Baby Shower Food And Drinks

Have you ever wondered if you were born to be fat? Is it in your DNA that you will put on weight over the first twenty or thirty years of your life and remain obese forever more? Or, could other factors be at work? Perhaps it really isn’t your fault and you really don’t eat too much!

Recent studies have shown that a chemical used in the manufacture of polycarbonate (plastic) baby bottles, nipples, pacifiers, breast pumps and as a lining in food and drink cans has some rather nasty properties. Bisphenol-A is an organic compound first reported in 1891. It is prepared by the condensation of acetone and is used in the making of many plastic items as well as a way to influence other chemicals and products during their manufacture.

Bisphenol-A, or BPA, is an endocrine disruptor which mimics the body’s own hormones and is present in just about all of us, commonly in doses beyond that considered safe for laboratory animals. Although the possible risks inherent in exposure to BPA have been known for over 70 years , it is only in the last few years that serious notice has been taken and effective preventative measures begun to be put in place.

While BPA might not necessarily cause you to gain weight and become obese per se, a 2008 scientific review concluded that obesity may “be increased as a function of BPA exposure”. The review went on to say that this “merits concern among scientists and public health officials.”

The following year a further study believed that preinatal exposure to BPA can exert some effects on body weight and adiposity. To my layman’s mind this suggests that bottle feeding your baby with a plastic bottle made with BPA can increase the risk of weight gain and perhaps send the body on a one way path to obesity and premature death!

Given it is used as a liner in food cans ( to prevent botulism and similar food poisoning from occurring) and that it can leach out of the plastic plates, utensils and cups when washing or microwaving, I wondered if there was a risk to the mother and her unborn baby before it had even tasted its first formula? There is. To my mind this is yet another reason why breast feeding is best!

Despite the US National Toxicology Program reporting it felt concerned for the effects on small children and most adults, they played down the level of concern we should have for the potential harm caused to at risk persons. However their concern became ‘negligible’ when they applied their research to the potential for harm to unborn babies and pregnant mothers.

So, after generations of us have been weaned on products that may have come from cans lined with BPA and fed baby formula out of baby bottles made with this same chemical, it is only now that our health authorities are realising there is an issue here and taking action to protect us. Of course the response varies from state to state and country to country. Canada has been very proactive in banning baby bottles made with BPA while Australia feels the risk is inconsequential. Various states in the USA are slowly coming around to doing something about the sale of BPA bottles but thankfully it appears the industry itself is self regulating.

Every major manufacturer is now offering BPA free bottles, pacifiers and other products. Not that this helps those of us who consume canned foods or drinks as the ‘pro’ lobby has come out strongly in favour of continuing to use BPA as a can liner. I suspect this is driven by economic reasons more than a genuine belief in the safety of the process.

BPA is not just potentially harmful to humans or a possible cause in our growing (pun intended) rates of obesity but it has also affected the environment. Plastic trash corridors that stretch for hundreds of miles across the oceans leech BPA into the food chain and have a negative impact on the reproductive processes of numerous species.

BPA could be one of many reasons why you are steadily increasing in girth, year after year despite every diet and exercise program you have tried. I don’t think it is the only reason and perhaps its affect has been minimal but, it is a problem and forearmed is forewarned. And while we are throwing clichés around, as far as finally being warned about the risks posed by BPA in our food and utensils, better late than never.

Perry Gamsby is a free lance writer and web content publisher based in Australia. He holds a Master of Arts in Writing as well as tertiary qualifications in teaching and small business management. He is currently writing for Best Baby Bottles and bases his cyber self at his writing shop, eWriters Shop Online Content.

What food & drinks are best for a Baby Shower??

Need more Ideas to plan my Baby Shower. Thanks!!!!

These are really yummy… and are always a big hit whenever I serve them…

Tortilla Roll-Ups

take a flour tortilla and spread it with flavoured cream cheese (like garlic herb etc..) Sprinkle some cut up ham bits or basically any kind of sandwich meat over the cream cheese, and then sprinkle some chopped up bell pepper over that and then some grated cheese. Roll them up and cut into about 1 inch pieces…. Make as many as you need….

Baby Shower