(NaturalNews) Just as some men may have been switching from beer to wine after realizing that hops in beer diminish testosterone and boost estrogen, new research in France has discovered that over half of those fine French wines contain phthalates, which are hormone disruptors.

Phthalates (fal-ates) are ubiquitous in our petroleum-based, chemicalized, plastic society. They are endocrine disruptors that can cause physiological, reproductive and gender confusions, and some are carcinogenic. They are used to soften plastics and make them more pliable.

Phthalates are also used in PVC (polyvinyl chloride) pipes, surgical tubing, toys, cosmetics and personal care products. Some vinyl flooring materials contain phthalates as well. You can include shower curtains that may off-gas phthalates as you shower with steamy hot water. There's no escaping them. They are truly ubiquitous.

But the worst adverse effects of phthalates come from heavy, constant physical contact with materials that they're in or ingesting them orally, through the skin or via tubing that's often required for IV (intravenous) use.

According to a recent 2014 test on French wines, many phthalates can be ingested orally with these pleasurable beverages that cover their hormone-disrupting threats.

Testing those French wines

These were not wine-tasting tests. The researchers were on a phthalate hunt. Part of this hunt involved assaying wine content and assessing components of materials used for fermenting and storing the wines, even the corks. After all, wines do have to age over various times, depending on their types. Their are seven "strains" that comprise the phthalate family.

Wines aged longer were impacted more with di-isobutyl phthalate (DiBP) than younger wines, like Beaujolais region wines, which are light, fruity and don't require aging like other red wines. Diisobutyl phthalate is not allowed to be in contact with any foods, according to EU (European Union) food standards, but it was discovered in 25 percent of the wines tested from all of France's wine regions.

All told, 59 percent of all the wines contained significantly high amounts of at least one of the seven phthalates. The one which appeared most predominately was dibutyl phthalate, which is considered by most scientists as highly probable for creating gender and reproductive issues. Only 17 percent of all the wines tested had no trace of any type of phthalate.

In addition to the phthalate alarm, the researchers discovered that 11 percent of the wines violated EU specific migration limits (SML). Standards of SML are based on limiting the toxicity levels of packaging that can migrate into the foods or beverages contained.

This study was performed by Laboratoire Excell, Parc Innolin, in Merignac, France, and the abstract was published by PubMed in 2014 as "Contamination of wines and spirits by phthalates: types of contaminants present, contamination sources and means of prevention." It first appeared in the journal Food Additives and Contaminants: Part A earlier that year.

So what about beer?

It appears that the modern maxim of "men should drink wine and women should drink beer," which was recently adopted upon discovering the high estrogen content of hops that are used to make beer, has been deconstructed.

However, the manly images of beer guzzlers is a misrepresentation. Drinking lots of beer is emasculating, as hops are loaded with estrogen. "Wine is from Venus and beer is from Mars" is not the case anymore.

Prior to the German Beer Purity Act of 1516, beers were made from a variety of different herbs that were sexually stimulating or promoted effectively aggressive behavior. Apparently, the hops growers and the churches decided that only hops should be used, which create the opposite effects.

Looks like both beer and wine contain potential gender benders for men and women, as well as carcinogens.

Sources for this article include

http://newsroom.taylorandfrancisgroup.com

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

http://www.tandfonline.com

http://toxtown.nlm.nih.gov

http://www.lifetwink.com

http://science.naturalnews.com