Plastics

[T800]

Hi All,

I couldn't find a topic relating to this, so I started one.

Have any of you made an effort to cut plastics out of your lives? I know it is damn near impossible to eliminate them all, but I'm seeing more and more reports of plastics causing a host of problems...particularly when heated. I have two sons (a 4 year old and a 1 year old). This started to catch my attention when I saw a movement among parents to abolish the use of plastic bottles to feed their children.

2 things I have recently done:

1. Abandoned drinking water from plastic bottles. This is hard because I hate tap water and prefer bottled water. At home, we have a reverse osmosis water filter and the same goes for work. I drink all of my water out of 24 oz glass mason jar now. I wash it every day.

2. I do not ever heat anything up inside plastic. Ie, microwaving leftovers in a styrofoam or plastic carton. It all goes onto a glass dish now.

Sonny

 

[gdbear65]

Not too concerned about drinking water from plastic bottles, although I've switched to using a Nalgene plastic water bottle, which I understand is quite safe, for my workouts. In the microwave I use ceramic or glass containers.

 

[hardasnails1973]

Not too concerned about drinking water from plastic bottles, although I've switched to using a Nalgene plastic water bottle, which I understand is quite safe, for my workouts. In the microwave I use ceramic or glass containers.

Microwave kills or alters nutrient content of food and you are bacsically eating dead food with no enzymes. So you are bascailly end up starving your cells

 

[PumpingIron]

I nuke my food in plastic containers twice a day. And drink from plastic bottles all day long.

I'm healthy as they come...I hope.

Any studies show that I am putting myself at risk?

This is quite interesting to me, as I really haven't heard much about it...

 

[nycste]

Microwave kills or alters nutrient content of food and you are bacsically eating dead food with no enzymes. So you are bascailly end up starving your cells

if this is really true then no pro bodybuilder would use a microwave

let alone half the world

 

[gdbear65]

Microwave kills or alters nutrient content of food and you are bacsically eating dead food with no enzymes. So you are bascailly end up starving your cells

I don't cook using a microwave - just reheat.

Ask Natural Life...
How Safe and Healthy is Microwave Cooking?

Q: I’d appreciate having your view on microwave cooking. I am confused as to whether microwaving destroys nutrients. Is it safe, and just a different form of cooking? Some time back, I read an article that caused me to get rid of my microwave as it stated it affected nutrients in food.

A: Microwave ovens, their safety and their effect on the nutritional value of food is yet another subject that yields wildly conflicting information.

The microwave oven generates electromagnetic waves (called microwaves because they’re short) at a frequency of 2450 megahertz (FM radio waves are generated at around 100 MHz and cell phones transmit 800 MHz). The microwaves bombard the molecules of water in the food. These molecules each have a positive and negative end, or “polarity”. The polarized molecules try to line themselves up with the electrical field, like compass needles trying to point North. But because the electrical field is reversing polarity at a rate of 2,450 million cycles a second, the water molecules end up rotating at the same speed. That activity generates heat, which cooks the food, literally from inside out, as opposed to other types of cooking, which transfer heat convectionally from the outside in. Unfortunately, this violent movement of molecules causes substantial damage to some molecules, often tearing them apart or deforming them.

There are very few studies on the health effects of microwave cooking, but the studies that do exist suggest you made the right move by tossing out your microwave oven. On the other hand, conventional government and medical wisdom is reassuring and tends to portray the concerns as alarmist and pseudoscientific, in spite of no scientific research disproving them. For instance, Food Science Australia, a government and industry-funded company whose mission is to “help make Australian food companies among the most competitive in the world”, dismisses consumer concerns about microwave cooking as having been fueled by media coverage of isolated and irrelevant reports. The Food and Drug Administration in the U.S. states that “foods cooked in a microwave oven may keep more of their vitamins and minerals, because microwave ovens can cook more quickly and without adding water.”

A Spanish study published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture in 2003 disproves that statement. Researchers from the Spanish scientific research council CEBAS-CSIC found that cooking by microwave is the worst way to preserve at least one key nutrient in vegetables. According to Dr. Cristina Garcia-Viguera, co-author of the study, microwaved broccoli loses 97 percent, 74 percent, and 87 percent of the three major cancer-protecting antioxidant compounds (flavonoids, sinapics and caffeoyl-quinic derivatives). By comparison, steamed broccoli loses 11 percent, 0 percent and 8 percent of the very same antioxidants.

