Reduce Plastic Consumption for Your Health

Did you know that you eat a credit card's worth of plastic each week? And a coat hanger's worth of plastic each month? Sounds gross, right? Well, it is, and it is detrimental to your health in ways we don't even realize yet.

Beyond plastics being so prevalent that you're literally eating it, it is made from fossil fuels like oil. With our indiscriminate consumption of plastic we are fueling wars and complete destruction of the environment in our search for more oil and with much of our plastic ending up in the ocean.

I think people's eyes start to gloss over when I start talking about the environmental impact of plastics because it is so big, and we feel so small and like "how can I make a difference in this huge beast?" So this blog is going to focus on the topic of plastics and human health ending with actionable steps you can take to reduce your plastic use. If you want to skip there, go ahead!

Plastic was really released into the world in the 1900's, so it is a relatively new challenge to human health. As such we do not have a lot of concrete data on how it affects human health. We are just starting to see how the consumption of nano-plastics and micro-plastics through food, water and the air is causing genotoxic and cytotoxic effects. Many common symptoms such as asthma, fatigue, dizziness, and irritable bowel symptoms can be caused or exacerbated by plastic poisoning. Lung cancer and changes in gut microbiota are also linked to plastic.

The chemicals in plastic are xenoestrogens, which means they mimic estrogen in the body. This can cause a wide range of issues, such as inability to lose weight and reproductive issues. It doesn't make much difference if you buy "BPA-free" plastic, as the other type of BP (usually S), is potentially more toxic than A. This goes back to how little we actually know of plastics! Replacing one plastic chemical with another doesn't fix anything, and it takes time before we realize the toxicity of the newer chemical.

We need to reduce our overall consumption of plastic if we want to stop eating, drinking, and breathing it in.

Steps to reduce plastic use:

1 - Stop putting your food in plastic, and NEVER heat food up in plastic. When you introduce plastic to heat or acid (think tomato sauce or lemon juice) it starts to break down, and when it breaks down those little plastic pieces shed into your food, which you then eat. So make sure you only use glass, cast iron, stainless steel or ceramic to heat up and store your food. I use a mix of mason jars (or repurposed glass jars from things like pickles and tomato sauce) and glass containers for storing food. Then I only use my cast iron pan or stainless steel pot to cook.

2- Stop buying plastic water bottles. There is almost never a need to buy a plastic water bottle. Change your fridge filter regularly or buy a carbon filter for your water at home. When you travel, fill a stainless steel or glass bottle to transport water. So many places now have water bottle filling stations so it makes it even easier to never buy a plastic bottle!

2B- Don't buy ANY beverage in a plastic container. Thinking of all the drinks the come in plastic - they are detrimental to health anyway, so should be avoided completely.

3- Switch to loose leaf tea or whole bean coffee. Tea bags release millions of microplastics into your cup each time you make a drink, and though I haven't seen the data on it, the same is undoubtedly true of plastic coffee filters/pods.

4- Stop using plastic bags at the store. Yes, you should bring your own reusable bags for all your groceries, but also forgo plastic produce bags. You actually don't need to bag your produce at all, and if you want to there are lot of reusable options. I use reusable produce bags for things like mushrooms and Brussel sprouts, and pretty much everything else I keep loose. To this point, I also avoid stores that wrap every piece of produce in plastic - it is a catastrophic waste. Does that cucumber really need plastic wrap? No, no it does not.

5- Buy clothes made of cotton, hemp, wool, bamboo, and silk. Synthetic fabrics are all made of plastic which gets absorbed into your skin while you wear it, and slough off micro-plastics into the water when you do laundry. And consider buying pre-owned clothes, or not buying new clothes at all! Did you know there is enough clothing on this planet for the next SIX generations? And you probably have enough in your closet for 6 lifetimes already.

Well, that's only 5 items but it probably seems like a lot if you're at the beginning of your journey! Let me know if you'd like a part 2.