Things I have Stopped using to Safeguard my Family’s Health

As we and technology are modernizing, our lives are becoming more and more convenient with so many user friendly articles hitting the market every day. While they definitely make the life easier, many of them come with health hazards too.

We very often discuss the increasing rate of hypertension, diabetes, PCOD etc., and we deep down know that it is because of the modern lifestyle, but do we try to eliminate these unhealthy elements from our daily life? While everything cannot be controlled and eliminated, we can at least try to avoid the avoidable things.

Here is a list of few of the items that I have stopped using (or never used) to prevent my family’s health from the ‘avoidable’ damage.

Plastic Utensils

In the market, I see beautiful and attractive plates meant for kids and I feel tempted to buy them for my daughter, yet I resist because they are made up of plastic.

Everyone must have heard about the toxicity issues of plastics, yet most people choose to ignore. Plastic is made up of toxic chemicals such as BPA, polypropylene, poly vinyl etc. which leach out into food. Several plastic articles claim that they are BPA free; they may be, but if not BPA, it must be made up of some other harmful chemical.

The list of health hazards of plastic is very long and includes even the most serious diseases such as birth defects and cancer.

I agree that disease won’t happen with single use of plastic, but these toxic chemicals build up in our body over years and result in disorders such as weak immunity or hormonal disorders (and we would not even know that this is due to the regular use of plastic).

So eating in plastic is a complete NO in my family.

Plastic Bottles

Water bottles are one place where water remains stored for a significant period of time. Longer the storage time and older the bottle is, more is the content of plastic absorbed.

Steel and glass water bottles are other alternatives. Due to high frequency of usage, glass bottles are risky, but steel bottles are safe and easy option.

Bottled Water

At the restaurant, the waiter asks ‘mineral or regular?’, and I always say ‘regular’. While asking for mineral water may seem a more health conscious decision (or a status symbol), it is definitely a health hazard.

The bottled mineral water is even worse than using plastic water bottles at home. The water, after being packed, stays inside a plastic bottle for weeks (may be months). It bears different storage conditions, varying temperatures and all the stress of transportation. The water bottle that we pay for definitely contains chemicals along with water.

Coming back to the restaurant, one may counter argue that the regular water at a restaurant may be the source of some water borne disease or it may have germs, I completely agree, it may have. But there is difference between germs and chemicals. Germs lead to short term and treatable diseases, chemicals cause long term and more often difficult to treat diseases; exposure to (controlled amounts of) germs actually improves the immunity while any amount of chemicals does only damage to the body. However, if you are not confident about your immunity or are habitual of drinking only RO water (we are not), don’t take the risk.

I have a habit of taking along a water bottle from home every time I go out, and I am inculcating this habit in my daughter too.

Plastic Lunch Boxes

Remember that beautiful lunch box having doremon on it that you brought for your son, and he loves eating in it? But you did not realize that it is made up of plastic. Along with delicious food, your son gets to eat a little portion of plastic too.

Everyone in my family uses steel lunch boxes, no matter how unattractive they may look.

Polythene

Polythene is considered as one of the most harmful forms of plastic, for health and for environment both.

While it is not possible to totally remove the polythene from the household, I have definitely reduced its usage to the minimum. And I make sure that at least the ready to eat food items and anything hot is not kept in contact with polythene.

Cling Wrap

Again, a form of polythene. Many people use cling wrap to keep the food fresh, while this can also be achieved by keeping food in air tight containers; in fact, air tight containers would perform better. For wrapping, cotton cloth can also be used in place of cling wrap.

For it being a type of polythene, I have never used cling wrap.

Take away or Ordering Food

We all love eating outside food. But we do not always want to go and dine out. So we order food or ask the man of the house to go and get it. While the food remains the same, there is a difference between dining in the restaurant and getting it packed. Remember that piping hot makhani dal being put in a low quality thin polythene bag? Ok, if you have opted for an expensive restaurant, they will pack it in plastic boxes, but it still is a low quality plastic. Rather than getting it packed, it’s better to dine in because the food most of the times is served in porcelain dishes (sometimes in steel also) which is better than polythene and plastic. Even if the food is served in plastic dishes, it is better than polythene.

Avoiding plastic and polythene completely is not possible, but we can at least understand that something having moisture absorbs more plastic than something dry, and something hot absorbs much more plastic than something cold. While we store our pulses in plastic containers, we can at least avoid having the cooked Dal in a plastic bowl.

Aluminum Cook ware

Recently, there has been awareness about the adverse health effects of aluminum, and cooking is the last thing that aluminum should be used for. While there are always chances that aluminum will enter the food whenever put in contact, the amount leached will be much more when the food is heated in the aluminum, anything acidic is added (like tomatoes or lemon) or when salt and spices are added. While cooking, food is heated in the cookware for several minutes, acidic ingredients like tomatoes are mostly used, and salt and spices are almost always added.

According to WHO, a specific amount of aluminum intake is safe for human because human body can excrete aluminum up to a limit. But we ingest aluminum from other sources also such as salt, spices, corn, purified drinking water, medicines, etc., and thus we don’t want to exceed the safe limit.

Also, even if it is in the limit, aluminum will be excreted after having traveled in the body and being worked upon by liver. Why to burden liver with things like aluminum when our poor liver already has a lot of work to do with the chemicals, pesticides, fertilizers etc. that we cannot avoid and ingest on a daily basis.

Aluminum Foil

While aluminum foil is little safer than aluminum cookware, it still is aluminum and can be avoided. I use cotton cloth instead of aluminum foil to wrap food.

Microwave

‘Microwave ovens are safe or not’, this is a debated topic, but there is no harm in being cautious. Microwave ovens are very convenient, and yes, I do use microwave oven at home. But I most of the times operate it at Convection (Baking) mode. On convection mode, the inside of the equipment is heated and no rays are emitted, unlike microwave mode.

Few studies report that microwaves are harmful for human body and may also reduce the nutritional value of the food. So I use microwave only when it is absolutely unavoidable and no one is allowed to stand in the kitchen when microwave is being operated in order to avoid any exposure to microwaves.

Most importantly, I never ever use plastic containers in microwave, not because of microwave, but because of plastic. Always use glass wares. I know glass wares are bulky and inconvenient, but plastic is too harmful.

Make these small changes in your daily habits to reduce the damage to your health. You might not be able to see any direct effect of these changes on your health, but trust me, there are positive effects, and they are worth it.

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Also read: Women Health Checklist and very effective Weight Loss Hacks