45: The Impact of Plastics on Human Health & the Environment + What To Do with Jackie Bowker
One of the worst things you can do for your own health is to drink out of a plastic water bottle. What happens is those water bottles might have been sitting on trucks for however many months. And sometimes they’re sitting in the blinding heat, the sun will heat up those plastics and the microplastics will leach into the water. And then you won’t drink that water and it goes straight into your bloodstream, stored as a toxin away from your organs to try and keep you safe. These microplastics are killing us. So it’s great to have a water bottle. Most people know that. And you can reuse things all the time that you may not know. So we have so many Persada jars. So there’s those glass jars of tomato sauce. They’re fantastic. And we just put them in the dishwasher over and over again. So the point is to find ways to live like we did back in the 50s where we were recycling things we always had uses for things beyond their original use. Hi there. Welcome to the feel better now podcast. I’m your host Jackie Belka. And if you’ve arrived here, I know there is something in here to spark yourself to create a better future, in your health, in your career in your relationships for both yourself. And for those around you. Just one small action step at a time. With so much love and gratitude to be your guide. Let’s get started. Jackie back, why is it bad to use plastics? Hello, super excited about this chat about plastics and what they do to the body and how to contribute to not making our beautiful planet Earth a garbage dump. So you know, most of you know if you listen to this podcast regularly, I go for a morning walk every morning. And so often lately I have been walking through it’s on the beach and I’ve been walking through the water wading through the water. And I’ll come across a plastic bag. And it saddens me that somehow a plastic bag can get in the water. And so I pick it up and I spend the rest of my walk holding this dirty plastic bag until I can find a bin which means like traversing across the sand finding a bin and walking back. And I think well if I’m not going to pick this up, like who is and who drops their rubbish and just moves on in the first place. What happens is that but those plastics those that have been dropped by those litterbugs ends up in a whale’s belly and kills it. And it got me thinking about plastics. And I’m often talking about plastics from a functional medicine perspective, as in what all of these plastics and microplastics are doing to our body, they are killing us, but they’re also killing those around us. So let’s take a step back and talk about the volume of plastic that has dramatically increased. In about 1950, we were producing about 2 million tons of plastic. And these days, we’re up to nearly 400 million tons of plastic, about half of that is single use, which means it’s used and then it’s thrown away. I mean, that’s just not good enough. That means we are literally using our earth as a human garbage dump. So I’m here to help change the paradigm and people don’t want to hear this. People don’t want to listen to this. But once you know you can’t unknow and we can all make a difference. We can all work together to contribute to this. So two things. The first is all of these plastics that we’re using, let’s say a plastic Tupperware or plastic wrap over our food. What’s happening is those plastics and microplastics leaching into our food and we’re consuming the food, it’s going into the bloodstream, and it’s creating damage to our bodies. Plastics mimic estrogen in the body. So they create something called Xeno estrogens, which then become carcinogenic in our bodies. So there’s lots of microplastics in our life at the moment in our makeup. We don’t want these plastics in our life and it takes a village we have to contribute to replacing these plastics with sustainable alternatives. One small action step a week can contribute so much Imagine if we all took one extra step a week. In six months we will have changed our life and the communities dramatically. For example, one change I made was swapping out our plastic Tupperware for a glass Tupperware so that the food that we eat is protected. Another change we made was to remove the microwave from our home so we only reheating food on the stove or inside the oven or the airfryer If we didn’t throw the plastic Tupperware out, we just swapped the plastic Tupperware for say tools or for pens and pencils, or for things that needed to be collected is in terms of in terms of storage containers. So, in that way, we are not contributing to the single use plastics. Another great example is the supermarket. Have you been to the supermarket or watching in the supermarket and the amount of plastic bags that are still being used and then thrown away? If you looked at all of those, I did my first online grocery shop the other day, and it was actually because I was trying to locate something that I couldn’t find in store, but I saw online so I don’t know if I’m behind the times. But I use Woolworths online for the first time. And when I got to the checkout, I was given the option to use plastic bags or pay $1.50 for paper bags. So I made that choice. I’ve had $1.50 different paper bags, because the thing that had been putting me off online shopping, in general, was that I always see people where the van has been delivered and all these plastic bags come out. I can’t contribute that much plastic to society. Plastic is around for hundreds and hundreds of years, it takes so long to break down. Imagine if my groceries that then came and I had my 10 paper bags, imagine if they had been plastic bags, I put them all together, I go to throw them all out. They end in the garbage, some end up in a whale’s belly and that whale is killed. I mean, that’s literally what is happening. We are killing ourselves with the plastic leaching into our bloodstream. And we’re killing those around us. I know this isn’t a conversation that some people want to hear. But we have to change the way we think we have to create a new paradigm. If I had those 10 plastic bags, another option could be I could pop them in the car for next time I was going to shop so at least I was reusing those plastic bags. One of my