BPA free me!

We know that we are living in a time when toxins abound and it seems on a regular basis we are confronted with new ones that have been surrounding us since long ago. Myself, for example grew up on a plot of land that was formerly asbestos riddled as well as being a pig farm (which eventually became a pig graveyard). My parents built a marina there. From the time I was three I can remember climbing upon giant hills of sand, dirt, mud, clay and whatever else was dredged from the nether regions below the waters surface in order to create slips that would fit sailboats that needed sufficient water depth in order to fit into their slip. I count myself lucky to have been able to live in such a creative mass of dirt to play in as I wished. I can recall collecting dozens of bottles from times long ago and cleaning them up to give to my mom. She has a beautiful collection of blue,brown and clear glass bottles/jars that line the marina’s office window. I became quite adept at creating some of the best mud pies! Did I come into contact with toxins? Highly likely, but nobody thought about stuff like that and I’m glad that I had the freedom to play in that gunk. What didn’t hurt me made me stronger, right? Okay, it’s yet to be known, but why dwell on what possible contaminants I came into contact with back then. Move ahead several decades (not gonna say how many).

My husband remarked the other day about how we should eliminate plastics from our home in order to ensure BPA (the newly discovered evil) won’t be a part of whatever else may be affecting us. To be sure we have plenty of others, but if we can do without - why not! Sure the wireless router is likely causing plenty of damage alone, but that one we really have become dependent on and presently can’t sever ourselves from it’s hold on us. Baby steps, right? The Guardian News reported on cancer being a modern day disease and stated that it’s likely due to something that WE created. I can believe this, thus all the more reason to become more aware of our surroundings and how we may be ingesting things that could truly be affecting or infecting ourselves. I’ve always been somewhat cautious of new gimmicky food trends and diets that eliminate whole food groups. I also, am slow to change at times. But when my husband brought this up I looked around me at the numerous plastic food related items and thought “yeah, right!” Half our kitchen is made up plastics”; for cooking, storing, drinking, eating from - you name it, we probably have it. Granted we don’t just have plastics, but with kids the likelihood of using plastics went up by double at least. “They can’t use glass or porcelain! It’ll break and then they’ll get hurt!” Okay, first up, they can use melamine or bamboo. Second up, my kids are certainly at an age where if they can’t use it now should be learning to care for their cups and plates and feel special enough to use what the grown ups use. It’s not like I use my wedding china every day at home. Simple Ikea (code word cheap) ceramic plates that if broken can be replaced.

So, we went to Costco yesterday and while going through the aisles I kept this new thought in my head and was overwhelmed by all the plastic that surrounds us. Both my husband and I agreed; plastics are such a big part of our lives that extricating ourselves from their use entirely may be impossible. Take freezer storage for example. I shop at a butcher for meats, so I don’t get as much plastic as grocery stores may package their meats, but once I get that home I have some meats that I’ve bought for a later time - I don’t want to have shop at the butcher on a daily basis. You could say, become vegan! Well, we’re not ready for that step yet, like I said I take change slowly sometimes. So, I do have to freeze some of my meats and I use plastic freezer Ziploc bags. I know the main issue is the BPA leakage during heat exposure, but why couldn’t this happen in other temps, too? What is BPA anyway/ Clearly I have much learning still to do and some reviewing of our cooking and kitchen prep needs. I have already pulled out a bunch of things that we can live without right now, but there’s a lot more that can still go.

Anyway, I’ve got some work cut out to do yet and I’ll be sure to keep you updated. It’ll inspire me to blog more, since I’ve been remiss on that for so long already.

Stay tuned...