Eat Out a Lot? You May Be Exposing Yourself to Cancer-Causing Chemicals

Who wouldn't rather eat out?  I know I surely would.  But now I maybe need to think about it.

A new study has found that eating out exposes us to chemicals that may cause cancer, especially our teens who consume nothing but burgers and fries.  Someone, tell the president.

According to newswise.com, dining out more at restaurants, cafeterias and fast-food outlets may boost total levels of potentially health-harming chemicals called phthalates in the body, the new study notes. Phthalates, a group of chemicals used in food packaging and processing materials, are known to disrupt hormones in humans and are linked to a long list of health problems.

The study is the first to compare phthalate exposures in people who reported dining out to those more likely to enjoy home-cooked meals. People who reported consuming more restaurant, fast food and cafeteria meals had phthalate levels that were nearly 35 percent higher than people who reported eating food mostly purchased at the grocery store, according to the study.

“This study suggests food prepared at home is less likely to contain high levels of phthalates, chemicals linked to fertility problems, pregnancy complications and other health issues,” says senior author Ami Zota, ScD, MS, an assistant professor of environmental and occupational health at Milken Institute School of Public Health(Milken Institute SPH) at the George Washington University, at newswise.com. “Our findings suggest that dining out may be an important, and previously under-recognized source of exposure to phthalates for the U.S. population.”

The 10,253 participants in the study were asked to recall what they ate and where their food came from in the previous 24 hours. The researchers then analyzed the links between what people ate and the levels of phthalate break-down products found in each participant’s urine sample.

The team found that 61 percent of the participants reported dining out the previous day. In addition, the researchers found:

• The association between phthalate exposure and dining out was significant for all age groups but the magnitude of association was highest for teenagers;
• Adolescents who were high consumers of fast food and other food purchased outside the home had 55 percent higher levels of phthalates compared to those who only consumed food at home;
• Certain foods, and especially cheeseburgers and other sandwiches, were associated with increased levels of phthalates—but only if they were purchased at a fast-food outlet, restaurant or cafeteria. The study found that sandwiches consumed at fast food outlets, restaurants or cafeterias were associated with 30 percent higher phthalate levels in all age groups.

”Pregnant women, children and teens are more vulnerable to the toxic effects of hormone-disrupting chemicals, so it’s important to find ways to limit their exposures,” says lead author Julia Varshavsky, PhD, MPH, who did the work while at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health, and who is now a postdoctoral scientist at the University of California, San Francisco.  “Future studies should investigate the most effective interventions to remove phthalates from the food supply.”

A previous study by Zota and colleagues suggested that fast food may expose consumers to higher levels of phthalates. That study found that people who ate the most fast food, burgers, fries and other foods, had phthalate levels that were as much as 40 percent higher than people who rarely ate such foods  

The new study looked more broadly at dining out—not just at fast-food outlets—and found that it was significantly associated with increased exposure to phthalates. The authors say the findings are worrisome because two-thirds of the U.S. population eats at least some food outside the home daily.