber vegetables. This helps prevent “stool” from remaining in your intestines long enough to cause more estrogen to be absorbed. Beans and nonstarchy vegetables of all kinds work for this. And he says that eating a lot of cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, & cabbage also helps. He’s discovered eating cruciferous vegetables helps your body excrete excess estrogen and that the compounds in cruciferous vegetables such as DIM help your body process estrogen normally which also helps to reduce excessive estrogen levels in your blood. (In other emails he has specifically recommended taking DIM supplements for this purpose as well.)

6. Dr Sears also lists the following foods as helping to inhibit or remove excess estrogen. He also points out that many of them taste good. I’ll add to buy the organic versions if you possibly can. The foods he lists are: “….squash, onions, green beans, cabbage, berries, citrus, pineapples, pears, grapes, figs, melons, sesame seeds, and pumpkin seeds. I’ll add that kiwi fruit is extremely nutritious, tasty, and quite high in fiber.

The conclusion or bottom line is to avoid plastic containers in every way you can; eat right from a health standpoint as this list of foods suggests; & eat organic and naturally raised or wild caught food from animals that have NOT been penned up or fed grain.