Plastic Free: An Important Step for Healthy Meal Prep
Many Americans are stepping up their meal prep this January. Online Facebook groups and apps for health and fitness, healthy living influencers, dieticians, and nutritionists are peppering their feeds with healthy lifestyle recipes and the importance of meal prep and planning. But all of this goodness can go south of healthy if those delicious dishes are going straight into a plastic food storage container.
Taking in plastics (or microplastics) is a common everyday occurrence, according to the Plastic Health Coalition. We eat, drink and breathe microplastics every day, and these small plastic particles may harm our health once they have entered our bodies. Plastic products (like plastic food storage containers) contain chemical additives, which have been associated with serious health problems such as hormone-related cancers, infertility ad neurodevelopment disorders like ADHD and autism. Lastly, when plastics and microplastics end up in the environment, they attract micro-organisms, such as harmful bacteria (pathogens). If these pathogen-containing microplastics enter our body, they may increase the risk of infection.
Plastic are clearly a detriment to our personal health and the health of the planet. We have to do better by doing our individual part to consume less plastic (see: The Plastic Diet), place our consumer dollars toward companies and products that don’t contribute to plastic pollution and are part of the solution, and be vocal and educational on the matter when and wherever we can.
Side bar: In the consumer market and space frego occupies, we talk about the harm in storing and especially heating foods in plastic containers. Frego, as a product made of borosilicate glass and a silicone sleeve and lid, is completely free of plastic. It was designed as a safe, sustainable product after founder Juhi Gupta’s research and search for plastic-free, well-designed food storage containers turned up empty.
Immunity
To be clear: plastics can wreak havoc on our immune system. When our body detects foreign substances, our immune system immediately reacts. Siting the Plastic Health Coalition’s information, “…when immune cells encounter harmful bacteria, these bacteria are engulfed and subsequently, destroyed. The question is whether our immune system is equipped to tackle plastic intruders, since plastics, unlike bacteria, are not biodegradable.” (See the full study here: https://www.plastichealthcoalition.org/project/research-immunology/)
Chemical Additives
When frego launched in 2015, the FDA had just three years prior banned BPA (bisphenol A), a well-known endocrine disrupting chemical, from baby bottles and sippy cups. A mere Band-Aid when you consider that BPA has been used to harden plastics for more than 40 years. It can still be found in medical devices, compact discs, dental sealants, water bottles, the lining of canned foods and drinks, and many other products. A highly unsettling fact is that more than 90% of Americans have BPA in their bodies right now, and most of it was acquired by eating foods that have been in containers made with BPA. A great resource to explore is Facts About BPA.
Be Safe. Be Sure.
It’s definitely a consumer beware and be-your-own-health-advocate situation when it comes to harmful plastics. Certain states and advocacy groups are doing good work. In October 2021, California passed the Safer Food Packaging and Cookware Act (AB 1200), cosponsored by BCPP (Breast Cancer Prevention Partners), banning PFAS “forever chemicals” in paper-based food packaging and to require disclosure of toxic substances in cookware. Additionally, BCPP supports proposed federal legislation that would force disclosure of BPA in food can linings and more strictly regulate BPA, the safety of BPA alternatives, and other chemicals in all food packaging.
At frego, we’re hopeful for a 2022 that drives actionable change and movement to a society less plastic-dependent. This week, as you’re off to meal prep your nutritious dishes that align with your renewed healthy resolve, please choose plastic-free containers. It can truly make a difference for your and your family’s health and immunity; and of course, planet earth will graciously be thanking you too.