Since there were big headlines ~2010 about food in plastic heated in microwaves, I've switched to using glass containers for leftovers. Does that decrease the amount described in this article? Or is this some other mechanism of plastic consumption?
AFAIK that's for BPA? I don't think microplastics are generated just by having the food being in contact with the plastic, so I doubt that makes a difference. If you read the study[1], it looks like most of the plastic comes from the drinking water, not through food.
[1] https://www.dropbox.com/s/nxvyl3v5s9d0a1v/PLASTIC%20INGESTIO...
Furthermore, I kinda think that this must be solved on a political level. It’s good if more and more people ask for plastic-free products, but don’t think that this changes anything on the individual level, especially if you consider that a lot of plastic in the oceans come from fishing nets.
It might actually make more sense to stop eating fish, if you want to have less plastic in your ocean.
So generelly: yes, try to reduce plastic, but also make it vocally (and vote) that this is important to you/all of us.
I've worn merino wool underpants on trips where - for various reasons - I took barely anything except the clothes I wore. Hanging the underpants in the steamy bathroom while taking a shower will almost completely refresh them. Heck, even keeping them on in circumstances where showers weren't available didn't seem to pick up any odors, at least for a couple of days.
Not that I would normally recommend regularly wearing underwear for several days or even a week, but wool is clearly superior to cotton or synthetic fabrics.
I also have some military surplus (Finnish M65) wool pants, which are made primarily for warmth and durability, not so much for soft comfort. Even after a sorely-needed rejuvenation with lanolin, they are still made from thick and somewhat coarse wool, which is obviously better for winter pants than silky soft merino.
Personally I don't find wool to be annoyingly scratchy. While I certainly do feel it a little bit when I put on a coarse wool flannel shirt before it warms to my body temperature, but it doesn't bother me. I know some people absolutely can't stand it, but I don't think anyone would have issues with good merino.
Same
> Or changes in production that could be made to avoid it.
Not as interested in this, as its a moot point. Corporations that make things have my worst incentives as their goals, so if they found out, they might learn to make it even worse for me. God forbid the health care industry find out (I'm sure they have and we'll find out the effects decades down the road, similar to cigarettes).
Quoted from Colgate's site [1]:
> Because microbeads aren't biodegradable, they pose a significant environmental concern. Research from the New York State Office of the Attorney General shows that microbeads can escape undetected into rivers and oceans after being washed down the drain, since their small size means they often aren't captured by regular sewage treatment systems. The report found that approximately 19 tons of microbeads are washed down New York drains each year!
> The beads can be mistaken as food by fish, birds and other wildlife. When animals fill their stomachs with microbeads, they may spread the plastic up the food chain. This can lead to contamination of the fish we eat, since microplastics soak up pollutants in waterways, according to the Australian Department of Environment and Energy. Once in the environment, microbeads are almost impossible to remove.
[1] https://www.colgate.com/en-us/oral-health/brushing-and-floss...
be careful, the "BPA free" plastic products on the market might have just replaced BPA with BPS (or other plasticizers), which might be as bad as BPA when it comes to your health. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisphenol_S#Health_Effects
I’ve consumed minimum 1 cup soy milk almost my entire life. No man boobs and my sperm works just fine.
What’s funny is people usually warn me that eating soy will somehow harm my masculinity, yet they aren’t aware milk, eggs, and meat also contain phytoestrogens https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jf801344x
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytoestrogen#Food_sources
But soy gets all the press. People believe what they desire to believe...
And good on you. I too drink 1/2 Liter of Westsoy Unsweetened Soymilk daily. Silk just came out with an unsweetened variety too! :-)
What matters is the quantity of phytoestrogens in foods, and soy products happens to have significantly higher phytoestrogens than other foods.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/24284429_Phytoestro...
> Phytoestrogens were detected in all foods analyzed; bread contained the highest amount of phytoestrogens-many as isoflavones-with an average content of 375 +/- 67 microg/100 g wet weight (excluding soya-linseed bread with 12,000 microg/100 g).
This is what I'm saying. You are comparing 375 and 12,000 and saying the difference doesn't matter. It's a two orders of magnitude difference.
So no, what you're saying is not true. Soy products have significantly higher levels of phytoestrogens than other foods.
http://www.pkdiet.com/pdf/pld/phytoestrogen.pdf
Thank you for enlightening me.
We might already be seeing effects but haven’t yet made the connection.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kttVyakHN4
Chewing gum / Bubble gum uses a mix of synthetic rubber and plastic as its base.