New research aimed at identifying foods that contain higher levels of PFAS found people who eat more white rice, coffee, eggs and seafood typically showed more of the toxic chemicals in their plasma and breast milk.

The study checked samples from 3,000 pregnant mothers, and is among the first research to suggest coffee and white rice may be contaminated at higher rates than other foods. It also identified an association between red meat consumption and levels of PFOS, one of the most common and dangerous PFAS compounds.

“The results definitely point toward the need for environmental stewardship, and keeping PFAS out of the environment and food chain,” said Megan Romano, a Dartmouth researcher and lead author. “Now we’re in a situation where they’re everywhere and are going to stick around even if we do aggressive remediation.”

  • Someonelol@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    108
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    5 months ago

    Despite all this terrible news about plastics, we still won’t go after the oil companies or plastic producers in the US to help put a stop to this.

    • ThinkBeforeYouPost@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      16
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      5 months ago

      I agree with you, but PFAS/“Forever Chemicals” and micro/nano plastics are different things with their own host of concerns.

      • Someonelol@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        15
        ·
        5 months ago

        They go hand in hand with a lot of plastic packaging. Either way, it’d be nice to go after companies like DuPont, Bayer, 3M, and Honeywell as well as the oil companies that provide them the raw materials anyway.

    • Black616Angel@discuss.tchncs.de
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      5 months ago

      Yes, of course, I mean just stop… Eating fucking rice first!

      That is much better than those long and boring legal battles anyway. Who even eats rice or eggs or drinks coffee?

  • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    73
    ·
    5 months ago

    Assuming that research is accurate, and also given that those 3 things make up a huge portion of my diet, then I’m probably mostly made of PFAS these days.

  • huginn@feddit.it
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    49
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    5 months ago

    Coffee, eggs, white rice

    Selection bias much?

    If you don’t consume any of those 3 you’re probably ridiculously wealthy on some freaky diet.

    All this says to me is “The food of the masses is contaminated” which yeah - we already knew the rich pay a premium to get less contaminated food.

    • iopq@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      6
      ·
      5 months ago

      I went to Kazakhstan and people there don’t eat any of those things

      The traditional foodstuffs are flour and meat, with a lot of things made from milk

      • huginn@feddit.it
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        44
        ·
        5 months ago

        Call me crazy but I don’t think traditional Kazakh diets were part of the study of 3000 pregnant mothers in New Hampshire.

        • iopq@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          5 months ago

          Of course not, I’m just saying your don’t need to eat those foods to survive

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            14
            arrow-down
            3
            ·
            5 months ago

            Suggesting we all switch to a meat-heavy diet is the worst possible suggestion for us and for the planet.

              • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                12
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                5 months ago

                Yes, back before there were eight billion people on this planet. Farming vastly more amounts of methane-spewing animals than we do now is an insanely bad idea.

                • Maeve@sh.itjust.works
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  4
                  arrow-down
                  2
                  ·
                  5 months ago

                  I’m wondering if factory farms were eliminated, how much the environmental damage would be reduced.

              • Shanedino@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                7
                ·
                5 months ago

                You should start using your urine to wash your clothes it worked for society for millenia…hmmm

          • huginn@feddit.it
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            5 months ago

            Nobody was saying that you must eat eggs to survive - the point is to show the flaws in the hypothesis of the study when related to the sample group.

            If you are sampling 3000 mothers in New Hampshire and looking for those who eat less poor people food and more rich people food you should expect to see a correlation that can be equally described by socioeconomic status as it can by diet.

    • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      14
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      5 months ago

      Next up. Do you drink water? Turns out its all poison now!

      Soon:

      How does that coincide with your post-war Commie conspiracy, huh? It’s incredibly obvious, isn’t it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual. Certainly without any choice. That’s the way your hard-core Commie works.

      • GiuseppeAndTheYeti@midwest.social
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        5 months ago

        I mean, based on the amount of bottled water people drink im pretty sure that could be a concern for most people. I don’t drink water bottled in plastic because I think it’s wasteful and contributes to the massive amount of plastic pollution already going on, but even if we consider that the recycling process is 100% efficient, those thin, flimsy bottles are still getting heated by and exposed to sunlight. It would be naive to think they aren’t leaching plastics into the water. Just buy a cheap metal bottle and refill from the tap. That’s where all the major brands get their water from anyway.

  • Veraxus@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    22
    ·
    5 months ago

    Is that because of the food products themselves, or because of the non-stick coatings frequently used to package/cook/brew/prepare them?

    • girlfreddy@lemmy.caOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      5 months ago

      Because of their ubiquitous usage and environmental persistence, humans are exposed to a variety of PFAS, primarily through ingestion of contaminated water and food, though PFAS have also been detected in air, indoor dust, and consumer products (Domingo and Nadal, 2017; Sunderland et al., 2019).

      While certain communities can be highly exposed to PFAS due to proximity to an industrial site or occupational exposure, PFAS exposure is ubiquitous among human populations, with 98 % of the U.S. population having detectable concentrations of PFAS in their blood (Calafat et al., 2007; National Center for Environmental Health Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, 2023).

  • toast@retrolemmy.com
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    18
    ·
    5 months ago

    In coffee, researchers suspect that the beans, water used for brewing, or soil could be contaminated. Previous research has also found coffee filters to be treated with PFAS, and paper cups or other food packaging also commonly contain the chemicals.

    I’d guess it could also be K Cups and non-dairy creamer, but who knows

    • ccunning@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      5 months ago

      Downvoted for innocuous comment

      It really is starting to feel like Reddit around here 😊🥹