Get up. Go into your pantry and look to see if you have any canned food items. Chances are, you do! A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association has shown over a 1,000 percent increase in urinary BPA in humans who consumed canned soup everyday over a five-day period. It isn’t just canned soup, but any canned food items, for that matter.
BPA, or bisphenol A, has been linked to reproductive problems, diabetes, heart disease, and obesity in humans, and has the potential to cause problems during development in fetuses and young children. BPA has most recently been found detrimental in plastic bottles, and it seems as though canned food items are hopping on board. BPA is used in many products to prevent corrosion, but the risks of consuming products with BPA might outweigh the benefits.
The study shows that canned foods contain an even higher amount of BPA than the amounts in plastic bottles, and has prompted warnings for consumers of these canned soups. This study included 75 people, with an average age of 27. One group ate 12 ounces of canned soup everyday for lunch, and the other group ate 12 ounces of fresh soup. BPA was detected in 77 percent of the people who ate fresh soup, and all of the people who ate canned soup.
It has been reported that these spiked BPA levels leave the body within hours after consumption, but more research is still being conducted.
Some manufacturers have already taken BPA out of their cans, but the rest of them should follow these footsteps. BPA has already been banned in Europe and Canada, and while some baby products sold in the U.S. are BPA-free, it is still not regulated by the government.
While the FDA claims that the daily BPA exposure we receive does not appear to be toxic, they maintain that there is some concern about the potential effects it has on the brain, behavior, and prostate gland in fetuses, as well as infants and young children.
So before you reach for the can-opener for that “Mmm, Mmm, Good” Campbell’s, maybe you should make some soup from scratch.
