Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Why I am Appauled...

I was just listening to the Diane Rehm show on NPR today and she had on Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie, authors of " Slow Death By Rubber Duck". I have to say, I can't believe how deceived we are as a nation of consumers.


The book is about the infiltration of BPA (Bisphenol-A) in almost everything we use as everyday products in our household. They did an experiment on themselves, mostly using children's plastic containers to eat and drink out of, and found their levels to be 7 times higher!

I started my quest to eat healthier about a year ago, and I felt like I was doing well by my "Made By Me" rule. The problem was that I was still buying canned beans, tomatoes, tomato paste etc...even though they are organic, the manufacturers are STILL USING BPA in the CANS!!!

I can't believe I was naive enough to believe they were out for my best interest. I just assumed the organic companies were not using BPA in their canning and packaging.


The only company found to package without BPA is Eden Organics. They started making BPA free cans and bottling in 1999! 1999! That is more than a decade ago, and the rest of the cooporations can't catch on... Eden claims the cost increase is only 2.2 cents per can, which is a small amount compared to the health risks BPA can cause.


I am ABSOLUTELY only buying Eden Canned Goods from now on.

This brings me to another point, I am going to step up my game, and buy all dry beans from the bulk section. This has been an area where I was slacking because I hate soaking beans overnight, well, I don't hate it, but I hate that I have to remember in order to have food on the table the next day!

This BPA debacle has definitely pushed me to take my healthy eating practices even further... will you join me? If we do this together, maybe it won't be as bad...

Articles on BPA Health Risks

Mercola- Why Canned Soups can be Bad for Your Health

Mercola- 5 Ways to Keep BPA out of your Food

Fast Company- The Real Story Behind Bisphenol A

MSN

Whole Foods- What they say about BPA in their products---major COP OUT if you ask me.

I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments on this issue!

Thanks!

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9 comments:

  1. Its very sad! We love eden products! Keep a look out for an upcoming post on my blog about BPA! I love this blog!

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  2. scary!!
    can't you also boil beans if u forget 2 soak'em?

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  3. Hey Meliss...since I have totally been skimping out with my beans from a can, I have no idea. I'll have to look into that...it sounds right. What do you know about it?

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  4. I'm pretty sure the only way to do dry beans is 1) to soak them overnight and then boil them or 2) use a pressure cooker. My mom used to pressure cook our beans all the time. Once every couple years, the thing on the top would blow off and bean juice would spew all over the ceiling.

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  5. I am shocked by your post!! I didn't know it was in cans. I thought it was just in plastics?? I am excited ( not sure that is the right word) to check out that book.
    Do you know if you can freeze beans??? We eat them often, but only because they are easy and in a can. Ughhh it is an uphill battle huh!
    Thanks for your post kj!
    allison

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  6. Interesting for sure. It's so hard to do well and find what we need for our family. My brother has a PHD in Entomology and says the "all natural" insecticides they use on organic foods can be just as dangerous, if not more, than normally grown vegetables because they're not all FDA approved.

    ???

    It shouldn't be this hard!

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  7. Sounds like we could all drive ourselves crazy with this. I guess every step is a better step, but we aren't going to be totally in control of what's going in our families' bodies until we have our own garden, cow and goat...

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  8. Interesting, I wasn't aware of this at all, but I'll be checking out the links you posted. Thanks.

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  9. I heard this author on Diane Rehm and was shocked too. I just wanted to add that I regularly cook dried beans and they freeze very well. I generally cook a big batch and then freeze smaller portions which makes them a lot easier to use.

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