A Terrible Thing to Waste by Harriet A. Washington

Author:Harriet A. Washington
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Published: 2019-07-22T16:00:00+00:00

Cleaning House

To minimize the foodborne poisons that threaten your fetus or baby, eliminate as many as possible from your household. In order to reduce exposures to bisphenol A (BPA), avoid buying food and beverage cans with resin liners. This is especially important in light of a New York City study that measured prenatal and postnatal BPA exposure until age five in inner-city African American children and found that children with the highest BPA exposure levels showed more problems on tests that measured emotional reactivity and aggressive behavior.66

Read the labels of your plastic containers before buying them to be sure they do not contain chemicals called phthalates. In fact, it is a good idea to avoid buying any foods packaged in plastic and to avoid processed foods as much as possible. Food co-ops, farmers’ markets, and stores that carry organic fare may offer the option of paper containers or allow you to bring your own.

Few people have the time to cook all their meals from scratch, but many people find making the week’s entrees in advance and freezing them until use allows them to control sugar, fat, and additives, while saving time in the long run.

Cosmetics contain suspect chemicals, too. Read the label of cosmetics and avoid using those with phthalates, as well as lipsticks that contain lead: look for additives that contain “plumb” in their name. Cheaper foods and candies purchased at “dollar stores” sometimes come from countries where food can contain unacceptable levels of lead, so this may not be the best place to save money: pooling funds with friends to buy high-volume cases of domestic foods and treats at big-box stores may be safer.

It is important to clean in order to minimize vermin and tracked-in pollution, but many cleaners and pesticides carry their own host of toxic problems, so try using baking soda, vinegar, and nontoxic commercial cleaners instead of toxic products during pregnancy.67

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