ARE WE REHEATING OUR LEFTOVERS WITH PLASTIC WRAP?

This weekend there are many leftovers from Thanksgiving dinners all over America. Many wrap them with plastic wrap, reheating them in microwaves. Many dinners have been prepared days prior to the holiday dinner and reheated with plastic wrap for the dinner as well.

Years ago after finishing my main course at a lovely dinner party, I felt a strange feeling in my stomach. Someone asked for seconds, so I went into the kitchen to help the hostess and to ask what ingredients were put into the dish. To my horror, I watched her take the melted cling wrap dish out of the microwave. When asked if she cooked with it all the time, she replied yes. Her husband had suffered from leukemia  for years and eventually passed away.

I have personally witnessed other people cooking with saran wrap for years. Once someone told me she cooked a turkey in a plastic bag, another said she used cling wrap to make her turkey. Their husbands either had leukemia for years or other types of cancer. If other members in those families were not diagnosed with cancer, their health was poorer in other ways.

Should we believe plastic wrap or cooking in plastic bags, dishes etc are the culprit? Perhaps or perhaps not.. Maybe other factors come in to play. But because of the controversy, are we all so smart to deny those unsafe cooking methods?

Dr. Rolf Halden, a professor in the Department of Environmental Health Services at the school's Center for Water and Health addressed his concerns over dioxins.Regarding cooking with plastics, Halden said that whenever you heat something it increases the likelihood that chemicals could be pulled out. He recommends using heat-resistant glass or ceramics for microwave cooking, just to be safe

Dr. Edward Fujimoto is the Manager of the Wellness and Lifestyle Medicine Department at Castle Medical Center in Hawaii. He said that in Japan, there has been a complete change in the way foods are packaged so that plastic is avoided. They use more glass, for example.

Let us not forget that most plastic wrap comes from China. Do we trust cooking with their plastic?

http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/d/dioxins.htm.

We have all heard the controversy from both sides. One is the plastic companies, the others are scientists and chemists. Each are believable. The FDA is still looking into this and their final result will take about another 20 years. Even a 7th grader did an experiment which proved plastic wrap is toxic.

http://www.ecocycle.org/TimesFall2002/studentstudies.cfm

To summarize, yes, harmful chemicals can migrate into food cooked in plastic containers or covered with cling wrap. The level of danger apparently is unknown, unstudied and unreported.

Will these chemicals hurt or kill you? It seems no one knows for sure, but certainly some people are more susceptible than others when it comes to chemical exposures.Why accumulate unnecessary toxins in your body?

If you have other products, glass, corning, etc why not use them just to be safe. My motto has always been " When in doubt, do without."

The same holds true for prescription drugs, foods, liquids, etc. We have to be smart and careful for ourselves and our children.