These Hidden Dangers of the Modern World Are Harming Your Health

Plastics, industrialized oils in foods, pollution, and other common things that are hostile to our health

In the last eighty years, after WW2, America, and the world for that matter, have almost unfathomably changed. Today we are still discovering exactly what those changes are.

In recent years, some startling discoveries were found.

The theme of most of these conclusions is that in the hurry to modernize the world consequences were rarely considered.

A pattern begins to emerge. The same system of safety and public health officials who said cigarettes were healthy once before in the forties also decided what was healthy in the fifties.

Now, in retrospect, it doesn’t take a genius to see that the hundreds of new, experimental chemicals, industrialized foods, and other novelties, such as plastics, rarely got the discernment they needed.

Instead, in the hurry to get these creations of modern science out into the world, the American public was denied the concern for their health that they deserved.

We are just now catching on to what snuck by the haphazard defenders of our health.

In some areas, we were too late. The harm has been done.

The Conversation noted that “In 1992, a study found a global 50% decline in sperm counts in men over the previous 60 years.” They continue, addressing why this is: “A lot of this research focuses on endocrine disrupters, molecules that mimic the body’s hormones and throw off the fragile hormonal balance of reproduction.”

The main endocrine disruptors are: plastics, pesticides, and gasses (those from industry).

Let’s begin.

Surrounded by Plastics

Plastics are everywhere.

Considering that the first synthetic plastic was only created in 1907, synthetic “meaning it contained no molecules found in nature,” according to sciencehistory.com, it is amazing how fast they spread to every corner of the globe.

And by every corner of the globe, I mean every corner of the globe.

Plastics have even been found in remote parts of Antarctica, as well as the deepest depths of the ocean. Most of them are not biodegradable, and will indefinitely harm the environments they make their way to.

CNN brought forth an interesting, yet disturbing, thought:

“Globally, we are ingesting an average of 5 grams of plastic every week, the equivalent of a credit card, a new study suggests.”

“This plastic contamination comes from “microplastics” — particles smaller than five millimeters — which are making their way into our food, drinking water and even the air.”

(…)

“These tiny particles can originate from a variety of sources, including artificial clothes fibers, microbeads found in some toothpastes, or bigger pieces of plastic which gradually break into smaller pieces when they’re thrown away and exposed to the elements.”

From youth, children are given plastic toys; whilst salivating on them, inevitably some of that plastic enters their body. This is especially dangerous considering that however minute, plastic has some impact upon their endocrine system, the hormones, and thus their future growth.

Toys, though, are not the main concern. What you should consider is how prevalent plastics are in every area of your life — they are in cars, at the grocery store, wrapped around your food.

Note, in a similar way to the dangers of plastics: Last week a study came out that said PFAS, a chemical toxic to the liver and thyroid, that also potentially causes cancer, were found in the packaging of major fast food restaurants, including McDonald’s, Burger King, and Taco Bell.

Inside your own home, polyvinyls, polyurethanes, polyesters and acrylics are often on your walls, in the form of paint. While these are relatively safe in the home, once dry, they are the biggest source of microplastics in the ocean.

Weforum states: “it is estimated that the real level of paint microplastics emissions to the ocean every year could be as high as 1.5–2.25 million tonnes.”

BPA plastics are another common one. These can be found in bottles and food packaging. When those things are exposed to heat, such as when they are outside and under the sun, or in a hot car, they can enter your drink and food.

Another interesting, haunting fact is that most of the receipts, that are printed at stores and restaurants in seconds, are heated up so hot that BPA microplastics can become “loose” and linger on the surface of the receipt.

That means that once the cute waiter hands you your receipt, upon touch, those microplastics enter your body because they are smaller than the pores of your skin.

Next time, you might want to tell them to keep the receipt.

Sickening Food

Firstly, the food you should be weary of, since it is so common, is bread.

In the last century, in their labs, scientists created new grains, different from the ones that humanity had for thousands of years, grains that could better withstand the weather and bugs.

Those scientists had good intentions. Their intentions were to feed a growing global population.

The result was that they feed a lot of people; however they made a lot of people obese. While only 13% of the world’s population is obese, 42.4% of America’s population is obese.

It is no coincidence that America has a diet consisting of large amounts of bread, particularly white bread, which is an industrialized creation.

What is sad to me is that most Americans have been lied to by those they expected they could trust. The USDA’s “food pyramid” recommended a diet of bread, amongst other carbs, while basically discouraging the healthy fats and proteins (though they have since updated and corrected it, nearly flipping it around).

See, fats, those that come from meats and nuts are good for you; your own cells consist of large amounts of lipids.

Modern bread, which is unhealthier than older forms of grain, on the other hand, has unhealthy things such as high-fructose corn syrup and vegetable oil in it.

