BPA causes obesity in children, new study shows

Tuesday, September 25, 2012 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer
Tags: BPA, obesity, children

(NaturalNews) Are the chemicals commonly found in thermal receipt paper, aluminum cans, and plastic containers causing your children to become overweight or obese? New research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) seems to suggest this may be the case, having found that children with the highest levels of the plastics chemical bisphenol-A (BPA) in their blood are also the largest among their peers.

For their study, researchers from the New York University (NYU) School of Medicine evaluated data from a nationwide health and nutrition survey that included roughly 3,000 children ranging in age from six to 19. About 33 percent of the children were overweight, while 18 percent were considered obese based on current body mass index (BMI) guidelines.

On average, the children who participated in the survey had roughly three nanograms, or about three-billionths of a gram, of BPA in every milliliter of their urine. After adjusting for outside factors that may have affected the results, researchers found that only about 10 percent of the kids on the lowest end of the BPA spectrum were obese, while 22 percent of the children on the high end were obese.

"Overall, we observed a positive association between increasing levels of urinary BPA and both measures of obesity, independent of potential confounding factors including smoking, alcohol consumption, and serum cholesterol levels," wrote the authors of the original survey, which was published in the journal ISRN Endocrinology back in 2008.

"Elevated levels of urinary BPA are associated with measures of obesity independent of traditional risk factors, (and) this association is consistently present across gender and race-ethnic groups." (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22852093)

BPA, a hormone-disrupting, disease-causing poison

Since BPA has already been positively identified as an endocrine disruptor, it is widely believed that the chemical's hormone-altering properties may be responsible for such weight gain in many individuals. BPA has also been shown in hundreds of published studies over the last decade to cause other serious conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, reproductive problems, neurological damage, early puberty, and cancer. (https://www.naturalnews.com/BPA.html)

"BPA is commonplace -- found in copious brands of fruit, vegetables, soda, and other frequently eaten canned goods," write Brenda Watson and Leonard Smith in their book The Detox Strategy: Vibrant Health in 5 Easy Steps (http://www.naturalpedia.com/book_The_Detox_Strategy.html). "What's most troubling about the recent reports of BPA's prevalence ... is that it remains entirely without safety standards. It is allowed in unlimited amounts in consumer products, drinking water, and food, the top exposure source for most people."

Other prominent sources of BPA include thermal receipt paper, aluminum and steel can linings, plastic containers and packaging, composite dental fillings, pizza boxes, conventional napkins, paper towels, and toilet paper, wines fermented in plastic vats, and paper money.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.reuters.com