Eating out of a can has never appealed to me. Besides the fact that the food inside is dead, it has always seemed just not quite right on some level. Perhaps great if you’re stranded in the desert (hopefully with a can opener in your pocket), but for every day living I just don’t do it.
I know there has been some talk over the years of aluminium leaching into the foods inside the cans. Whether that’s true, I can’t say. However, new research is suggesting it’s the plastic that lines cans these days that’s doing the harm.
Dr Fredrick vom Saal, PhD, who is an endocrinologist at the University of Missouri, specialises in studying the effects of bisphenol-A (BPA), the toxic chemical that comes from plastics that wrap just about everything we buy in supermarkets. He says the number one canned food to steer clear of is tomatoes. The following info may well make you re-think your mother’s famous spaghetti sauce.
Dr vom Saal says bisphenol-A is a synthetic estrogen that is linked to all sorts of dis-eases from reproductive problems to heart disease, diabetes and obesity. It’s the acidity in the tomatoes that reacts with the BPA that causes the chemical to leach into the food. Appetising huh?
What’s the solution? Learning to live like your great grandmother perhaps, and only eating organic food that looks how it’s supposed to. Freshly picked. Oh and speak to your local grocer about supplying more organic, non-packaged foods. The greater demand, the more supply.
While I’m on the subject of stuff to avoid, here are some other foods, as published in a story on Shine.com, that you may want to re-think.
Microwave popcorn ~ Chemicals, including perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), in the lining of the bag, are part of a class of compounds that may be linked to infertility in humans. In animal testing, the chemicals cause liver, testicular, and pancreatic cancer. Studies show that microwaving causes the chemicals to vaporize — and migrate into your popcorn.
Non-organic potatoes ~ Root vegetables absorb herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides that wind up in soil. In the case of potatoes they’re treated with fungicides during the growing season, then sprayed with herbicides to kill off the fibrous vines before harvesting. After they’re dug up, the potatoes are treated yet again to prevent them from sprouting.
Conventional apples ~ If fruits held a “most doused in pesticides contest,” apples would win. An increasing number of studies are starting to link a higher body burden of pesticides with Parkinson’s disease.
A better way to make use of cans
