How Foods Wrapped In Plastic Sheets Link To Prostate, Breast Cancers, Among Others

I recently chanced on a video posted on Facebook by the renowned singer, Kofi Kinata lamenting how fante kenkey is now wrapped with plastic rubbers, then covered with the traditional plantain leaves before cooking on the fire.

His concern was that this predispose the consumers to several ailments.  Indeed, this is a genuine concern.  The fact is that Ga Kenkey is also suffering from this same fate. Additionally, most of our foods prepared at home such as banku are all wrapped in plastic sheets.

I had to educate my junior sister who studied catering in school not to wrap hot banku and foods in plastic rubbers. The dangerous thing is that the leftover banku is further boiled in hot water with these plastic rubbers.

The question I keep on asking is whether we are eating to live long or die. This is because the food we prepared, and how we store them are rather predisposing us to health conditions.  I was sad when I visited my aunt at the hospital and found a nurse taking hot porridge in a plastic rubber. I asked myself; if a nurse or health worker is behaving like this, then, how would she educate the patient on healthy eating? The hard truth was that I saw many of the admitted patients eating their hot foods in rubbers.

Our life choices are killing us! we have become like the boiled frog story.  Recently, a new study by Völker et al.(2022) linked plastics and obesity. This means that food containers and other everyday plastics could be contributing to bigger waistlines.

The new study looks at dozens of other potential plastic ingredients that cause obesity found in packaging and our homes. To gain a better understanding, researchers tested the chemicals found in 34 everyday products, including things like:

• Yogurt cups
• Soda bottles
• Refillable plastic water bottles
• Plastic cups
• Shampoo bottles
• Oven bags
• Vegetable trays
• And more

“Considering the chemical complexity of plastic consumer products, bisphenols, and phthalates represent only the tip of the iceberg,” researchers wrote.

Although your plastic packaging may have a number denoting the type of plastic (#5 or #2, for instance), the study authors point out that a plastic bottle typically is made out of one or more polymers and often contains fillers or additives, along with accidental residues from manufacturing.

But when scientists analyzed the 34 ordinary plastic products in the lab, they detected more than 55,000 different chemical components.

“Our experiments show that ordinary plastic products contain a mix of substances that can be a relevant and underestimated factor behind overweight and obesity,” says Martin Wagner, an associate professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology’s Department of Biology. Eleven of them are known to interfere with our metabolism, called metabolism-disrupting chemicals.

The new study found that one-third of plastic products tested contributed to fat cell development in laboratory experiments. Essentially, these compounds found in plastic reprogrammed cells to become fat cells that proliferated more and accumulated more fat.

“It’s very likely that it is not the usual suspects, such as bisphenol A, causing these metabolic disturbances. This means that other plastic chemicals than the ones we already know could be contributing to overweight and obesity.” – Johannes Völker, lead study author

This means that plastics contain currently unidentified chemicals that interfere with how our body stores fat.

The danger of eating food in plastics

Phthalates are chemical compounds that are commonly added to plastics to increase their flexibility, transparency, durability, and longevity. Phthalates are used in a wide range of cosmetic and food products — plus, they’re released into the environment. Diet is believed to be the main source of phthalates because fatty foods such as milk, butter, and meats are commonly packaged or stored in plastics containing this dangerous toxin. Hence, it is even deadly to eat or cook in plastic rubbers.

A  2018 study published in the scientific journal Environment International gives us even more reason to pay attention to this everyday threat. Researchers at George Washington University compared phthalate levels in people who ate home-cooked meals to those who frequently dined out at restaurants, cafeterias, and fast-food outlets. They found that on average, people who are eating food prepared outside of the home have nearly 35

percent higher levels of phthalates circulating in their bodies.

This means that there are a lot more hormone-disrupting chemicals running through their veins. And these chemicals are linked to a long list of health ills ranging from infertility and trouble losing weight to birth defects in kids and even certain cancers.

And while we’re on the subject of eating fast food on the go, you should know this: One-third of fast-food packaging also contains obesity-promoting, thyroid-damaging nonstick chemicals. It’s not just the calories we need to worry about anymore.

Phthalates are colorless, odorless liquids produced by reacting phthalic anhydride with an appropriate alcohol. And according to tests done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, most Americans have metabolites of multiple phthalates in their urine.

While diet is believed to be our greatest exposure, these toxins can be absorbed through the air and skin too. Indoor concentrations seem to be significantly higher than outdoor concentrations, and indoor air pollution can be worse than outdoor. Plus, higher temperatures result in higher concentrations of phthalates in the air. A 2021 study found a link between phthalates and 100,000 premature deaths in America a year. Researchers estimate these early deaths result in up to $47 billion of lost wages in the U.S. annually.

Another study by Duty et al. (2003) suggests that environmental levels of phthalates are associated with altered DNA integrity in human sperm. The study consisted of 168 males who were recruited from the Massachusetts General Hospital Andrology Laboratory and provided semen and urine samples. The results indicate that monoethyl phthalate found in urine does increase DNA damage in sperm.