Vitamins in plastic bottles and your health

Recent news reports that certain vitamins have a deleterious effect on your life and that a chemical in plastic bottles is injurious to your health really started my day on a down note.

Reportedly, a chemical compound used to make baby bottles and other shatterproof plastic containers leads to possible developmental risks, at least that’s what the laboratory rats injected with bisphenol claimed.

Containers in which the surface is breached by damage or heat are most at risk, say the experts. Residents of the state of New Jersey can breath a sigh of relief though; their state legislators voted to ban the sale of bottles made with the chemical.

These experts recommend glass or stainless steel containers instead.

A review of 67 studies on vitamin supplements completed by researchers at Copenhagen University suggests the use of vitamins may lead to “increased mortality.” The scientists said high doses of certain antioxidant vitamins and minerals may interfere with the human body’s natural processes. Some scientists have criticized the Danish researchers’ report for excluding some information and including other details not germane to the study.

According to these both these reports, the greatest risk we face may be buying vitamins in plastic bottles. No word either way from the folks who make Flintstone vitamins.

Yet my day was brightened when I heard that scientists have proved that pizza can be a health food, of sorts.

Food chemists* at the University of Maryland report that a pizza crust made with whole-wheat flour, in which the dough has been left to rise longer, and then baked at a higher temperature and longer than normal has more antioxidant power. Now I don’t know that the pizza would be edible. That reality would somewhat diminish its disease-finding ability.

*[If they offered food chemistry in high schools, more students would look forward to fulfilling their science requirement. I wonder if you can partially fulfill the requirements for a degree in food science by watching cable television’s Food Network.]

I haven’t read it in writing yet, but I imagine whatever nutritional value this pizza offers is blunted if you bake it without taking it out of its plastic wrapping.

And have you heard? The maxim that each of us should be drinking eight 8-ounce glasses each day is an urban legend. That’s a little less guilt you’ll feel today.

Despite the confusion over what we should and shouldn’t eat and drink, it is possible and advisable to eat a simple, well-rounded diet, which features less processed products and more fresh foods.

Dr. Paul Reisser, author of 7 Steps to Healthy Eating, suggests we trim our consumption of processed sugar, eat more whole grain foods, include fiber in our diet, and eat plenty of fruits and vegetables—something few of us actually do.

Reisser writes that reading the Nutrition Facts labels on packaged foods is an easy way to begin to track what is really going into your mouth.

Finally, he underscores the truth that your grandmother always preached: Eat together as a family. “Meals are a time for socializing, conversing, sharing, and celebrating,” Reisser writes. It is a proven fact that when we plan and sit down to eat with our family or friends, we typically eat more healthy foods.

Another valuable book on health and nutrition by Dr. Paul Reisser