In a 1992 article in the journal Pediatrics, a team of researchers from Stanford University reported that re-heating human breast milk in a microwave oven – even at a low setting – can destroy some of its important disease-fighting capabilities. Specifically, it lost lysozyme, which protects against bacterial infection. The fact that adverse changes were found at very low temperatures suggested to the researchers that “microwaving itself may in fact cause some injury to the milk above and beyond the heating”.

Vitamin B-12 is another nutrient that can be destroyed by microwaving. Japanese research reported in Science News in 1998 found that as little as six minutes of microwave cooking destroyed half of the vitamin B-12 in dairy foods and meat, a much higher rate of destruction than other cooking techniques. Microwaving baby formula is also a problem, according to Dr. Lita Lee of Hawaii in the Lancet medical journal in 1989. She wrote that microwaving baby formula converts certain trans-amino acids into synthetic substances like trans-fatty acids. Further, one of the amino acids, L-proline, converts to a substance known to be poisonous to the nervous system and to the kidneys.

Some of the earliest research into the effects of microwaved food was conducted in the 1950s in Russia. That research indicated bigger dangers than destruction of nutrients. Russian researchers found that people who ate microwaved foods had a statistically higher incidence of stomach and intestinal cancers, a general degeneration of peripheral cellular tissues, and a gradual breakdown of the digestive and excretory systems. Due to chemical alterations within the food, they had lymphatic malfunctions, causing a degeneration of the body’s immune system. For instance, microwaving milk and cereal grains converted some of their amino acids into carcinogens, thawing frozen fruits converted their glucoside and galactoside containing fractions into carcinogenic substances, and carcinogenic free radicals were formed in microwaved plants, especially root vegetables. They also reported structural degradation leading to decreased availability of Vitamins B, C, E and essential minerals at a rate of 60 to 90 percent in all foods tested.

As a result of that research, the Soviets banned the use of microwave ovens in 1976 and issued an international warning on the health hazards, both biological and environmental, of microwave ovens and similar frequency electronic devices. The ban has since been over-turned and the rest of the world appears not to have headed the warning.

In 1989, the Swiss food scientist Dr Dans Ulrich Hertel fed eight volunteers a range of raw, conventionally cooked and microwaved food. Blood samples, taken from each person after eating, showed serious irregularities in the structure of the food microwaved, and in the blood of those eating the microwaved samples. These changes included a decrease in all hemoglobin and cholesterol values, especially the ratio of HDL (good cholesterol) and LDL (bad cholesterol) values. Lymphocytes (white blood cells) showed a more distinct short-term decrease following the intake of microwaved food than after the intake of all the other variants. In 1991, he and Dr. Bernard H. Blanc of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and the University Institute for Biochemistry published a research paper indicating that food cooked in microwave ovens could pose a greater risk to health than food cooked by conventional means. An article also appeared a Swiss environmental magazine entitled Journal Franz Weber, which stated that the consumption of food cooked in microwave ovens had cancerous effects on the blood as indicated by an increase of leukocytes, which could indicate cell damage, after eating microwaved substances. As soon as Doctors Hertel and Blanc published their results, the authorities reacted. In 1992, a powerful trade organization, the Swiss Association of Dealers for Electro-apparatuses for Households and Industry, known as FEA forced the Swiss courts to issue a “gag order” against them. The following year, Dr. Hertel was convicted for “interfering with commerce” and prohibited from further publishing his results. However, he fought the decision and both it and the gag order were reversed in 1998 when the European Court of Human Rights in Austria ruled that there had been a violation of his rights in the 1993 decision. In addition, Switzerland was ordered to pay him compensation.

Other potential problems with microwave cooking include radiation leaks from damaged door seals, uneven cooking creating cold spots in which bacteria can thrive, and leaching of chemicals from plastic containers or food wrap. The Center for Science in the Public Interest has expressed concerns about the leaching of hormone-disrupting plasticizers (chemicals used to make plastic more flexible), polyvinyl chloride and polycarbonate in microwave ovens.

