Reducing your BPA Risk

What is BPA?  Bisphenol A, a toxic, dangerous chemical that is found in so many places.  I recently had a trip to a highly recommended endocrinologist whose sister is a neurologist and as a result of studying what effects our brains, lives VERY holistically and organically avoiding as many chemicals as possible.  While there, she had 2 big pleas for the health of my family (unrelated to why I was personally visiting her).

1.  Remove as much BPA in our diets as possible.


2.  Remove as much food dye in our diets as possible.

We started removing food dyes when the boys were itty bitty because we noted extreme behavioral changes when they ingested food dyes (and chocolate among other things).  The boys spent their entire childhoods NOT eating candy, pop tarts, cereal with food dyes, etc.  So on Halloween and Valentine's Day, they got movies or video games instead of candy.  As I saw child after child eating pop tarts in the car on the way to school, I wondered if THOSE parents had behavioral issues that they just assumed was ADD/ADHD, defiant personality, etc.  Some reactions are immediate - some took 36-48 hours to show up...making it nearly impossible to connect a trigger unless keeping a detailed food diary.

If you have never kept a food diary with your children...here is what our looks like:

• 7am - Woke up happy and alert
• 7:30am - ate gluten-free homemade pancakes with apple juice syrup 
• 8am - Off to school, happy and alert
• Lunch sent - Carrot sticks, raisins, tuna, crackers, Fruit Leather, water to drink (no school "milk" - avoiding most dairy)
• 3:30pm - after school snack of some sort - happy and alert
• 5pm - Getting very cranky, snappy.... have a discussion about what he ate at school that I didn't know about...ALWAYS something on our avoid list....cupcakes or cookies with dye or chocolate, etc.  Few parents brought healthy snacks.
• 6pm - Dinner - chicken, mashed potatoes with almond milk and real butter, corn on the cob, bread stick
• 7pm - eyes very red and swollen, disagreeable, extra tired
• 8:30 pm - bedtime, teary....

Through these food diaries, we learned our oldest son reacted also to rice, corn, dairy (milk and cheese, although could tolerate butter).  In fact, at birth, breastfeeding was so difficult (he reacted to EVERYTHING I ate) that I very sadly stopped breastfeeding (was very young, very stressed and didn't realize that was the best option)....son then reacted to milk and soy formula...so he ended up on Nutramigen, a hypoallergenic formula.  At age one, doc said "Put him on milk now" and we did.  While he no longer had the physical reactions of rashes and vomiting, he became VIOLENT.  His personality went from sweet and amazing to MEAN, VIOLENT and scary.  At age one.

Thankfully, Phil Donahue (hello.....23 years ago now....) had Dr. Doris Rapp on one day discussing her new book, "Is This Your Child?  Discovering and Treating Unrecognized Allergies".  I RAN to the book store and purchased this book.  I cried for days reading this book...because this WAS my child.  Within 3 days of removing ALL dairy, he was back to being his sweet, amazing self.




Youngest son reacted to eggs 48+ hours after ingestion with massive headaches approaching migraine status.  Also he would melt down within minutes of being exposed to perfume or cologne, even hand lotion would set him off...we live most scent-free to this day around him and he is 19 now.  If I know I will be getting in a car with him, I will wash anything off that MIGHT have a scent....

One of the most dramatic "mood altering" scents we discovered was Future Floor Wax.....our oldest son would go from sweet to hysterical in MINUTES after I cleaned the floors.....VERY interesting.....

BPA, on the other hand, is very difficult to avoid.  Reading the following article, as study was done with 5 families who avoided canned fords and drinks and ate fresh organic foods for 3 days in lieu of eating out saw their BPA levels drop a dramatic 60%!!!  


Want To Drastically Reduce Your BPA Risk?  Eat Fresh Food


When they returned to their usual diet, their levels went back up.  What should we avoid?  

• All Canned Food (especially with acidic contents)
• All Canned Drinks
• Never microwave in plastic or plastic wrap
• Choose glass containers
• Eat out less
• Eat Fresh (or frozen)

Did you know that China joined the United Arab Emirates, Europe and Canada in banning BPA in children's products?   WHY hasn't the US joined this?  Scary time to have a baby right now...I would DEFINITELY be looking in to how to avoid BPA for your baby.....

What does BPA do to you?  Why should we avoid it?

• 1.  Confirmed link to Heart Disease.

• 2.  Link to the effecting the functional ability of the intestines, causing "Leaky Gut Syndrome" and other issues.

• 3.  Infertility and Reproductive Issues  - BPA mimics estrogen and can wreak havoc with important hormones.  We don't need our boys being exposed to EXTRA estrogen... and our girls need their regular hormones and not have them turned off by a xenoestrogen such as BPA.

• 4.  Erectile Dysfunction - of 200 Chinese men exposed to BPA in their workplace, they were found to have 4 times higher chance of erectile dysfunction and 7 times higher chance of ejaculation difficulties.

• 5.  Diabetes and Obesity

• 6. Behavioral Changes in Children

Our family is working to reduce or BPA exposure....and I look forward to the US joining other countries in protecting their citizens against KNOWN detriments to health.