According to leaked FDA documents, all of our favorite foods have weird, dangerous "forever chemicals." So, like, the sky is falling down, the world is ending, etc. etc.
Let's backtrack for a second though, shall we? The chemicals in question, which were found in meat, fish, milk, chocolate cake (yep, that one hurts the most), and more, are linked to a whole host of health issues; cancers, liver damage, and increased risk of miscarriage included.
The perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances—which we will now refer to as PFAS going forward, because yikes, what a mouthful—are a group of 5,000 man-made chemicals. Per the Guardian, these are often found in common products like non-stick cookware, fire retardants, pizza boxes, and so on. You get the gist. It's not good (and has sparked a number of lawsuits), but now it's a lot worse than we thought. It's actually in our food, too.
The FDA reportedly presented the info at a scientific conference in Finland. Here's what they found: Nearly half of the samples tested in 2017, including poultry, red meat, and fish, contained over double the federal advisory level.
"Measuring PFAS concentrations in food, estimating dietary exposure and determining the associated health effects is an emerging area of science," the FDA said in a statement to the Associated Press." They also claimed it's "not likely to be a human health concern," though I'm having difficulty believing that. Maybe, possibly, definitely because the milk found with the forever chemicals was deemed "unfit for human consumption."
Will I give up chocolate cake because of PFAS? No. Will I Webmd imaginary symptoms and convince myself I'm dying afterwards? Probably.
