With the tragedy of Robin Williams’ death raising questions about mental illness, I started looking for answers. The statistics are staggering: Today, one in 10 Americans is on antidepressants—a 400% increase in the last 30 years. And there’s a lot of evidence showing that these drugs may not be able to help everybody. In fact, some experts believe that lifestyle shifts—especially dietary—might be a more effective first step to address depression, as well as anxiety, which is depression’s flip side. I asked Heather Lounsbury, author of Fix Your Mood with Food
8 Foods to Fight Anxiety and Depression
What is BPA? 6 Ways to Ditch It for Good
In 2012, the FDA announced a nation-wide ban on BPA in bottles and sippy cups. The following year, California placed the chemical on its Proposition 65 list, officially recognizing it as a reproductive hazard.
So what is BPA? Simply put, it’s a chemical used to harden plastics, especially polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins.
Despite federal and statewide action, our kids are still being exposed to BPA on a daily basis. The substance is still found in hard plastics, food-can linings and cash register receipts. In that year alone, studies linked BPA to:
1. Obesity: White children with the highest levels of BPA in their urine were six times more likely to be obese.
2. Anxiety: Exposure to BPA early in life resulted in high levels of anxiety in children.
3. Reproductive problems: BPA exposure can damage a woman’s reproductive system causing infertility, miscarriages and birth defects. [Read more…]
