Hi everyone this is Monica Reinagel and you're listening to the nutrition divas

quick and dirty tips for eating well and feeling fabulous today's topic was suggested by Trish, who wrote, I keep hearing reports

about researchers finding plastic in children's blood. What exactly are they finding and where

is it coming from? Are we ingesting enough

plastic to cause cancer? How could plastic cause diabetes or obesity and most

importantly how do we protect our kids and ourselves?

You're right, Trish, there is a lot of scary information out there about the amount of

plastic that we're all being exposed to and the potential effects on our health. I wish this were one of those things that I could dismiss as a myth or an urban legend.

Although there's definitely good reason to be concerned here, it might help to have a better understanding of the situation.

So let me see if I can sort it out for you.

So are we being plasticized?

Well it's absolutely true that plastic compounds used in bottles, cans, and other food

containers are finding their way into our bodies. Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control report that virtually everyone they've tested has BPA or Bisphenol A residues in their urine.

To tell you the truth, finding BPA in the urine seems like sort of a hopeful sign.

It means that our bodies are doing exactly what you'd want them to do when exposed to a toxin.

They're eliminating it.

I'm more concerned about reports finding that many of us have substantial levels of BPA and other plastic compounds in our blood.

What kind of damage could these chemicals do to us? Well, we have all kinds of animal studies

showing that exposure to BPA causes malignancies, neurological damage, reproductive, and

hormonal problems, even obesity. In humans, researchers have seen an association

between BPA levels and obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, but not cancer. Now remember, correlation is not the same as causation.

It could be that these compounds are actually contributing to these diseases in some way.

...