Don’t Fear the Feast: Pass the Canned Cranberry Sauce, Green Beans, and Gravy!

It seems like the leftist activists don’t want anyone to enjoy life. They’d rather we be fraught with worry. During the weeks and days leading up to Thanksgiving Day, they’ve issued bogus reports on why Americans should fear their holiday feast.

“Study finds chemical BPA in popular Thanksgiving canned foods,” says the Los Angeles Times. The story cites a study released by anti-chemical activists at the Breast Cancer Fund. “The organization tested four cans of each of the following: Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup, Campbell’s Turkey Gravy, Carnation Evaporated Milk, Green Giant Cut Green Beans, Libby’s Pumpkin and Del Monte Fresh Cut Sweet Corn, Cream Style,” reports the Los Angeles Times.

You might expect such sensationalism from the Los Angeles Times, but what about the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)? JAMA also appears all too willing to take advantage of the holiday news hook to promote its publication of a study on BPA in canned goods. The new study appears in JAMA’s print magazine dated November 23/30, 2011 — Thanksgiving Day! the Thanksgiving issue. An abstract of the story is already posted on their website, which has garnered media attention for the publication by linking the study to turkey day.

These studies both measure levels of BPA. The first measures BPA levels found in canned food, and the JAMA piece measures BPA levels found in human urine. Surprise, surprise, BPA is found in canned food and urine of those who ate it. So what? The human body consumes a host of chemicals every day, man-made and synthetic. That doesn’t mean they pose a significant risk.

Take a look at the American Council on Science and Health’s analysis of a potential holiday dinner menu.  It’s full of many scary-sounding chemicals, such as benzaldehyde, caffeic acid, hydrogen peroxide, quercetin glycosides, ethyl alcohol, and benzene. None of these pose serious health concerns and all are naturally occurring! Likewise BPA poses no measurable risks. The only “impact” on the human body discovered related to BPA is that the chemical passes through the body — out quickly through urine. That reality indicates that it likely has no adverse health effects because the human body eliminates it so quickly. Not surprisingly, comprehensive scientific reviews report negligible risks from BPA. For details on these reviews and the science of BPA see CEI’s study on the topic.

The real story is the dangers that could result if people listen to leftist activists and meaningless JAMA articles condemning BPA use. BPA is found in food because it is used to make resins that line canned goods from soda pop to green beans, preventing food spoilage and the development of rust and/or pathogens in our food.  Without it, we can expect more food spoilage and more food-borne contamination.

Image credit: Justin Baeder on flickr.