Danger in a Bottle
You may think you’re doing yourself a favor by drinking spring water. But new research shows there could be danger lurking in the bottle.
A recent study published in Toxicology Letters found that polycarbonate water bottles, exposed to regular conditions, contain harmful levels of bisphenol A (BPA). BPA is an endocrine disruptor that acts like estrogen in the body, triggering hormonal changes and encouraging the growth of breast and prostate cancers.
Dr. James LaValle has recommended, in ETR, that you avoid drinking or eating from heated plastic. And that’s one step you can take to protect yourself against BPA. However, while you can keep your water bottles cool after you’ve purchased them, there’s no knowing their past history of heat exposure or storage time – which also affects the amount of BPA that leaches into the water.
To limit your exposure, avoid bottles with the recycling number 7, as most contain BPA. Instead, opt for recycling numbers 2 and 4 or cloudy-colored plastics, which are usually free of BPA. You can also use a high quality reverse-osmosis purification system (which removes other harmful things, too), and store your water in glass bottles in the refrigerator.
[Ed. Note: Now that you’re aware of this potential threat, you can do more to protect yourself and your family for years to come. You can get more advice from nutrition expert Kelley Herring and ETR’s team of health professionals, every week, for free. Discover what’s bad for you and what you can do to get leaner and healthier right here.And for delicious recipes that taste nothing like “health food,” check out Kelley’s website, HealingGourmet.com.]
Kelley Herring
Kelley Herring is the Founder & CEO of Healing Gourmet – a multimedia company that educates on how foods promote health and protect against disease. As a young adult, Kelley battled a debilitating health condition that went misdiagnosed by multiple doctors for more than a year. Finding no help from “modern medicine”, she turned to her own knowledge of biochemistry and her passion for health research. She soon learned that her symptoms were related to nutrition and within weeks, she charted a course back to health with nothing more than simple lifestyle changes and the power of the plate. The lessons she learned spawned the creation of Healing Gourmet. Kelley is a firm believer in vigorous exercise, moderate sun exposure and delicious, healthy, home-cooked meals. She is also the creator of Healing Gourmet’s Personalized Nutrition Software and Editor-in-Chief of the Healing Gourmet book series published by McGraw-Hill including Eat to Fight Cancer, Eat to Beat Diabetes, Eat to Lower Cholesterol and Eat to Boost Fertility.