I’ve studied this topic quite a bit, and have not yet found ANY satisfactory evidence that plastics are safe to heat food in, much less store it in. In my opinion, there is no such thing as food-grade plastic.

Our Stolen Future is mostly about endocrine disruptors, and since BPA is the endocrine disruptor with the most research done on it that is why it is talked about so much.

But here’s the facts – BPA is known to be bad because it has been studied. All the other plastics that are deemed safe, are just the plastics that haven’t been studied yet.

I found an article that addresses food plastics more directly. Here is a quote:

“For decades, the plastics industry has deceived us with assurances that the polymerization process binds the constituent chemicals together so perfectly that the resulting plastic is completely nontoxic and passes through us without a hitch. In spite of this industry disinformation,[9] the polymerization process is never 100% perfect. Logically then, there are always toxicants available for migration into the many things they contact — your food, air, water, skin, and so on. Both the FDA and the industry know this. However, because of many millions of dollars worth of advertising and public relations work, consumers are educated to think that plastics are safe.”

I would recommend reading the whole article, as it is well written and has lots of citations in it. Here’s the link: http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Plasticizers/Out-Of-Diet-PG5nov03.htm

And besides, plastics and SV cooking are definitely NOT paleo. Grilling something, or cooking it in a pot (well, I guess a ceramic pot…) ARE paleo.

I myself have received great benefit from switching to a paleo diet, but many of my friends have not even after I have told them about it. The reason I switched was because I was open to new information, even thought I loved bread and at one point wanted to become a baker. My friends haven’t received the benefits because their minds aren’t open.

So, I guess the question is, are you willing to be open to new information?

-Matt

This issue with regard to SV has been thoroughly dealt with, but I don’t have the time right now to look it all up. There is no BPA risk in SV. The plastics are configured specifically to eliminate.

Here’s the kicker though – its not just nalgene bottles. All plastics have endocrine disruptors, and in general the more flexible the plastic the more endocrine disruptors that leach out of it. Doesn’t matter if its food grade or not. That whole “food grade” rating is definitely bulls**t.

The endocrine disruptors in plastics are usually estrogenic in nature. This may be one of the reasons that puberty is coming along earlier, along with the dramatic increase in breast/ovarian/uterine cancers in women in the last 50 years. There are girls as young as 6 years old now who are starting puberty…

As for men, well there was an interesting study done in Europe that compared sperm counts of men in 1960 to men around the year 2000. Turns out that in those 40 years, the average man’s sperm count declined by around 45%. During that time prostate cancer also increased. You can bet that both these things are at least in part due to all the estrogenic endocrine disruptors that we’re exposed to on a regular basis.

If you want more info, I highly recommend the book Our Stolen Future, or the corresponding website: http://www.ourstolenfuture.org

Is the message starting to sink in?