What's Lurking in Our Food? BPA 101

BPA aka Bisphenol A has re-appeared in the media due to a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Harvard researchers found significant levels of BPA in participants who consumed canned soups over freshly prepared soups.  Some of you may recall the previous uproar about BPA and its use in the production of plastic baby bottles and other infant products.  Unfortunately, this chemical is still used throughout a majority of the U.S. despite pressure from the American Medical Association. Eleven U.S. states have taken heed to these warnings by banning (or are in the process of banning) the use of BPA in infant feeding containers.  Earlier this summer China banned the chemical from baby bottles, joining Canada, the European Union, and the United Arab Emirates.

But why should we be concerned?

BMI: Body Mass Index

So, the doctor tells my cousin that he needs to lose 110 lbs to get within the “normal” BMI range and that his blood cholesterol levels put him at risk for a heart attack.   Encouraging, isn’t it?  My biggest pet peeve is the bed side manner of physicians who spend very little time with their patients.  More likely than not, not enough time is spent discussing the importance of diet, physical activity, and lifestyle factors that influence body weight.  In addition to this discouraging approach, doctors often use the BMI scale, which is inherently a faulty indicator of health.

Health NOT Weight

Although some of you are using the Gain Great Health site as a tool on your journeys to weight loss, I have resisted the discussion of weight for the past month and a half for a distinct reason.   As mentioned on the About page, focusing on gaining great health will pave the way to your body’s natural, biologically determined size.  Besides, it’s not where you want to get that matters, but how you will realistically get there and stay there!  Likewise, whether you are trying to nip your weight gain in the bud or (to extend the analogy) trim an overgrown pasture, the eating patterns, physical activity regiments, mindsets, and determination are similar in nature.

 

True Motivation

OK. So you want to fit into your skinny jeans or the nice polo that now decorates your closet.  You're on a mission to look fabulous for your upcoming birthday celebration (and for men, you want to look nice!).  Or you want to lose 50-75 lbs because your doctor tells you this will place you within the normal BMI range.  Although motivating in theory, these scenarios only provide temporary inspiration for change.

Motivations of superficial vanity and fear of death are great for giving you a nudge, but 9 times out of 10, these changes are fleeting--leaving you gung ho for the first three weeks (if that!) followed by the temporary guilt-provoking slip up (a guilt which needs to be abolished!!!  Read more).  In most cases, these motivations plunge us into drastic and unsustainable diets that leave us feeling upset with ourselves if we don’t meet our goals (although everyone may not feel upset, negative feelings manifest nevertheless).  

GMOs 101: What’s really in our food?

GMO, GM (not General Mills!), and GE (and not General Electric!) are common buzz words that some people may be aware of, while others may not. For those who don’t know, GMO stands for genetically modified organism, and in this context the organism becomes food; GM stands for genetical modified; and GE stands for genetically engineered.  Common foods that are genetically modified include (but not limited to) soybeans, corn, canola, and cotton seed oil.   Even if you don’t eat any of these foods, food compounds derived from these crops are almost ubiquitous in our food system.  

Since genetically engineered crops were introduced in the U.S. in 1996, their use has grown significantly.  According to some global estimates, 25% of the 672 million acres used for cultivating crops was used to grow GM crops in 2003.  And of this 25%, two-thirds of these science experiments are grown in the United States. While masses of Europeans are placing pressure on their governments to label foods as GM, less than half of Americans even know that some of the foods that they eat are genetically engineered.  And depending on your diet, the mention of some above can easily turn into a majority!