Every bite of hot takeout may be damaging your brain!

Have your parents ever advised you: Don’t eat takeout, it’s so dirty .

You may just let it go in one ear and out the other, often secretly ordering it behind their backs (raise your paw if you have done this)

In fact, a new study recently found that take-out food is not clean, but the problem is not the food, but the take-out boxes.

Every bite of takeaway food you eat contains "plastic particles"

It's like chewing a bank card.

Do you know how hard the merchants work to ensure that the food they order is still piping hot when it arrives at your door?

Freshly cooked dumplings, freshly cooked spicy hot pot, freshly cooked hot porridge...

Most of them put these high-temperature foods directly into plastic packaging boxes and then deliver them to you without stopping.

Little do you know that when you eat delicious food, you may also be taking in millions of "microplastics" without even knowing it!

Why are there microplastics in takeaway food? What are they?

Studies have shown that the higher the temperature, the more plastic particles will enter the food.

If you put food in the microwave for 3 minutes, a large amount of microplastics and nanoplastics will be released from the plastic container and enter the food.

——More than 2 billion nanoplastics and 4 million microplastics are released per square centimeter of container.

For takeout food such as hot milk tea, coffee, porridge, etc., the amount released may seriously exceed the standard.

Scientists have calculated that each person consumes about 5g of microplastics per week, which is equivalent to the weight of a bank card .

(PS: This data is based on the microplastics we eat and breathe)

Don’t underestimate microplastics. Although they are small in size, they can enter our bodies very quickly.

Recently, an international scientific team jointly published a paper in Nanomaterials showing:

After being ingested by experimental mice, microplastic particles can cross the blood-brain barrier and enter the brain in just 2 hours .

▲Image of microplastic particles detected by researchers in the brain of mice. Source: Literature [1] When smaller nanoplastics enter the brain, they interact with protein fibers in neurons, which increases the risk of Parkinson's disease . The most important thing is that these "cunning" plastic particles are not just entering our brains. They also quietly mix into various organs of the body, such as nerves, heart, lungs, liver , etc., and even into the blood . They may become the "stepping stone" of certain diseases, slowly waiting for the right time to stir up trouble~ Don't worry

This can reduce the amount of microplastics entering the body

Microplastic particles can enter the body directly through the food we eat, breathing or skin contact. Usually they cannot be completely digested , some are excreted with feces, and a small amount is retained in the gastrointestinal tract. In our lives now, it is difficult to completely avoid microplastics.

If you can't cook every meal yourself, then choose a reliable merchant when ordering takeout. Pay attention to the code on the takeout box , or change to a porcelain bowl or glass bowl after delivery, so that you can better protect your health. Generally speaking, regular plastic products (at the bottom) will have a small triangular number . 👇 When you order takeout, you can take a closer look, it looks like this.

Different numbers represent different properties of plastic products. For example, PP (No. 5) has better heat resistance, PET (No. 1) is not resistant to high temperatures, and PVC (No. 3) is toxic when heated. But no matter what the number is, it is not recommended to use a microwave for repeated high-temperature heating . Yue Miaojun suggests that the best way is to reduce and not reuse disposable plastic products . Do not discard them casually after use, and do a good job of sorting garbage . Only by starting with ourselves and reducing the entry of microplastics into the body can we protect the health of ourselves and the next generation. Do you change the bowl when you eat takeout? Or if you have any other tips, you can share them in the comment area~

References:
[1]Micro- and Nanoplastics Breach the Blood–Brain Barrier (BBB): Biomolecular Corona's Role Revealed. Nanomaterials 2023, 13(8), 1404; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/nano13081404