Another Reason To Avoid Fast Food: Chemical In Food Packaging Can Disrupt Hormones

A new study has once again has proven that depending your daily meals in fast food is unhealthy and can lead to possible death. Researchers have discovered that people who consume more fast food have 24 to 40 percent more of industrial chemicals known as phthalates in their blood compared to those who ate less or no fast food at all.

For the study, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspective, researchers collected data from 8,877 participants from the National Health and Nutrition Examinations Surveys between 2003 and 2010.

The participants were asked to report all the food they ate in the last 24 hours and were also requested to give a urine sample. The researchers then tested the urine of each participant for bisphenol A (BPA), di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) and diisononyl phthalate (DiNP).

After their experiment, researchers found out that people who consumed 35 percent or more fast food in the last 24 hours have higher DEHP and DiNP, 24 percent and 40 percent respectively, compared to those who did not eat fast food, Time reported. On the other hand, no significant pattern was observed between eating fast food and BPA.

According to CBS News, phthalates are used in industries to make plastics flexible, and they can be also found in food packaging and food-processing equipment.

Researchers explained that these two industrial chemicals can contaminate food before or during cooking. They advised the public to avoid eating fast food as much as possible to prevent having high levels of phthalate.

Phthalates are being associated with a couple of adverse health hazards such as neurodevelopmental issues, miscarriage, pre-term birth and development of male reproductive organ.

Ami R. Zota of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University, and the lead of the author of the study, admits to Reuters that no casuality can be established from the study, but it doesn't disprove the fact that the results are meaningful and statistically significant.