YOU Docs Daily
What's BPA? And Why Do You Want Your Body BPA-Free?
Q. What's BPA? A. Remember the stuff in unbreakable hard plastic water bottles and baby bottles that was linked to cancer, miscarriage, fertility, obesity, immunity, and more? That's BPA. Warnings snowballed about it (including in this column), a substitute was found, and now virtually every shatterproof plastic bottle has a "BPA free" sticker. Phew.
Except . . . BPA is still easier to find than flags on the 4th of July. Just open a can of soup, soda, beer, beans, tuna, tomatoes, you name it. About 80% of cans have a BPA-epoxy lining, which protects food from can corrosion but leeches some BPA into the contents. As a result, you probably consume BPA every day. How much is unknown, but some disturbing new research just came in.
People who ate 1 1/2 cups of canned soup a day for 5 days had more than a tenfold spike in BPA. How much do you get if you have a couple of sodas, tuna salad for lunch, and a beer after work? No one knows. BPA's also in fast food receipts and gas station receipts, so don’t touch 'em if you don’t need 'em. Here's why.)
You don't want this stuff in your body, especially if you're contemplating getting pregnant. There are some BPA-free cans (Eden Foods and certain Trader Joe's products use them) but they don't last as long or work for all foods. Can linings have to withstand searing sterilization heat and as yet there's no really good all-purpose substitute for BPA epoxies. (Inventors wanted.) You can also live without this plastic.
