Why Is BPA Bad???

BPA is an endocrine-disrupting hormone—essentially it is a chemical that acts to disrupt our body’s normal hormonal function. It wreaks havoc in a variety of ways from acting like estrogen, blocking estrogen’s action, binding to thyroid receptors and thus impairing thyroid function, and more.

We don’t see any other food or ingredient in our food supply having these sorts of effects. Fortunately due to consumer outcry, BPA has been essentially eradicated from the plastics sold for use as water bottles and food containers. As of July 2012, however, the FDA has banned its use in baby bottles and sippy cups.

If BPA from food and water containers are no longer an issue, where are you getting exposed to BPA? Unfortunately six million tons of BPA are produced each year, so it is everywhere. It is used as a coating on receipts, although unless you are a legitimate shopaholic the transdermal transfer of BPA from receipts is most likely minimal. BPA is also found in dust around your house—yes, dust; that is how ubiquitous this toxin is in our environment. As a result, exposure via food is probably not the biggest source. But you still can minimize exposure and accumulation of BPA. 

Be smart about cans. BPA is to coat the inside of cans. Avoiding canned vegetables and opting for fresh or frozen shouldn’t be too hard of a switch. Buying dried beans instead of canned beans will not only reduce your exposure to BPA, but it is more cost effective and it makes controlling your sodium intake easier. When buying tomato products, look for those sold in glass jars whenever possible. While there are BPA-free cans for beans, they are much less common for tomato products, as the acidity of tomatoes makes the protective coating of BPA an important component to protect against the metal of the cans.