Is Soup Toxic to Your Health?

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a plasticizer that is regarded as an endocrine disruptor that may be linked to  cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and liver abnormalities.  Commonly used in food can linings, Karin B. Michels, from Harvard School of Public Health (Massachusetts, USA), and colleagues assessed the urinary bisphenol A (BPA) levels of 75 healthy men and women, ages 18 years and older, who consumed homemade soup for five consecutive days, and then ate canned soup for another five days in a row. Urinary levels of BPA averaged 1.1 mcg/L during the homemade soup segment, but reached 20.8 mcg/L during the canned soup segment.   Observing that: “The effect of such intermittent elevations in urinary BPA concentrations is unknown,” the team urges that: “Even if not sustained, [it] may be important, especially in light of available or proposed alternatives to [BPA-containing] epoxy resin linings for most canned goods.”