mentors told a story about how he got his groceries and he got all his 10 plastic bags, put them near their car to use later on, went to the shops the next time, forgot them had them in the car and was just about to get some more bags and then stopped and thought No, Tom, no, you’re going to go inside and you’re going to reuse these bags. And he did. So this is real people doing making real changes instead of taking another 10 plastic bags and putting them in the beam. Another change that I love and I see people doing this all the time is using fruit and veggie bags. For the fruit and veggies not only do they preserve the fruit and veggies longer, but they are so wonderful. They can be made from things that are sustainable that are easy to recreate like bamboo. I love my fruit and veggie bags. They are made from organic cotton, and I love supporting these beautiful companies that are really trying to make a difference. I’ll put my favorite brand in the show notes. I support a brand called the keeper. They are so fantastic. They’re in the wash all the time. And they really work to store the fruit and veggies for a significantly longer time. You can even wash the fruit and veggies in the bag themselves. Another change I made because I love to bake, as you know, is I bought some silicone baking mats instead of using wrap that had plastics in it. Or sometimes I’ll use a compostable baking paper. So that’s a really good one. And for lunches, I also found some gorgeous little Ziploc bags. They’re actually made of sugarcane. So I loved that idea. And again, I love supporting these beautiful companies that are really trying to work so hard to make a difference. This is a labor of love. When we’re talking about these things, we are fighting the good fight, I’ll be honest with you, it’s not always easy to fight this good fight and to fight up. We’re up against Big Pharma, we’re up against big agriculture, there is a lot of money, keeping people sick. There is not a lot of money in moving people towards optimal health. So we all have to work together to really make a difference and to protect our society. We are in the middle of the Sixth Extinction, the extinction of the human race, the last extinction, the fifth extension was the dinosaurs. It really does take a village. Another way to think about it is that it’s so interesting. I talked earlier about the 1950s compared to now, it’s so interesting that we live in such a single use society. Some of you might use reusable coffee cups and water bottles, which is great. You know, those stands that have the water dispenser or the for the coffee cup. And we actually had to train ourselves that they were to be thrown out in the garbage they actually had to then put a bin next to that for the disposable cups. And we had to train ourselves. We had to train human behavior that would this was more convenient to throw out this cup because we hadn’t done that before. In the 50 years. If we had a box of cigarettes with then turn that box of cigarettes into some sort of storage container for something for maybe toys or something like that. So we have really become this single use society. And I really want to hammer that home because we have to think about what change can you make? What contribution can you make to protect yourself and those around you. And make no mistake, you are really improving your health, but you are also protecting the health of the planet. And we are we are at one with our ecosystem. Another few good ideas for you for consideration that you might be able to introduce into your home, we use paper bags a lot for snacks, we use cotton, a shoe bags instead of plastic bags. Another really good one is water bottles, and one of the worst things you can do for your own health is to drink out of a plastic water bottle. What happens is those water bottles might have been sitting on trucks for however many months. And sometimes they’re sitting in the blinding heat, the sun will heat up those plastics and the microplastics will leach into the water. And then you won’t drink that water and it goes straight into your bloodstream, stored as a toxin away from your organs to try and keep you safe. These microplastics are killing us. So it’s great to have a water bottle. Most people know that. And you can reuse things all the time that you may not know. So we have so many Persada jars. So these will those glass jars of tomato sauce. They’re fantastic. And we just put them in the dishwasher over and over again. So the point is to find ways to live like we did back in the 50s where we were recycling things we always had uses for things beyond their original use, and feels good to get back to that way of being creative and of conserving, of having respect for Mother Nature and for our Earth and not making our planet the human garbage dump. I hope this has given you a few ideas of how to make small changes in your life, make one small change a week and all these changes add up and it’s not just you, it’s for us it’s for our children, the next generation the next generation might be the only generation that is left there is thinking that we only have about 70 years left until we have made ourselves extinct because of what we’re doing to ourselves and our planet. So have a think about that. I would love to know any ideas you have about how to protect yourself and how to protect Mother Earth by looking at plastics, how you can reduce your plastic how you can make these simple swaps for yourself and for those around you. I will see you next week. Bye bye. If you made it to the end of this episode, celebrate yourself because it means you are truly dedicated to feeling better in your health, in your career in your relationships. And I am so proud of you. And if you want more of the feel better now so tune in every Monday for new episodes and join our community on Instagram at Jackie Belka for all the behind the scenes action and more. Hey, why don’t you sign up for a chance to have your question answered at feel better institute.com/sign up that feel better institute.com/sign up but most of all, please keep reaching to feel better because the world needs you to feel good so you can share that very special gift that only you have. So with that said, See you soon here’s to feeling better now. Bye bye Jackie back up
