Ingesting Credit Cards? Yes! You are.
Did you know that the average human ingests one credit cards’ worth of plastic each month? Yep. Whether through your bottled water, clothing, or the storage containers you warm your food in, microplastics are invading your body. What’s the big deal? Well, microplastics have been tied to low sperm count in men, chronic joint inflammation in men and women, and cancer for all.
However, there are three ways you can vastly reduce your microplastic exposure.
- Stop drinking bottled water! There are only six types of bottled water that do not have microplastics in them. All six are stored in glass bottles, but only one is available at grocery stores nationwide: Saratoga Springs. It’s $2.99 per bottle in most places, but hey. It’s either your testicles or your wallet. Your choice!
- Don’t wear any clothes made of Lycra, spandex, or polyester. Each is filled with nanoplastics and, when you wear them, your skin is essentially inhaling the plastic directly into your body. Especially when you sweat!
- Use glass containers to store and warm your food. Storing food in plastic containers guarantees a nice plastic flavor profile, but warming your food up in plastic makes plastic a primary ingredient! For the love of Pizza, please use glass.
I’ve read a lot lately about the fact that men are fathering children 47% less these days than they did even 20 years ago. People have bandied about the idea that the cause of this has to do with the change in the way men’s pants were made. Before, they had a front flap and now a zipper. The thought was that the lack of blood flow caused by wearing tighter clothing negatively impacted men’s virality.
Yesterday I read a research report published first in Forbes and then in the Daily Mail about findings comparing canine testicles with human. Researchers from the University of New Mexico found microplastics in all testicles tested, with 330 micrograms of plastic per gram of tissue – almost 3x higher than found in dogs. Polyethylene and PVC were the most common plastics.
High microplastic contamination correlated with lower sperm counts in dogs. The hypothesis of the researchers is that the same correlation will be found in human sperm counts, but additional research is required to confirm. An additional study found that every single man examined had cancer-causing microplastics housed in his testicles.
I just share the information. What you choose to do with it is entirely up to you. For me and my house, we will drink from the tap!