health & sanity

This post has nothing to do with the recent plastic scare.  April 16/2008

In a world of plastic, a new frenzy has risen. We might be poisoning ourselves with our plastic containers. Suddenly I hear people telling me to not re use my water bottles that I buy, that my Nalgene bottle is going to give me brain damage. Is this really a concern or are we getting excited about something that’s really no big deal? Let’s review both sides of this argument.

“Do not drink out of any plastic container with a recycling number other than two, four, and five” is what I heared coming out of the radio. But what about the plastic surrounding my loaf of bread? What about my cool re-useable water bottles? My Glad Cling Wrap? All these questions I have suddenly about the safety of the plastic surrounding my food. Are we to go back to paper bags and wax paper? Sure that would be much better for the environment, but highly inconvenient and I’m sure it’s not going to happen. So what is the logic behind this new scare?

It seems as though the main concern is DEHA (diethylhexyl adipate) which is used in PET plastics. There’s a problem though, many people mix that up with another acronym DEHA, also used is plastics is diethyl hydroxylamine which has nothing to do with plastic water bottles. According to the Plasticisers Information Centre , none of the above plasticisers are carcenogenic and neither are used in plastic water bottles (Although many people dissagree on that). According to this website, ploethylene terephtalate is the chemical used in water bottles. Here’s is a website backing up that claim.

Other people are concerned about the chemical bisphenol a (BPA). There have been many conerns about this chemical and breast cancer, prostate disorders, and lowered sperm count. BPA is found in many things including baby bottles, plastic food containers, and toys. This is the chemical I am mostly concerned about. It mimics estrogen and is highly unstable over time. It has been known to cause problems in animals, even when used in small amounts. click here for a detailed review of a study on BPA

There is no way to tell what is in the container you are using. Some people think that looking at the recycling number at the bottom will help (drinking out of bottles which are only numbered 2,4, or 5) City TV from Vancouver said that they’ve asked about the number and it has nothing to do with what chemicals are used in the plastic. Dr. Rolf Halden wrote a report on plastics and he says that you should be more concerned about what’s in your drinking water than what is in the plastic.

Another major concern for the re-use of plastic water bottles is that people do not properly clean them so they are becoming breeding grounds for millions of bacteria. Experts say that you should thoroughly wash them and let them completely dhttp://healthsanity.files.wordpress.com/2006/10/adkins_bottle.jpgry between each use.

So what do we take from this? How can we know what evil chemicals are leeching into our food, and into our children’s stomachs? I don’t think we can know right now. We live in a plastic world and if you want to eat then you’re going to have to succomb to the use of plastics.

The picture used is from http://www.portlandart.net/archives/2005/06/new_work_from_b.html

In these two videos Dr. Mercola discusses some interesting information about Splenda that you might not know. I was shocked this morning when I got the second one. Dr. Mercola is a naturalpath Doctor who is trying to take a stand against the deception that goes on in the food and drug industry. You can go to his website and learn more about him.

Here are the two videos he’s done about Splenda, definatly feel free to watch more of his videos if you’re curious!!

How Splenda Was Discovered
One of the Biggest Lies About Artificial Sweeteners

If any of you love to write letters and complain to people then I think you’ll like this blog. I’ve got links for you so you can write important people about health issues in America. I’ve just written the Canadian Health Minister and I think I’ll keep writing him until I get results. My main concern is that Stevia, a perfectly safe no calorie herb thats 100 time sweeter than sugar is not being approved for use as a sweetener. Now I know this is because you cannot patent and natural product so therefore you can’t make a fortune off it. That’s why there are so many artificial things on our markets today. Food and Drug companies have a tight grip on the FDA as they employ the FDA. They can twist their arms any way they want to. Please join me in writing the imporant people on these issues and perhaps any other issue you might have. The only way to provoke change is to do something about it. I was going to write a book but someone else already wrote it so I have to find something else to do. click here to see the book and purchase it

Here are your links. I’ll add more as I find them.

Canada’s Health Minister
The FDA

I just wanted to share an amazing site that I use quite often. It’s all about the world’s healthiest foods. They list them a-z and give you a complete breakdown of the nutrients and what they’re good for. They also have recipes and other information on food. It’s a great site to use.

Worlds Healthiest foods

Recent studies have shown that women who drink cola on a daily basis have lower bone density than women who aren’t regular cola drinkers. They’re guessing that it has to do with the phosphoric acid in the cola. Click here for the full story

It’s funny the silly addictions we carry. Most of america is drinking carbonated chemicals every single day and they love it. I can’t drink the stuff, the sweetened stuff makes me ill and I will never have aspartame again after watching Sweet Misery . Only the occasional drink mixed with alcohol or a rootbeer float makes it to my mouth. I haven’t always been that way though. Diet pepsi used to rule my life! I don’t even miss the stuff anymore though. I truely believe that more and more problems will arise from our addictions to pop. Aside from the obesity problem we obviously have, there are many concerns I have about the artificial flavours and colors and also the high fructose corn syrup that is in most sodas. My advise is to never drink it. When I feel the need for pop I just drink carbonated water, sometimes with juice mixed in. It’s delicious and healthy. Although there are also warning about carbonation blocking calcium absorbtion when consumed in large amounts. It makes me sad to know some mothers are sticking it in their babies bottles. I hope that you will think twice about your own consumption of pop. It’s a frivolous addiction that all of us could do without.

After my last blog, people might be wondering about Splenda. Well it tastes like sugar because it’s made from sugar right? Well, kinda. But I don’t know many people who like eating chlorine, or even smelling chlorine at that. So you’d think if it hurts your eyes to swim in ( I was temporarily partially blind from a 12 hour day in a swimming pool), hurt your nose to breathe in that you wouldn’t really want to eat the stuff. I sure don’t. Why don’t you click and read the real truth about splenda it just might shock you.