Hidden toxins that come with your everyday food and drink
A study conducted by Kolkata-based All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health (under the health ministry) found the presence of five toxins in soft drinks packaged in PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles.
These harmful metals - antimony, lead, chromium, cadmium and a compound DEHP, Di (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate - apparently leech in from the PET bottles. Now how many things do we drink out of PET bottles… innumerable right! So this is scary!
Why is it scary? Well, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) lead and cadmium are two of the top ten chemicals of “major public health concern” and can have serious consequences for our health, particularly of children.
Lead exposure affects the brain and central nervous system, causing at a high level of exposure mental retardation and behavioural disorders. Cadmium attacks the kidneys, skeletal system and respiratory system and is a known carcinogen.
The other three - chromium, antimony and DEHP - can also be harmful. Chromium is needed by the body in very small amounts, and an overdose has been associated with lung, nasal, and sinus cancer.
Antimony may lead to problems with the lungs, heart, stomach pain, diarrhoea, vomiting and stomach ulcers, and DEHP, which the EU had banned and classified as a reproductive toxicant a while back, is associated with adverse effects on the liver, kidneys and the reproductive system.
In India right now we don’t have any laws banning anything, even known harmful additives. But that's a different story, for another time.
Coming back to soft drinks, no one drinks these for boosting their health anyway, but news of these hidden toxins can prove to be a serious deal-breaker, specially looking at the copious amounts children (and even many adults I know) down these days.
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| Earthen pots/bottles anyone? |
And while we are at it, maybe we need to question our dependence on PET bottles for storing (and selling) everything… time to find alternatives, or maybe to just go back to traditional ways. Earthen pots/bottles anyone! Really, how can mere convenience be more important than our health?
That said, the bigger question to ask and answer is: what is safe anymore? A few months back in May, bread (yes the humble bread!) was in the eye of the storm because of the dangerous, cancerous additives (potassium bromate and potassium iodate) found in multiple brands (actually most brands across the table), and I wrote then about the dangers of multiple other commonly consumed toxins like acrylamide, BPA or bisphenol A and diacetyl (which is found in something as ubiquitous and healthy as popcorn) via so called safe foods… and now this…
The bad news regarding the hidden toxins, which I consider the new baddies, is never ending it seems. They are omnipresent. And that’s super scary!
Times were simpler I feel when I used to write and warn about looking out for trans fats and excessive saturated fats…. these at least are easily spotted and thus avoided. The new toxins on the horizon, and so very often on our plates, are hidden and therein lies their danger.
So what does one do? I am simply going to reiterate once again something that I always say, (and try to practice too): please go easy on packaged, processed, treated food.
Giving up may not be practical considering the way we all live today at break-neck speed, so maybe one can ration them in the diet, and try to subsist most of the time on whole foods.
I am very fond of word associations to explain health concepts, (have an entire chapter explaining how this works in my book), and in my vocab (W)Hole = Healthy. Because in these confusing times, this is one association no one can doubt or negate.