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BPA, the chemical found in hard polycarbonate plastic water bottles is also in the liners of canned food.

I’ve noticed a big change at the gym I work out of – those colourful hard plastic water bottles have become an endangered species, due to the risk of bisphenol A (BPA) leaching into the water.

Everyone appears to be switching to the stainless-steel variety, which seems to me to be a much better choice. Many families have stopped using baby bottles and sippy cups made from #7 plastic to feed their infants and toddlers.

Europe has banned the substance in items for children under the age of 3, and Health Canada indicated that it is adding BPA to its toxic substance list.

When huge outdoor-gear companies like Mountain Equipment Coop listen to their customers' concerns and decide to stop selling the offending water bottles, and the companies that make them (like Nalgene), suddenly lose very large orders, they take notice and change.

Nalgene, which always did have alternatives to the no. 7 lexan water bottles, is now going out of its way to promote BPA-free alternatives, whereas in the past they tended to dismiss the concerns as baseless. We reached the tipping point, where concerned consumers have made BPA in water bottles unsellable. Congratulations, everyone!!!

This is the way positive change can happen – consumers have more power than governments to change corporate practice by choosing where they spend their money. Now we need to do this on the food front.

A quick review for those that may have missed my earlier articles on BPA in water bottles.

Bisphenol A is a xeno-estrogen and therefore an endocrine disruptor, meaning it is a chemical that mimics estrogen in the body, thereby messing up our normal hormone messaging. Synthetic xeno-estrogens are linked to breast cancer and uterine cancer in women, decreased testosterone levels in men, and are particularly devastating to babies and young children.

BPA has even been linked to insulin resistance and Type 2 Diabetes. For more of the science on the effects of BPA on our endocrine system etc. see these studies: Environmental Health Perspectives Journal.

So, have we resolved the BPA problem? Far from it. It is still being used in the resin that lines canned food.

Liquid infant formula sold in cans would be the most problematic, as any BPA leached would have a bigger relative effect on a small baby. According to a recent Globe and Mail article, Health Canada tested 21 cans of liquid formula and found every one to be positive for BPA in amounts ranging from 2.3ppb to 10.6ppb.

If you can't breastfeed and you no longer want to use canned liquid infant formula, I highly recommend you purchase the book Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon, and use her infant formula recipes located near the back of the book.

Your baby will thrive on these formulas much better than on canned or powdered formula. And the book is a wonderful cookbook full of nourishing recipes for you and your family.

Foods are heated in the can to destroy microbes, and the heating process causes the BPA to leach into the food.

Acid foods like canned tomatoes, tomato paste, and apple juice leach more BPA into the food than non-acidic foods. Examples of canned foods that tested positive for BPA in the Globe and Mail/CTV study included:

• Hunts Tomato Sauce
• Chef Boyardee
• Mini Beef Ravioli
• Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup
• Allen's Apple Juice
• Unico Tomatoes
• Molson Dry Beer
• Labatts Ice Beer,
• Heinz Tomato Juice
• ZoodlesBeans
• Beans with pork and tomato sauce
• Green Giant Cream Styled Corn
• Del Monte peas and carrots

All the food companies involves said that they felt the BPA levels were too low to be of concern, just as the water bottle companies had stated previously.

Replacing canned food with fresh food will improve one's health, not just because of the reduced exposure to BPA, but also because fresh food contains vitamins, minerals and enzymes that get destroyed in the heating process of canning.

Sorry if I sound like a broken record, but to be healthy we need to eat REAL food, not processed food that comes from a factory.

Please do keep the comments coming!

Related tips
Which plastic water bottles don’t leach chemicals?
Plastic water bottle update
Processed food is taking over our supermarkets
The soy controversy
Our toxic body burden

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