Michael's Corner

For thirty years, I’ve done my family’s food shopping. For the majority of those years, I’ve kept primarily to the supermarket’s perimeter. I was a conscientious shopper, and conscientious shoppers, appropriated time notwithstanding, tend to shop more frequently. I didn’t mind the extra trips because being a good husband and dad was more important than how else I might’ve spent that time.

A year ago (The autumn of 2023), my ears picked up when Bobby Kennedy Jr., seemingly in hyperdrive, enlightened us about the poor quality of our food. Suddenly, the supermarket’s perimeter wasn’t just a preferred domain; it became magnetic and screamed to me the perils of venturing to where yellow 6, red 40, cellulose gum, high fructose corn syrup, artificially enriched foods, and various seed oils dwell. (Europe’s FDA, incidentally, allows none of the above. Europe, not ironically, suffers less diabetes, high blood pressure, hypertension, and obesity than America.)

But wait, there are other enemies afoot: micro and nano plastics! How can we avoid them? I’m not sure that we can. These flavorless, near-undetectable mini nuggets are so ubiquitous they reach our bodies through plant absorption, so keeping to specific geographies within supermarkets won’t protect us. Moreover, inside our warm bodies, they release endocrine-disrupting chemicals that migrate to organs and can breach the placental boundary.

There is no hard evidence suggesting plastic contaminants in food are killing us or making us sick—though common sense might advise ingesting plastic has no net benefit, is hardly neutral, and does do harm—and, likely, we won’t learn the truth until big pharma formulates a drug to mitigate the ill-effects. Then, along with gleefully singing about lowering our A1C, a chorus line, accompanied by a catchy jingle, will pitch us a “mostly safe” drug for ridding plastic toxicity from our bodies.

R. F. K. Jr. cannot be a lone voice in the wilderness; he will need help. We The People, will need advocates willing to howl about micro and nano plastics in food with a zeal similar to those who share their concerns for carbon in the atmosphere. After all, what’s the point of America spearheading global concerns while she allows the collective health of her citizenry to sag?  

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