BPA in our Canned Foods

This time of year I end up using a fair amount of canned vegetables because nothing much is growing locally during winter and early spring. I love warming foods like chili and spaghetti when the temperature drops, so canned diced tomatoes (for availability and economy) and canned beans (for convenience) are usually added to my pantry staples.

I knew about BPA in plastic, but cans? How did I miss that?

The expert: Fredrick vom Saal, PhD, an endocrinologist at the University of Missouri who studies bisphenol-A

The problem: The resin linings of tin cans contain bisphenol-A, a synthetic estrogen that has been linked to ailments ranging from reproductive problems to heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. Unfortunately, acidity (a prominent characteristic of tomatoes) causes BPA to leach into your food. Studies show that the BPA in most people’s body exceeds the amount that suppresses sperm production or causes chromosomal damage to the eggs of animals. “You can get 50 mcg of BPA per liter out of a tomato can, and that’s a level that is going to impact people, particularly the young,” says vom Saal. “I won’t go near canned tomatoes.”

The solution: Choose tomatoes in glass bottles (which do not need resin linings), such as the brands Bionaturae and Coluccio. You can also get several types in Tetra Pak boxes, like Trader Joe’s and Pomi. (Source: The 7 Foods Experts Won’t Eat)

This article piqued my interest, so I started googling around the internet and found more info on the topic.

Consumer Reports Warns of BPA Canned Food Risk

Bisphenol A: Toxic Plastics Chemical in Canned Food

What’s a person to do?

• There are a few brands, such as Eden Organics that claim to be BPA free. Just because it says organic doesn’t mean it’s BPA free though.
• Buy foods in glass containers (and don’t forget to recycle or re-use!).
• Grow and preserve your own summer veggies.
• Stock up on veggies from a local farmer when they are in season and preserve by canning or freezing for use over the winter.

Vegetarian Cheese

The other night we were watching “Victorian Farm” on the knowledge network. They were making cheese. Very educational.

Why did I not know that they have to kill a calf and use their third stomach to extract rennet?! I felt sickened watching the process. It was really disgusting…

I love cheese. I felt like weeping from disgust and disappointment watching that show. I knew the basic steps to making cheese, but have never questioned what rennet is. Talk about feeling naive!

I found the following article about Island Farms, a local dairy that produces most of the dairy products in our area.

The good news is that some cheese is made without rennet, and contains a non-animal source called “microbial enzyme”. I just checked the Paradise Island organic cheddar cheese that I usually buy, and it lists microbial enzyme as one of the three ingredients.

My next logical thought was “where are they sourcing their dairy?” and I started poking around. I found this reference to it being from Fraser Valley, BC, which is good news. At least they aren’t importing it internationally. But which Fraser Valley, BC farm?

Each new discovery just opens up more and more questions for me. This dairy investigation is not over.

EDITED TO ADD:

I sent the following email to Island Farms:

To: info
Subject: Rennet in your cheese

Hi there,

I’m a vegetarian and am wondering if the rennet in any of your cheese products is coming from a non-animal source.

Thanks,

April

I got the following reply:

Dear April,

Here at Island Farms we do not use rennet in the making of our Cottage Cheese or Cream Cheese products.

Thank you for your question. Have a great day.

Quality Control Dept
Island Farms
1-800-501-1150

Winter Gardening – December

Mondays are our second weekend day, so B and I have some alone time while the kid is at school. It was a rare sunny day, so we decided to putter around in the garden. I got this idea to make a flower bed next to the steps going up to the hair salon entrance.

There was a large bramble bush under the patio that was reaching through the wire mesh into our vegetable garden (to the right), so that was pulled out by the root and thrown on the compost pile.

We laid cardboard down on the grass where we planned to build the new lasagna garden, and wet it really well. The cardboard will kill any grass or weeds that we don’t want in our flower bed.

We inherit my FIL’s maple tree leaves every fall, so next was 4 bags of mulch, and we wet those really well too, mostly to give them some weight so they wouldn’t be flying all over the property.

The large flower pot was one I had on our patio when we lived in a small 800 square food condo in the city, and other than the lavender plant you see, it is full of mint. We decided to incorporate it into the flower bed.

We found some stripped logs in the brush, and selected a couple that work well as a natural border.

Next we split and dug up a number of daisy flower clumps, and arranged those in a u-shape so their height will be run along the edge of the flower bed and won’t shade the three different varieties of heather plants that we transplanted  front and centre.

To plant in a lasagna garden, just pull back a layer of the mulch and set the plants in, then tuck them in tight with the mulch you pulled back. If you are planting seeds, sprinkle a fine layer of dirt on top of the mulch, toss your seeds on top, and cover with another fine layer of dirt.

When the mint in the pot comes up in the spring we will transplant it to our kitchen garden bed. We will replace the mint area in the pot with more lavender. You can never have enough lavender.

We are currently out of whipper snipper cord, but once we have a chance to get a refill, the grass in front of the new flower bed will be neatly trimmed.

The kitchen garden is a bit shady and is not fenced, so we can’t put anything in there that deer like to eat. My big idea is to make it one big bed of mint in as many different varieties as I can beg or borrow from my gardening friends. Imagine the wonderful mint tea I will be drinking next winter!

As you can see the kitchen garden is roughly a heart-shape, and is close to our main house door. About 1/3rd of the garden has cardboard and leaf mulch already, and once we get some more leaves from the FIL, we will finish lasagna gardening the rest of the mint bed. Adding kitchen scraps, alpaca manure (from our next door neighbors, hopefully), and ash from our woodburning stove will help enrish the garden beds over the winter.

Over the spring and summer I will be asking every gardener I meet for snips of their mint plants. I hope to completely fill the bed with as many different varieties as I can find until the entire garden fills in with mint. It will be divine!

Green Living: Avoiding Asbestos (Guest Post)

Going green used to be considered expensive and a luxury for those who could afford the trend. Now it appears that we are learning that not only is adopting more environmentally conscious attitudes good for our economic situation, but also our….health? Yes, if we dig a bit deeper we can see that dirty industries and backwards policy is actually harming the health of the earth for our children and the health of her inhabitants today.

There are two levels of health consequences associated with dirty industry, both direct and indirect. The direct consequences are examples like increased asthma rates in areas with high smog indices. Chlorofluorocarbon release into the atmosphere has shown to decrease the filter of direct sunlight on the planet, resulting in more concentrated ultraviolet light reaching the surface of the earth. Perhaps it is no surprise then that in countries with depleted atmospheric gas, skin cancer rates are among the highest in the world.

Most mesothelioma doctors would say the indirect health consequences are harder to see immediately, but closer examination reveals that these are, in fact, perhaps the most hazardous. Bi-products of dirty and backwards industries, such as coal and oil processing, include cancer causing substances like asbestos and benzene. A U.K. study conducted in 2002 indicated that coal and oil industry workers are at a much higher risk of developing mesothelioma cancer and leukemia.

Can we really afford to continue on the path we were on before? Investment in clean industry means not only a healthier planet for our children and grandchildren, but also a healthier place for us to live today.

(Source: Guest Post –November 30, 2009 Written by James O’ Shea with the maacenter)