Host: Well, we are always being told to watch what we eat and make sure that the food we eat is 1)chockablock with things that are good for us. But what about what’s on the outside? The plastic wrapping that covers most products could be 2)leaching 3)toxins into what we all eat. So, to help us 4)navigate through it all is nutritionist Joanna McMillan. Good morning to you Joanna.
Joanna McMillan: Good morning.
Host: I must say, looking at the products here, and having done a big supermarket shop myself yesterday, plastic is everywhere. It’s pretty much 5)unavoidable.
Joanna: It is. Well, I mean, if you think about it, it’s an amazing product, you know, from a 6)functionality 7)perspective. You know. It doesn’t break, you can drop it, you can reuse it, so, of course, plastics have ended up being throughout our lives. Now this has been raised in the media again because environmental scientists have just published a paper where they have 8)exposed the fact that more than 4,000 chemicals are used worldwide in plastics…
Host: Wow!
Joanna: …and that all of us are exposed, and that, I think, is what’s so scary is that we just don’t have the research to say what are the effects of this [sic]. The exposure is very low, but we do know that we can pick up some of these 9)chemicals in 10)urine and in blood samples from different population studies.
Host: Wow!
Joanna: And that low 11)chronic exposure, so particularly for our children, who, 12)literally, from the minute they’re born and are using a baby bottle right up throughout their lives, they’re being exposed to these chemicals, and we just don’t know what the effect of that is.
Host: So how on earth does anybody who wants to look after their family and themselves navigate through all of this?
Joanna: Mmm…
Host: How do you know what’s a good plastic and what’s a not-so-good plastic?
Joanna: That’s right. Well I think the first key thing to look for is that you want to know exactly what the plastic is. So to me the most worrying plastics are where there is no recycling symbol on the plastic, and I don’t know what it is, so there’s no idea of what chemical is in there. And that goes for a lot of our food packaging, so a lot of these food products here. The second thing is most danger occurs when the food has a high fat content, because fat will take toxins, so think of cheese and fattier meat…
Host: Ahh.
Joanna: Thery’re always wrapped in plastic…
Host: Yeah.
Joanna: …and then, where you’re heating the food or the drink, so things that are going into the microwave, that where you’re heating the plastic, those things…
Host: Next to the food.
Joanna: …next to the food where there’s much more 13)likelihood of the plastic leaching.
Host: Okay.
Joanna: The third tip actually is to use plastics for what they say that they’re for, so, for example, I’ve got some food takeaway containers here, and drink bottles. These are really designed as single-use plastics. But, of course, trying to do the right thing, most of us have got a plastics drawer in the kitchen…
Host: Yeah, yeah.
Joanna: …I know I do, and you try to reuse some of these products, so when they get old and they’re 14)scratched, again leaching is much more likely to happen. So I would 15)ditch some of those plastics.
Host: Okay.
Joanna: You’ll notice some of the baby bottles here actually say now “16)BPA free”…
Host: BPA free, yeah, which is really important.
Joanna: …yeah. So we’ve kind of got smart about BPA, so these are probably safer plastics, but the bottom line is what other chemicals are in there.
Host: Yeah.
Joanna: Do we know enough about these chemicals?
Host: Just before we go, I heard something once. It was years ago. Okay, it was on Oprah, I’ll admit…
Joanna: (laughs)
Host: …but she had somebody in talking about plastics, and this expert said that if a plastic has a really strong smell…
Joanna: Mmm.
Host: …stay away from it, and usually it’s a really awful smell as well.
Joanna: Yeah. Well, it is, well,
I mean that makes sense to me
from a scientific perspective…
Host: Yeah.
Joanna: ...you know, you’re smelling those chemicals.
Host: Yeah.
Joanna: That’s what’s giving the smell.
Host: Mmm.
Joanna: And, lastly, use glass and 17)ceramic.
Host: That makes sense.
Joanna: Go back to those old-fashioned ways of heating our food.
Host: You have a lovely weekend.
Joanna: Thank you.
Host: Thanks, Joanna.

