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Just One Thing! Health Habits for the Overwhelmed.

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April 13, 2009
	Jo Wehage : Head Operations Ego

THIS MONTH: Rocket Fuel in Milk and Reusable Water Bottles; Aluminum or Stainless?  

Suffering from wellness information overload? Each month we briefly cover one topic that will enhance your health and one topic that can threaten your health. Consider this your Cliff Notes of wellness habits.

Just One Thing – Not to Do:
Overdo milk and cheese consumption.

Q. Can drinking a glass of milk help propel you to the moon?
A. Depends on how much you drink.

Thanks to our friends at the Pentagon, ammonium perchlorate, the main explosive component in rocket fuel, has been lurking around our environment for decades. It finds its way into water used for growing feed crops for cattle. Cows eat the contaminated crops, resulting in contaminated milk. Whether you are drinking milk or eating dairy products made with this milk, you are ingesting perchlorate. The EPA actually makes allowances for a “provisional daily safe dose” however, as the authors of Skinny Bitch say in their book “We’re sorry, but where we’re from (Earth) there is no acceptable amount to ingest where explosive components are concerned.”

Even if you believe any amount to be safe, tests revealed milk perchlorate levels well above the EPA’s index. Studies conducted by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) found every single milk sample tested in Texas to be contaminated. California’s own Food and Agriculture Department found that milk off the grocers’ shelves had five times the EPA’s “safe dose” of perchlorate.

Consider switching to a “motherless milk” option for your family. And if you still think of milk as a good source of calcium, drop us a line. We can review that debate in an upcoming issue.

Just One Thing – To Do:
Reusable water bottles. But which one – Aluminum or Stainless?

In our quest for quality water without chemicals leaching from the container and options to be more gentle on the environment, many of us are turning to reusable drinking containers which leave us asking – aluminum or stainless?

Aluminum vs. Stainless
I admit I was hoping aluminum would win this one because it’s easier to find lightweight bottles and you can find a host of fashionable designs with some aluminum bottle manufacturers.

Unfortunately, to keep the aluminum from leaching into the water these bottles have to be lined with a resin-like coating. The compounds in the resin itself may be cause of some leaching concerns and most coatings will eventually breakdown. Consumers need to be careful about not scratching the lining and to check for wear and tear as the bottle ages. Some aluminum bottle users claim that they see (and taste) linings deteriorating in under a year.

For this reason, stainless steel wins out as our preferred drinking apparatus. Stainless steel is regarded as a neutral metal and won’t leach into your water. There’s no lining needed so the breakdown of said lining is not an issue. Early designs were heavy, but now many brands are bringing more lightweight options to the market.

Related:
Plastic still has a place for us convenience freaks. Identify the BPA-free plastics in our article: Has Your Water Expired?

 

Sources:
Skinny Bitch, Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin, Running Press, 2005