Do chemicals in plastic make you fat? · Health and science

What do we know about this?

What are Microplastics?

• Plastic sooner or later falls apart into smaller and smaller pieces.
  • We call all pieces smaller than half a centimeter microplastics.
  • Most are so small that you cannot see them with the naked eye.
• Microplastics remain in the environment for centuries.
  • They are in food, bottled water, to a lesser extent in tap water and in the air.
  • This is how they inevitably end up in your body.
• There is a lot of concern about the impact of these plastic particles on health.
  • Microplastics would slow down the metabolism of your fat metabolism.
  • As a result, people would gain weight more easily.

Microplastics in obesitas

American researchers investigated of microplastics play a role in the development of obesity (1). The scientists conducted one for this literature study out:

• They found that only little conscience is about it effect of microplastics on the body. We don’t know if these particles accumulate in your body and if they can enter cells.
• The researchers found that it number of obese people is increasingjust like it use of plastics.
• In the U.S fell between 1988 and 2006 number of calories that people record per day, while it BMI increased met 2,3 kg/m².
• This was shown by 8 studies microplastics can affect your gut bacteriajust like you autometabolism.

The scientists decide that there is more research needed is to it effect of microplastics on body weight.

Bron

(1) Kannan K, Vimalkumar K. A Review of Human Exposure to Microplastics and Insights Into Microplastics as Obesogens. Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2021 Aug 18;12:724989.

How should you interpret this news?

Much still exists uncertainty about the effect of microplastics on body weight:

• It is important to know that both the European Commission and the World Health Organization recognize microplastics not considered harmful to health (2,3).

• The 8 studies that found an influence of microplastics on the gut bacteria, only tested in animals, usually mice. So it is too early to draw conclusions about the effect in humans.

• The argument that we are eating less, but that obesity is still increasing, is weak.
  • We do not know whether people who develop obesity actually eat less.
  • Moreover we move much less then … in the past:
    • During the same period (1988-2006), for example, the number of cars on the track increased.
    • This may also have led to more obesity.
  • Such unscientific arguments undermine the credibility of scientific research and do not contribute to the debate.

Microplastics are very harmful to the environment, especially to life in the oceans. However, it is still unclear whether the small plastic particles also have an impact on human health. More thorough research needs to be done in humans.

Conclusion

Since we started to produce more plastic, the pollution from microplastics in our environment has also increased. These small plastic particles end up in your body through various routes. Researchers found that microplastics can adversely affect the fat metabolism of lab animals. As a result, they could gain weight without eating more. Whether microplastics also play a role in the increasing obesity in humans is still unclear.

References

(2) Report.pdf (sapea.info)

(3) Microplastics in drinking-water (who.int)