Looking to cut back on your microplastic intake? I mean, who wouldn’t want to? Unfortunately, ridding yourself of them completely is pretty much impossible.
There is one small switch, though, that can decrease your intake by around 90 percent, according to a new study published in Nature Medicine.
“Although total avoidance of microplastics and nanoplastics (MNP) exposure will likely remain an unattainable endpoint in light of their ubiquity in the environment, new studies indicate feasible pathways by which dietary intake may be decreased or clearances improved,” study authors explained.
Harvard Medicine pointed out that microplastics are everywhere, making them unavoidable. However, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t at least try to minimize our exposure—given the countless negative health effects we can experience from our MNP intakes.
“There are so many unknowns, but we are seeing more data that suggest microplastics affect human biology,” Bernardo Lemos, an adjunct professor of environmental epigenetics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said in the Harvard Medicine paper.
The presence of microplastics has also been linked to heart attacks and cardiovascular issues, as well as “oxidative stress, inflammation, immune dysfunction, altered biochemical/energy metabolism, impaired cell proliferation, abnormal organ development, disrupted metabolic pathways, and carcinogenicity,” the Genomic Press paper reported, quoting this study.
How to Cut Back on Your Microplastic Intake
So, again, there are many reasons to cut back on your microplastic intake—and there are thankfully many minor changes you can make to achieve this.
One of the best ways to reduce your exposure is by refusing bottled water, which can cut your intake by 90 percent.
“Switching from bottled water to tap water could reduce microplastic intake from 90,000 to 4,000 particles per year, making it an impactful intervention,” the researchers wrote.
In addition to drinking less bottled water, you can also cut back on alcohol and seafood, as both are “significant dietary sources of microplastics.”
Some more tips include stopping heating and storing food in plastic containers, avoiding highly processed foods and plastic-containing tea bags, and limiting canned food consumption.
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