We all know that plastic is a major polluter of our environment but do you know that plastic is also a polluter for our bodies? It’s the biggest polluter of our hormones i.e. it causes hormonal imbalance in our bodies. Plastic releases estrogen (female hormones) like chemicals thus disturbing the male and female hormone balance in our bodies. With the increases level of estrogen, we are at a high risk of breast and ovarian cancer. It also puts you at a higher risk of blood clots and strokes. Estrogen dominance also increases the chances of thyroid dysfunction which causes symptoms like fatigue and weight changes. This also leads to PCOS/PCOD in women. It’s especially very critical for young girls during puberty.
I personally have faced a lot of problems because of the use of plastic. I have suffered hormonal dysfunction and have had severe PCOS. Because of that I still suffer the consequences sometimes. I don’t want other women like me suffering too. And not only women, Estrogen dominance will cause hormonal dysfunction men too. It can lead to reduced muscle mass, over-development of breast tissue and many other hormonal issues
The health problems that we have today, were next to nothing about 15 years ago. But as the world has “MORDENIZED”, our health problems have increased and hormonal imbalance has a big part to play in it. Plastic is one of the major contributors or hormonal imbalance. When we heat and eat our food in plastic containers, or put a cling wrap on our food, or drink from plastic bottles, or put our food products in plastic bags, the chemicals from plastic leech in our food causing the hormonal harmony to be disturbed. Hormonal imbalance can be the cause of many chronic diseases (diseases that develop over time) and so it becomes very important to maintain the balance of hormones.
In order to do that, limit the use of plastic as much as you can. Some ways that you can do that are:
- Use stainless steel, copper or brass water bottle while travelling/ exercising/ working etc. Stay away even from the fancy Tupperware bottles and the readymade bottled water. Make sure you don’t have a plastic bottle filled with water in your car for drinking purposes.
- To buy your fruit and vegetables, use a jute or a cloth bag instead of a plastic bag. Buy from your local vegetable market/farmers market/Sabzi Mandi instead of the ones in supermarkets that are individually packed in plastic wraps sometimes!
- For you and your kid’s lunch boxes, throw away plastic containers, use a stainless steel container or a glass container instead. Especially for storing hot food stay away from plastic. Don’t use plastic cling wraps for wrapping fruits, vegetables, chapattis, sandwiches, wraps or any food item as such.
- Store your lentils, rice, flour etc. in stainless steel or glass containers. Avoid buying food packaged in plastic, in fact avoid packaged food as much as possible.
Let’s us all go back to how things used to be when we didn’t use plastic for our food and water. May be it is the worst of times now with the plastic situation, but it is still the best time because we still have a chance to make it better.
Roti/Phulka/Chapatti
