Reduce your intake of potentially harmful chemicals.
Getting your food off its plastic dependency.
Look around your kitchen. If you are like most of us, then you will likely have plastic in many places. In your cupboards, food storage containers, utensils and cooking implements. You might even find plastic lining your food cans, in your butter dishes, salad and vegetable containers.Plastic is a pervasive material in our world, used mainly with reckless abandon, without knowing how it can contribute to chemicals in our home environment and in our bodies. A variety of sources have confirmed the potential hazards of ingesting the chemicals that can leach from plastic products, BPA being one of them. Nowhere is that risks more evident then when our food comes into direct contact with plastic. But please don't stress! Informing yourself on the more harmful types of plastic and replacing plastic with practical, easy to find alternatives will keep you and your family away from any potential harm.
Inform yourself to know the plastics you use
Your first step if you choice to take it, is to understand the difference between the usual plastic types. However the safest option is to avoid the interaction of food and plastic whenever possible. This isn't always practical for everyone, therefore lets make sure you know which plastics are the more hazardous, so you can then make informed decisions.To determine which plastic you are using, turn over the plastic container and look for the recycling code on the bottom.
The plastics that have the greatest potential harm to your health are #3 (PVC polyvinyl chloride) and #7 (PC ploycarbonate) or 'other'.
The safer plastics for food interaction are #2 (HDPE high-density polyethylene), usual used for milk jugs and cereal box liners.; #4 (LDPE low-destiny ployethylene), usual used in plastic wrap and sandwich bags; and #5 (PP polypropylene), usual used in yoghurt and butter/margarine tubs.
PVC #3 plastic which is often used in plastic wrapping for meats and cheeses, 'cling-wrap/cling-film', cooking bottles, as well as toys, plumbing pipes and insulation, is known as the 'toxic plastic.' The most potentially hazardous elements of PVC are the plasticizers used to make the product flexible, which are phthalates and adipates. Traces of these chemicals are known to leach into foods stored in PVC. To avoid PVC, ask your grocery-store butcher to wrap cut meat into paper. When choosing cheese choose zip closing plastic rather then shrink-wrap. If you use plastic wrap is your kitchen then buy those made from #4 (LPDE) which is the safer plastic.
PC/PLA #7 plastic fits into the broad category of 'other.' PLA is a compostable plastic, but PC contains BPA (bisphenol-A) a potent endocrine disruptor that mimics estrogen in the body which can increase the risk of cancer. BPA is ubiquitous in the USA. Up until recently, one of the most common uses here was in baby bottles and children's sippy cups. Last July, the FDA banned the use of BPA in children's bottles and sippy cups. However BPA is still found in food can plastic linings, where there is a high risk of it leaching into food. Organic canned food produce doesn't necessarily contain less BPA then conventional canned goods. Eden Organics is on of the few U.S brands that offer canned goods in BPA-free cans.
Avoiding All Plastics
By choosing to eliminating the most harmful plastics from your kitchen and food storage you are heading in the healthier direction. Reducing in general your chemical intake will greatly improve your health and energy levels. Recent studies support the case for avoiding plastic altogether whenever possible. These studies conclude that many types of plastics can leach chemicals that have estrogenic activity. Chemicals with estrogenic activities have similar effects to BPA, among them obesity, damage to the reproductive system and increased cancer risk. In the study published in the peer-reviewed journal 'Environmental Health Sciences' (EHP)by the National Institute of Environmental Health Science, researchers found that almost every commercially available plastic product they sampled - including those marked with BOA-Free, leached chemicals having detectable estrogenic activity. 
Stock your kitchen with glass or stainless steel food containers. If you do get meats or cheeses that are wrapped in plastic then transfer them when you get home into non-plastic containers. Do not microwave any food in a plastic container, or have food in a plastic container that is heated up, as this increases the ability for the chemicals to leach out. Try to buy as fresh food as possible, avoiding cans that are lined with plastic. Don't reuse plastic drinking bottles that are for one use, i.e soda bottles, water bottles, juice bottles etc. Be good to your body, enjoy limiting your chemical exposure and always empower yourself through information and intuition.
Blessings on your path to,
Incredible Health, Incredible Life!
