Yes we can reduce our toxic burden, and in just 3 days! All it takes is naked food.
“My daughter is pregnant and she’s so worried about exposing her baby to hormone-disrupting chemicals, but what’s she supposed to do, they’re everywhere!” This is a commonly voiced frustration, especially among mothers and grandmothers, but there is good news for all the women—and men—who feel helpless to protect the children in their care from the pervasive chemical contamination that disrupts hormones from conception to the grave. A new study shows clearly that changing how we eat not only reduces the toxic burden, but does so very quickly.
In a study published in the March 2011 journal Environmental Health Perspectives, the Silent Spring Institute teamed up with the Breast Cancer Fund to measure bisphenol-A (BPA) and Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DHEP) levels in 20 study participants. Both are hormone-disrupting chemicals found in many plastics, and especially in canned foods and food packaging. Then participants eliminated canned or packaged foods from their diets, and after just three days BPA levels had dropped by 66%, and DEHP levels had dropped by 55%! This is a significant change, and makes it well worthwhile to eat naked foods, by which I mean not canned or covered with packaging.
Although not measured in this study, phthlalates are another hormone-disrupting chemical found in food packaging.
Here’s a link to a tip sheet (in a pdf file) from the Silent Spring Institute, 6 Simple Steps to Avoid BPA and phthalates. I especially like the point made in this tip sheet that when a container says “microwave safe,” that means it’s safe for the container, but not necessarily for your health.
And please remember, fake fragrances, which is to say virtually all fragranced or scented products, are important sources of hormone-disrupting chemicals, as well as carcinogens.
More Information
Ban Phthalates from Your Life!
Xenohormones and Your Environment by John R. Lee MD and Virginia Hopkins