Plastic rocks on an isolated island
The sombre message of stones made of plastic found on an uninhabited island far from the Brazilian coast.
Chemicals plastic cause overweight
14 February 2022
Something strange is going on. The average intake of calories in the United States has remained stable or has even dropped over the last 20 years, while the percentage of people suffering from obesity has risen from 30.5% to 42.4%. How can this be explained?
A recent article has the answer: the overuse of plastic. Plastic contains chemicals that make us put on weight. These obesogens, as they are called, stimulate the production of fat cells and the storage of fat. They include well-known plastic additives such as BPA, certain phthalates, and fire retardants.
OBESOGENS: CHEMICALS THAT MAKE US FAT
Scientists strongly suspect that fat formation in human and animal bodies is stimulated by plastic. Additives that are used to give plastic their desired qualities can leak from the plastic and stimulate the increase of fat tissues.
Obesity, extreme overweight caused by the accumulation of body fat, negatively affects health. As is generally known being overweight is a risk factor for diabetes 2, heart and artery diseases, and kidney failure. In the Western world, overweight tops the list of diseases among the population. In the Netherlands, nearly 14% of adults are obese and half are overweight.
The Dutch Government has a policy to reduce the level of overweight which promotes a healthy diet and more exercise. However, constant contact with plastics, such as food packaging, is not viewed as a risk factor for overweight.
DEALING WITH OBESITY = DEALING WITH PLASTIC
The 2018 Nationaal Preventieakkoord (national prevention agreement) strives to make the Netherlands more healthy through various means such as reducing overweight and obesity. According to the latest evaluation (in Dutch), despite the measures taken, the proportion of overweight people is increasing rather than decreasing. The approach is largely focused on influencing the energy balance and changing lifestyles. If you exercise more you use more energy and by eating less and more healthily you consume less energy.
But this approach falls short as it does not take the presence of obesogens into account. These chemicals are everywhere, including in food packaging. Research in Norway into the chemical substances of 34 plastic products that consumers come into contact with every day, concludes that the number of substances that stimulate overweight is far higher than is currently known.
The remedy is simple: use less plastic, especially for food and drinks, and less complex chemical compositions in plastic products. Apart from a healthier lifestyle of course.
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