Health writer Dr. Andrew Weil has suggested that reheating foods in a microwave oven may not be harmful. However, according to the American Journal of Epidemiology, an outbreak of Salmonella typhimurium in Alaska was traced to food taken home from restaurants. While 30 people had taken home “doggie bags” only ten became sick; they had reheated their food in a microwave oven, while those who used a conventional oven or frying pan did not get sick.

There is clearly a need for more research, but North American universities and governments seem more interested in what happens if a microwave oven door malfunctions than on the effects of eating microwaved foods. Is it because the companies that fund much of the research don’t want us to know?

This article was researched and written by Natural Life editor Wendy Priesnitz.

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[T800]

In this day of too much information, I feel like I need to everything with a grain of salt. I'll have to do some digging to find some of the stuff I've read.

Here's an excerpt:

Nalgene bottles, made of polycarbonate (#7) or "Lexan," are more closely linked to bad stuff, specifically an ingredient called bisphenol-A (BPA). BPA is an endocrine disruptor that mimics estrogen and has been linked to aneuploidy, adipogenesis, and other scary problems with funny names. Drinking water or eating food containing leached BPA may cause chromosomal disruption, miscarriages, birth defects, or obesity. Eek!

Full article: Invalid Link Removed

More bad on Nalgene: Invalid Link Removed

The other stuff I've read is from parenting people. I'll have to look for it. Parents are among the more paranoid people out there, but I think it comes with the territory. We do our best for our kids.

Sonny

 

[hardasnails1973]

In this day of too much information, I feel like I need to everything with a grain of salt. I'll have to do some digging to find some of the stuff I've read.

Here's an excerpt:

Nalgene bottles, made of polycarbonate (#7) or "Lexan," are more closely linked to bad stuff, specifically an ingredient called bisphenol-A (BPA). BPA is an endocrine disruptor that mimics estrogen and has been linked to aneuploidy, adipogenesis, and other scary problems with funny names. Drinking water or eating food containing leached BPA may cause chromosomal disruption, miscarriages, birth defects, or obesity. Eek!

Full article: Invalid Link Removed

More bad on Nalgene: Invalid Link Removed

The other stuff I've read is from parenting people. I'll have to look for it. Parents are among the more paranoid people out there, but I think it comes with the territory. We do our best for our kids.

Sonny

I reheat food on stove in pan and also use non plastic canteens to drink water from and store my veggies in class containers in frigerators..

 

[gdbear65]

In this day of too much information, I feel like I need to everything with a grain of salt. I'll have to do some digging to find some of the stuff I've read.

Here's an excerpt:

Nalgene bottles, made of polycarbonate (#7) or "Lexan," are more closely linked to bad stuff, specifically an ingredient called bisphenol-A (BPA). BPA is an endocrine disruptor that mimics estrogen and has been linked to aneuploidy, adipogenesis, and other scary problems with funny names. Drinking water or eating food containing leached BPA may cause chromosomal disruption, miscarriages, birth defects, or obesity. Eek!

Full article: Invalid Link Removed

More bad on Nalgene: Invalid Link Removed

The other stuff I've read is from parenting people. I'll have to look for it. Parents are among the more paranoid people out there, but I think it comes with the territory. We do our best for our kids.

Sonny

I appreciate the advice. Reading further I found that bottles made from #2, #4 and #5 plastic are ok - not ideal, but ok. I cycle to and from work - 40 minutes of hard riding each way, so glass is out of the question.

 

[plymouth city]

I don't really cook much anymore, I eat pretty much everything raw nowadays. I love raw eggs in my shakes. I have taken to eating lots of raw seafood as well. Yummy.

I drink Panna and Pelligrino, bottled water in GLASS from Italy.

 

[BillfromNJ]

Hi All,

I couldn't find a topic relating to this, so I started one.

Have any of you made an effort to cut plastics out of your lives? I know it is damn near impossible to eliminate them all, but I'm seeing more and more reports of plastics causing a host of problems...particularly when heated. I have two sons (a 4 year old and a 1 year old). This started to catch my attention when I saw a movement among parents to abolish the use of plastic bottles to feed their children.

2 things I have recently done:

1. Abandoned drinking water from plastic bottles. This is hard because I hate tap water and prefer bottled water. At home, we have a reverse osmosis water filter and the same goes for work. I drink all of my water out of 24 oz glass mason jar now. I wash it every day.

