What's in Your Coffee and your Candy Wrapper?

I have been researching chemical coatings on food packaging because I have been trying to find a non-harmful dog food (which I have just about given up on…but I will update you later).

A Teflon coating, Zonyl, is widely used in the paper industry and is used to line all types of cartons, paper containers, bags, fast food wrappers. Look out for that shiny lining (often an indictator). This is the same chemical used in Stainmaster (scotchguard) which you should avoid on carpets and fabrics. The EPA has found that Teflon chemicals used in food packaging and other paper products are “ubiquitous in the bloodstream of the general population.” They are found at levels 5 times higher in our pets. Some companies-- oh, like our favorite, Dupont!--have recently switched to the use of Capstone, which is essentially a smaller PFC (perfluorinated chemical), likely just as harmful.

What I most want to warn you about is (1) do not, of course, microwave food in plastic or in any sort of container, even paper, that has a waxy coating, but (2) MORE IMPORTANTLY, every time you drink a cup of coffee at work or from a coffee shop, you are likely ingesting your coffee along with super-heated PFCs. I have avoided those “new” cardboard cups for years because I simply couldn’t figure out (until now)  WHAT that coating was; I knew it wasn’t the old “wax” coating that used to be on our cups. So please, have your coffee in either glass or ceramic. You can bring a glass mug to Starbucks and they will put your coffee in that. And avoid those quick little instant coffee makers at work and elsewhere, you are putting boiling water through a very thin plastic container, not only ingesting some of the plastic but the plastic coating as well! 

Most people both microwave and drink some sort of hot drink every day (if not all day long). So, here are two ways you can make your daily life a little healthier.