High-fructose corn syrup, which is in so much of our fast foods, acts almost as a drug on the brain. It has an addictive effect and is bad for the body. To no one’s shock, most fast food restaurants use it because it is cheap.

Vegetable oil, which is in the foods that make up around 20% of America’s calorie intake, became prominent in America during WW2, when butter was scarce. It, in the fifties and sixties, quickly penetrated all areas of food.

Vegetable oil comes from seeds. Those seeds are heavily processed in factories, heated,and doused in chemicals — basically they are a factory liquid.

What’s dangerous about vegetable oil is that “The unsaturated fats found in vegetable oils, when they’re heated, tend to oxidize. In this form, they’re more dangerous to body tissues and can trigger inflammation, a known risk factor for making blood-vessel plaques unstable enough to cause a heart attack,” according to Time.

Jeff Nobbs summarized the risk of diets high in vegetable oil succinctly:

“Consuming vegetable oil increases your risk of death more than physical inactivity and heavy drinking, and for all the attention that red meat and sodium get, eating vegetable oil is 12 to 20 times more deadly.”

For the sake of time, I will move past vegetable oils. Some alternatives to use instead are butter, coconut oil, and olive oil.

Trans fat, found in fried foods, processed foods, and margarine, is the worst type of fat. It is so bad that it was recently added to food nutritional labels to warn consumers. It raises your cholesterol and your risk of heart disease.

Lastly, I will move my attention to things we consume that are nothing other than plain chemicals — artificial sweeteners.

Aspartame is found in diet soda (which may be as bad as soda), yogurts, deserts, and chewing gum. It completely wrecks your brain’s natural desire for sweet things, and it also leads to inflammation. Stay away from it!

Splenda, Newtame, and Sweet’N Low are other dangerous, common artificial sweeteners. While sugar is bad, I would rather consume it than these artificial “sugars.” These make sugar seem healthy in comparison.

In conclusion, my diet recommendation that I promise will help you lose weight, lower your inflammation, and have you ultimately feeling healthier, is to cut breads mostly out of your diet, stay away from vegetable oil and high-fructose corn syrup, and don’t eat foods or drink things with artificial sweeteners. While you remove bad foods, add good ones like meat, fish, eggs, cheese, vegetables, fruits, potatoes, and so on.

Sundry Other Things

Briefly, I will add some other things to my long list of dangerous things. Some of these may not be proven, but you should be skeptical when considering them.

Let’s talk about fluoride, which is a chemical that is likely being added to your tap water.

Discovered in 1901, fluoride was soon researched for its positive effect on teeth. By 1945, it was added to the water supply in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

To refrain from sounding like Alex Jones, who once famously said about the chemicals being added to water, the ones “that turn the friggin frogs gay,” I will quote a reputable medical site.

Medical News Today said that “In 2017, a report was published suggesting that exposure to fluoride before birth could lead to poorer cognitive outcomes in the future” as well as “In some cases, excess fluoride can damage the parathyroid gland (…) which involves uncontrolled secretion of parathyroid hormones.”

It may also, they say, contribute to the following health problems: acne, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, myocardial damage, reproductive issues, thyroid dysfunction, osteoarthritis, and possibly ADHD.

Is it just me or does that sound like a few risks I don’t want to take?

I recommend that you get a water filter, to filter out the fluoride that was put in your water supply by your local government for healthier teeth, and fluoride-free toothpaste while you’re at it.

While on the topic of water: Did you know that hormones, such as those given to mass-industrialized farm animals, so that they will quickly grow bigger, and the ones in female birth control pills, can be found in your water supply?

Yeah. I would get a water filter. The excess estrogen that comes from those things can disrupt your cycle, if you are a woman, and hurt your testosterone, if you are a male.

The last danger, which I saved for last since it is the one that you can unfortunately do the least about, is air pollution.

ABC News reported on April 4th, 2022 that:

“The U.N. health agency says nearly everybody in the world breathes air that doesn’t meet its standards for air quality, calling for more action to reduce fossil-fuel use, which generates pollutants that cause respiratory and blood-flow problems and lead to millions of preventable deaths each year.”

For years, for the sake of profit, many industries have neglected their duty to protect nature and man. The world has become hostile. They made it that way.

The things I brought forth are only the tip of the iceberg.

In conclusion, for the sake of efficiency, the efficiency that built the modern world, we have forsaken quality, the quality that kept our species alive.

Because it would be too hard and unfeasible to restructure the world, which wasn’t built by careful planning, but by the speed of ideas, awareness is your key, and your only hope if you wish to defend yourself from the hidden dangers which lurk all around you.

Be aware of what harms your health.

Michael Snellen