Viral tweet says you ingest 10 credit cards worth of plastic in a year by using plastic chopping boards. Is it true? | Health
Every home cook has a Michelin-star chef within them, experimenting with julienne and dice cuts on their chopping boards. Such an innocuous and indispensable item in the kitchen, watching you as you perfect the slices. But do you know how it’s slow-poisoning you? Yes, the most dangerous item in your kitchen is the regular plastic board you use for chopping veggies, not the sharp knife set.
Recently, a tweet went viral which mentioned that one ingest as much as 10 credit cards worth of plastic each year but preparing meals on plastic chopping boards. While that may seem like an exaggerated figure, it is actually true.
A study revealed that every cut on a chopping board releases tiny bits of plastic into your food, also known as microplastics, posing serious health hazards. Microplastics, less than 5mm in size, contaminate our food and enter our bodies by clinging to the veggies and meat we cut on the board.
Shocking findings
Last year, the study, titled ‘Cutting Boards: An Overlooked Source of Microplastics in Human Food?’ examined the quantity of microplastics found after using a plastic chopping board. The researchers after observations, concluded that plastic boards produced 1,114 microplastic particles, less than 5mm in size, every time the board was used. It implies that a plastic chopping board releases 15 milligrams of microplastics per cut, and around 50 grams a year, roughly the weight of 10 plastic credit cards, which infiltrate our bodies. Plastic boards are a significant source of microplastics in human bodies. They are also home to bacteria, the indentations and grooves are breeding grounds for bacteria. Even thorough cleaning won’t help you get rid of the bacteria.
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Harmful for body
Microplastics are in the air, water, ground, and everywhere. These inescapable plastic bits are non-biodegradable, polluting the environment. It is even more distressing when microplastics are ingested and absorbed in the bloodstream and tissues, they cannot be eliminated from the body. One can only take precautions to limit microplastic exposure. Microplastics in the body disrupt the hormones, and reproductive system, clot blood, and cause inflammation, leading to chronic illness.
Alternatives
That’s why it becomes all the more important to ditch the plastic chopping boards and welcome safer alternatives like bamboo, marble, timber, and wood chopping boards. Wood and bamboo boards are anti-bacterial, unlike the plastic ones. Might be on the pricier side than regular plastic boards, but consider it as a necessary investment for your health. Good health goes beyond what’s on your plate; it begins with how you prepare it.