2. I do not ever heat anything up inside plastic. Ie, microwaving leftovers in a styrofoam or plastic carton. It all goes onto a glass dish now.

Sonny

If you are doing this to reduce your carbon foot print go back to plastic manufacturing plastic uses 1/2 the energy or manufacturing paper products and recycling the same ... The key is recycling

Paper consumes 41% of public land fills to plastics 6.5% if everyone recycled this would be reduced and make the world a better place

 

[EIC]

If you are doing this to reduce your carbon foot print go back to plastic manufacturing plastic uses 1/2 the energy or manufacturing paper products and recycling the same ... The key is recycling

Paper consumes 41% of public land fills to plastics 6.5% if everyone recycled this would be reduced and make the world a better place

Where is he talking about paper? He is talking about REUSING glass containers rather than plastic.

I'm with Hardasnails and Plymouth on this one: I stopped using the microwave two years ago and haven't looked back. I drink from aluminum or glass. If I cook it is in a coventional oven or in a skillet; I mostly like to eat my beef raw anyways. Although I have no problem with raw egg yolks (try a few in a glass of 1/2 cup raw cream, 2 cups raw milk), I must disagree about the raw egg whites.

 

[plymouth city]

If you are doing this to reduce your carbon foot print go back to plastic manufacturing plastic uses 1/2 the energy or manufacturing paper products and recycling the same ... The key is recycling

Paper consumes 41% of public land fills to plastics 6.5% if everyone recycled this would be reduced and make the world a better place

Absolutely. I bike everywhere as well cause driving, well, sucks.

 

[T800]

Got a recent lipid panel, PC?

Sonny

 

[plymouth city]

if this is really true then no pro bodybuilder would use a microwave

let alone half the world

Eh, do I even need to point out the fallacies in such statement or is it completely noticable to the educated members of this board?

The masses are usually wrong.

Religion
The world being flat
The sun circling the earth and not the other way around
The dark ages
The mid evil ages
Global warming
Circumcision
Abortion

I can go on and on here no problem.

Its 2007. We are still basically caveman, albiet fatter and weaker ones, a "little smarter".

 

[plymouth city]

I must disagree about the raw egg whites.

I just dump em in my berry and banana protein shakes. I dump broccoli and spinich in them too. The berries, especially blueberries, drown out everything. The only taste I get is sweet blueberry goodness.

 

[EIC]

I just dump em in my berry and banana protein shakes. I dump broccoli and spinich in them too. The berries, especially blueberries, drown out everything. The only taste I get is sweet blueberry goodness.

I love blueberries, but the taste is not the problem. It is my understanding that the white contains enzyme inhibitors:

We take issue with just a few of Dr. Mercola's suggestions. One concerns the consumption of raw eggs. We agree that it is fine to consume plenty of raw egg yolks, a custom found in many traditional diets, but consumption of raw egg whites on a regular basis can lead to digestive problems. The problem is not, as Dr. Mercola states, that raw egg whites can cause biotin deficiency, but that raw egg whites contain enzyme inhibitors that can interfere with protein digestion. Whole eggs should be cooked--and it is fine to cook them any way you like them, even scrambled. Beating or whipping eggs does not damage the proteins or cause the cholesterol to oxidize, as Mercola has suggested.

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[plymouth city]

I love blueberries, but the taste is not the problem. It is my understanding that the white contains enzyme inhibitors:

We take issue with just a few of Dr. Mercola's suggestions. One concerns the consumption of raw eggs. We agree that it is fine to consume plenty of raw egg yolks, a custom found in many traditional diets, but consumption of raw egg whites on a regular basis can lead to digestive problems. The problem is not, as Dr. Mercola states, that raw egg whites can cause biotin deficiency, but that raw egg whites contain enzyme inhibitors that can interfere with protein digestion. Whole eggs should be cooked--and it is fine to cook them any way you like them, even scrambled. Beating or whipping eggs does not damage the proteins or cause the cholesterol to oxidize, as Mercola has suggested.

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I don't really sweat it because I get a full line of the B vitamins from my multi and its also in my protein powder. If anything, I get to much B vitamins.