Bottled water, takeaway boxes, snack bags, disposable plastic products... The plastic products we use now are only increasing, and they have penetrated into all aspects of life.
What is microplastics? This is a plastic pellet that is less than 5 mm in diameter. A paper published in the British magazine The Guardian states that we eat at least 50,000 microplastics every year. If you don't have a concept of this, then Ah Nuan is more figurative, that is, the plastic particles we eat on average every week can form a bank card.
And these tiny plastic particles not only do not have any nutrients, but also accumulate in our kidneys, lungs, liver, and other organs! According to a report in Holistic Environmental Science, the accumulation of too much microplastics in the human body can trigger chronic inflammation and increase the risk of tumor formation!
Vegetables
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Researchers tested fruits and vegetables such as carrots, lettuce, cauliflower, potatoes, apples, pears and found that each fruit and vegetable contained microplastics. Among them, apples are the fruits with the most microplastic content, and carrots are the vegetables with the most microplastic content.
Are you as surprised as Ah Nuan! Why are microplastics present in the most common fruits and vegetables in our daily life?
According to the analysis, this may be related to the growing environment of vegetables and fruits. The rhizomes of fruits and vegetables absorb microplastics from soil and water, allowing them to accumulate in the pulp. Therefore, root vegetables, such as carrots, potatoes, and fruits, will have more microplastics.
Meat
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The meat we usually eat swims in the water and runs on land. In contrast, the content of microplastics in meat swimming in the water, such as fish and shellfish, will be higher. This is associated with severe marine pollution.
About 88% of the sea surface is currently polluted with plastic waste [4]. Marine organisms such as fish and shellfish filter large amounts of seawater when they feed and breathe, so more plastic particles accumulate in their bodies.
Fortunately, most of these microplastics accumulate in the digestive tract, internal organs and gills, and as long as we do not eat these parts, we can reduce the intake of many microplastics.
salt
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Seawater is polluted by plastics, and the sea salt we usually make from seawater is naturally invasive.
In fact, it is not only sea salt, but many landfills now pollute the freshwater resources on land, so there are also microplastics in lake salt and rock salt.
According to the recommendations of the World Health Organization, it is appropriate to take 5g of salt per person per day. If you can't reduce the amount of salt used in cooking, then eat less snacks such as plums and pork jerky~
Milk
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The researchers tested 14 different packaged milks available on the Turkish market. Without exception, microplastics were detected in every packaged milk.
The microplastics in bottled milk will also become more under the influence of high temperatures. So if you want to drink hot milk, it's better to heat the milk in a glass bottle!
Bottled beverages
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There are a lot of microplastics in bottled water, beverages or beer, which are commonly found in supermarkets. In densely populated cities, there are more microplastics in the air [8], which can also drift into the water.
Therefore, we should remember to seal the mouth after drinking water, preferably plain water, and buy less wine or drinks in plastic packaging.
honey
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Microplastics have also been detected in honey in a number of studies, which may be related to the honey-producing environment of bees, the processing and packaging of honey. [8]
And honey is shelf-stable, and some people can use a bottle of honey for 1~2 years. In order to reduce the content of microplastics, it is more appropriate for everyone to store honey in glass bottles~