主持人:好吧,我們總是說要注意飲食,確保我們吃的食物都是有益的。那么(食物)外面的包裝呢?用于包裹大部分食品的塑料包裝都會滲出毒素。那么,幫助我們全方位地解決這個問題的是營養師喬安娜·麥克米蘭。早上好,喬安娜。
喬安娜·麥克米蘭:早上好。
主持人:我必須說,看著這里的產品,再回想起我昨天在超市掃貨買來的東西,塑料包裝真是無處不在,(對于它的使用)真的是無法避免。
喬安娜:是的。嗯,我的意思是,如果你仔細想想,你知道的,從功能性的角度來看,塑料包裝真的是一個神奇的產品,你懂的,塑料包裝不會破碎,你可以摔它,可以重復使用它。所以,我們的生活當然離不開塑料?,F在,有關塑料的話題再次被媒體提起,因為環境科學家們最近剛發表了一篇文章,揭露了有4000多種化學物質用在全世界的塑料包裝中……
主持人:哇!
喬安娜:……所以我們都被(這些化學物質)滲透了,我想,可怕的是我們沒有研究表明這些化學物質的作用。雖然滲透量很小,但是我們能從不同人口的研究尿樣和血樣中提取到這些化學物質。
主持人:哇!
喬安娜:而這是種長期的滲透,特別是對于我們的孩子,從他們出生的那天開始用奶瓶起,(塑料)就伴隨著他們一生。他們被這些化學物質滲透,而我們卻不知道后果是什么。
主持人:那么到底那些想要照顧好家庭和自己的人該怎么解決這個問題呢?
喬安娜:呃……
主持人:你怎么區分好的塑料和不太好的塑料呢?
喬安娜:那好吧。首先,你要知道塑料制品的成分。對于我來說,最讓人擔心的塑料制品是那些沒有循環再用標志的塑料,我不知道它的成分,所以也不知道里面含有什么化學物質,這點適用于我們許多食品的包裝。第二點是如果食物中含有較高的脂肪,就會有危險。因為脂肪能夠吸收毒素,所以想想奶酪和肥肉……
主持人:啊。
喬安娜:它們總是用塑料包著……主持人:對啊。
喬安娜:……然后,當你要用微波爐加熱食物或者飲料,加熱塑料包裝,那些……
主持人:在食物周圍的……
喬安娜:……那些包在食物周圍的(塑料)就會更有可能發生滲透。主持人:好的。
喬安娜:第三點提示就是根據塑料制品特定的功能來進行使用。例如,我這里有一些食品的外賣盒,還有一些飲料瓶。這些都是被設計成一次性使用的塑料。但是,當然,為了更好地利用它們,我們大部分的人都在廚房里有一個塑料碗柜……
主持人:對,對。
喬安娜:……我自己也是這樣做。你想重復利用這些塑料制品,那么當它們變舊受損,滲透就更容易發生。所以我會丟掉一部分的塑料制品。
主持人:好的。
喬安娜:你會看到這里有些奶瓶事實上寫著的是“不含雙酚A”……
主持人:不含雙酚A,對,這很重要。喬安娜:……對。我們對雙酚A很了解了,所以這些可能是更安全的塑料,但是關鍵就是還有什么其他化學物質在里面。
主持人:嗯。
喬安娜:我們對這些化學物質了解得夠清楚嗎?
主持人:在我們繼續往下聊之前,我曾聽說過一些言論。那是幾年前的事兒了。好吧,是在奧普拉的節目中聽到的,我承認……
喬安娜:(笑)
主持人:……她邀請了某個專家來說說塑料制品,這位專家說如果一個塑料制品有很強烈的氣味……
喬安娜:嗯。
主持人:我們就應該遠離它,通常都是一種很刺鼻的氣味。
喬安娜:嗯,好吧,就是這樣。我意思是從科學的角度來說是有道理的……
主持人:對。
喬安娜:你知道的,你聞的就是那些化學物質。
主持人:對。
喬安娜:就是這些化學物質散發出氣味。主持人:對。
喬安娜:最后,多用玻璃和陶瓷制品。主持人:有道理。
喬安娜:用舊時的方法加熱食物。
主持人:希望你有個愉快的周末。
喬安娜:謝謝。
主持人:謝謝你,喬安娜。