Daily Loaf

Earlier this week, I wrote a post about BPA (Bisphenol-A) being found in plastic bottles and food containers and its harmful effects on humans, it also being linked to causing aggressive behavior in children. Use of this chemical has been banned in Canada and in some parts of the US.

Now you don’t have to look much further to get your daily dose of BPA – just open a can of soup or tuna! Tests recently performed by Consumer Reports showed traces of BPA in almost all of the 19 name-brand cans of soup, tuna, vegetables, and juice. There were even some cans labeled “BPA-free” that contained the chemical. And don’t think your organic canned foods are safe either – the chemical showed up in some of those as well.

Consumer Reports found that the highest levels of BPA tests were found in some samples of canned green beans and canned soups. Canned Del Monte Fresh Cut Green Beans Blue Lake had the highest amount of BPA for a single sample, with levels ranging from 35.9 parts per billion (ppb) to 191 ppb. Progresso Vegetable Soup BPA levels ranged from 67 to 134 ppb. Campbell’s Condensed Chicken Noodle Soup had BPA levels ranging from 54.5 to 102 ppb.

How much BPA is too much and what’s the “safe” amount to ingest? According to this article on Huffington Post:

“Federal guidelines currently put the daily upper limit of safe exposure at 50 micrograms of BPA per kilogram of body weight. But that level is based on a handful of experiments done in the 1980s rather than hundreds of more recent animal and laboratory studies indicating that serious health risks could result from much lower doses of BPA. Several animal studies show adverse effects, such as abnormal reproductive development, at exposures of 2.4 micrograms of BPA per kilogram of body weight per day, a dose that could be reached by a child eating one or a few servings daily or an adult daily diet that includes multiple servings of canned foods containing BPA levels comparable to some of the foods Consumer Reports tested.” (Read more here.)

The best way to avoid BPA exposure: ditch the plastic (by recycling), quit buying canned foods, and start using glass and ceramic containers to eat and drink from (and when heating things up in the microwave). Also, start buying more fresh foods – it’ll do your body good.

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