BPA

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/15/AR2010011504070.html?hpid=topnews

If you've been keeping track, there has been some evidence for a while that Bisphenol A is a harmful chemical (cancer, heart disease, hormone disrupter, the usual) added to plastics and lining cans for canned food, baby formula, etc. The FDA has finally made it official and decided that maybe all of the safety tests done by the chemical companies can't be fully trusted. Fortunately, BPA has been taken out of most baby bottles already (if it's not plastered across the package, it's probably there). The bigger issue is that it's in plastic drink bottles (yeah, all that bottled water you KNOW you shouldn't be buying anyway), the lining for canned food and in all those plastic containers you put your leftovers in. Glass jars are still okay and your best bet for "canned" food.

While the advice is still coming from the FDA, what are some things you can do? Quit buying bottled water! If you feel the need to carry your water around (or you live in an area where tap water tastes gross), get a reusable bottle. Yes, they're more expensive, but really, you'll make up the money in a couple of weeks after not buying bottled water. If you must have filtered water, buy a Brita. Don't heat up food in plastic containers and don't run them through the dishwasher. I know that there's some evidence that even food sitting in the fridge in the container can have some chemicals leach into it, but much, much less than if the food is heated in a plastic container or after the container has been run through the heat of the dishwasher. Ideally, you'll switch to glass containers for leftovers, but with (a) small child(ren) in the house, I'm not willing to risk the broken glass right now. If you get rid of the containers, many of them can still be recycled. And you can always use them for non-food items, like children's art supplies.

The harder part is getting rid of the canned food. There are some things that are easier: it's really easy to cook beans instead of buying canned ones. Mark Bittman (How to Cook Everything) says you can just cook them without soaking them first. You can then freeze the beans to have ready. I have had really good luck with this. Canned fruits & vegetables can be substituted by frozen ones or jarred. You can buy soup in cardboard containers instead of the canned ones, although this works better for larger quantities. I don't have a suggestion for canned fish (tuna, salmon, etc), but I will attempt to look into it. I have no idea if there are any substitutions for canned milk (evaporated & condensed), but since I rarely use them except for in holiday baking I'm not as worried. The last is baby formula. For some a necessary evil, but breast is always best (a topic I will cover again, later).

I will admit that I've back slid a bit on buying canned foods since being knocked out by this pregnancy, and my husband is horribly addicted to canned soups (a whole other topic), but today's news is a nice little jolt to remember to stay away from the canned goods!