this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2023
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Microplastics are the new lead, and screens are the new tobacco, in my opinion. Overuse of sugar in processed foods is the new version of how they'd cut food with inedible stuff like sawdust back in the day.
My mom become an avid anti-plastic person after watching videos and reading things about the damages that microplastics do to the health, nature and the planet. She does everything she can to avoid using plastic things!
When plastics were first introduced to consumers it was sold as indestructible, it will never wear out, never degrade! People were actually concerned at the time, why anyone buy disposable products that never break down, won't they just pile up forever?
After much lobbying the concept of recycling plastics was introduced to help consumers stop worrying about all this indestructible waste and help push the sales of cheap plastic products. Your mom has the right idea, not buying it in the first place is the only way to drive demand down.
I'm not at the point in life where I can really avoid plastic, but I aspire to get there eventually.
Care to elaborate? Always looking for new tips to cut back on my personal plastic use.
Try to stop using disposable plastic as far as possible. No cups, bags, spoons, straws. Use reusable bags when shopping, and when shopping, check how the stuff is packaged. Get as much as possible of your stuff in glass bottles, and recycle them. Use waxcloth instead of plastic wrap. Buy larger packages. If you have a cheese or meat counter, get your stuff there. The might even let you bring your own tupperware.
The problem with waxcloth is you can't clean it well enough, because no hot water. If I can't use it on meat or dairy it's no good for me. Also I can never get it to stay, maybe because I have cold hands. Reusable lidded takeout containers work for most food storage and go in the dishwasher, until they finally fall apart and get recycled. At least it's better than using cling wrap.
Your comment sums up what my mom is doing. So I don't think that I need to reply anymore. Thank you so much!
They were cutting it with trans fats up until recently, which are about as digestible as sawdust.
If I'm being real, my only knowledge of trans fats comes from that one American Dad episode where Stan tries to smuggle them across state lines to make his food taste good again after they're banned. Would you mind educating me on what the commotion was about them?
So trans fats are unsaturated fats (which we typically associate with good fats) but because of how trans fats are structured they contribute to LDL cholesterol, the bad type of cholesterol.
Ultimately if you consumes lots of it, it gets deposited into the walls of your arteries. This is a real problem in the heart since it can lead to a heart attack.
It's even worse than that. The FDA has determined that trans fats have zero nutritional value; the body can't break them down. They basically sit in your liver until you die.
That sounds like BS.
I mean think about it logically, if I only eat several kg of trans fats a day I'll die of starvation? That doesn't pass the sniff test.
"They basically sit in your liver until you die" - so if I eat 1lb of trans fats a week at the end of a year I'll be 52lbs heavier and my liver will be the size of a toddler?
Maybe the body can't efficiently use them like it does other fats for hormone production and such but they definitely count as calories and they're definitely not just chilling anywhere in your body till you die.
That would be why they're illegal now, yeah...
They're illegal because people ballooned up to hundreds of pounds all stored in the liver??? How'd I miss that??
Come on, they're unhealthy and not considered safe anymore but the stuff you said just isn't true.
It is true.