Healthy Recipes 360

Plastic containers should never be washed with hot water or in a dishwasher or used to cook or re-heat food in a microwave oven. Nor should hot food be stored in a plastic container without first allowing time for the hot food to cool down. Plastic food containers have been found to leach the toxic chemical BPA (Bisphenol A) among other harmful chemicals.

An article at the Scientific American website has the following to say about this:

“The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) found traces of BPA in nearly all of the urine samples it collected in 2004 as part of an effort to gauge the prevalence of various chemicals in the human body.”

The article goes on to say that BPA has been linked with “increased breast and prostate cancer occurrences, altered menstrual cycles and diabetes in lab mice.”

The article also states:

“If canned goods or clear plastic bottles are a must, such containers should never be microwaved, used to store heated liquids or foods, or washed in hot water (either by hand or in much hotter dishwashers).”

Plastics give off toxic chemicals whether heated or not. These chemicals will leach out into the contents of the plastic container. Heat only accelerates the process. The Scientific American article also states:

“When the polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins made from the chemical are exposed to hot liquids, BPA leaches out 55 times faster than it does under normal conditions”

Drinking bottled water is very popular nowadays. Try to avoid drinking water from plastic bottles and by all means, never drink from a plastic water bottle that has been sitting in the sun.