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Microplastics in Your Diet: What’s Really on Your Plate?

Jenni Berman |

Plastics are everywhere, and our food is no exception!

There are a mind-blowing number of plastics in today’s world. Currently, there are more than 15,000 plastics with a minimum of 4,200 of these considered highly hazardous to not only our environment, but also our health.  These permeating microscopic bits of plastic are everywhere….in the air, ocean and soil. Every time you take a breath, you are breathing in plastic.  Even your clothes have microplastics and can be absorbed in the body through the skin. And of course they are in our food! But how?  And what can we do to decrease our exposure?

Industrialism creates water contaminated with poly-flouroalkyl substances (PFAS) and the contaminated water is used to fertilize crops and water livestock for meat and dairy production and processing. The PFAS can cause serious health problems including obesity, liver damage, hypertension, kidney cancer, immunotoxicity to name a few.

Microplastics and Nanoplastics are in so many foods and impossible to avoid entirely.  But knowing which foods contain the highest amounts of plastics can be helpful so we can at least reduce our exposure to plastic by ingesting a bit less of them.

Let’s start with proteins.  Unfortunately, all proteins have some plastic. We must have protein, and plenty of it, so it is helpful to know what sources have been shown to contain the least amount of plastic in order to reduce our exposure.  Researchers analyzed various protein sources and ranked them from least to highest content of protein.  I’m happy to report of those proteins analyzed, the least contaminated proteins were chicken breasts, followed by pork loin chops and tofu.  After those they ranked as follows, from safest to least safe, plant-based fish-like sticks, Key West pink shrimp, white Gulf shrimp, pollock fish sticks, chicken nuggets, and plant-based nuggets.  The worst scorecard was given to breaded shrimp with well over 300 microplastics pieces per serving.  No real big loss here.

I’m sure it comes as no surprise that seafood does not fare well in this discussion. There are 24 trillion pieces of microplastics in the ocean and the sea life is ingesting plastic. So when consuming seafood, you are eating all the plastic that the fish has ingested.  It has been estimated by researchers that on average a person consumes about 53,864 particles of microplastics annually from seafood (this has been estimated at about the same amount of plastic in 17 credit cards!).

Moving on to fruits and vegetables which obviously play a vital role in providing beneficial nutrients in our diets.  Sadly, they can absorb microplastics through their roots systems, leaves and fruit.  Do I recommend you avoid fruits and vegetables?  Absolutely 100% NOT!  But knowing which are the most contaminated is important so you can reduce the frequency of them and make sure they aren’t your sole mainstay.  Researchers found the most contaminated are apples and carrots with over 100,000 microplastics per gram.  The least contaminated vegetable is lettuce.

Now we can do something about the other items that scored the worst for plastics content.  Tea is one of them. Tea bags are made of plastic and then placed in hot water where the plastics melt.  One study showed brewing tea bags can release 11.6 billion microplastic and 3.1 billion nanoplastic particles into the water.  You can still have tea, but I recommend instead of buying single use teabags, try loose leaf tea with a metal strainer.  Keurig coffee pods didn’t come up in my research, but probably not a great idea either, for the same reason.  Try using ground coffee in a metal Keurig insert instead.

If you actually need another reason to skip the beer and pretzels, here it is.  It is estimated there are about 28 microplastic particles per liter of beer.  And Salt…..studies found that 39 brands of salt contain microplastics and it is estimated an average adult consumes around 2,000 microplastic particles per year just from salt alone.

For a lengthy list of reasons, we push push push water here at Berman Health & Wellness.  But be careful with the bottled water.  A study from the National Academy of Sciences found the average liter of bottled water has nearly 250,000 pieces of nanoplastics, and much of the plastic appears to be coming from the bottles themselves, rather than the water source.  You can avoid this source of plastics easily….  Get yourself a reusable steel or glass bottle, easy peasy!

And while we’re at it, let’s think about some of the other sources of single use plastics that may be playing a role here.  Some biggies that come to mind for me…. Yogurt and peanut butter.  Peanut butter, one of my personal favorite foods is usually in plastic but you can look for one in a glass jar such as Smuckers. And if Greek yogurt is something you are using regularly, consider making it yourself. It sounds daunting, but really truly it is super simple!

Jenni Berman

Jenni Berman

Jenni, owner of Berman Health and Wellness, works alongside Berman Physical Therapy to help individuals get back in shape, improve their gut health, and to stay feeling young so they can stay in the game! After graduating from the University of Florida with a Bachelor’s in Applied Physiology and Kinesiology, she went on to obtain a Master’s of Physician Assistant Studies. She has a passion for helping individuals to feel better than they thought imaginable through natural approaches, nutrition, and whole body treatment. She is also a Certified Personal Trainer and Nutrition Specialist. When she is not working with patients or with clients, you can find Jenni on the boat, in the sun, enjoying time with her husband, Jake,her daughter Stella June, spending time in Jacksonville with her family, or playing with her [CUTE!] pups!!
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