The Microplastic Problem: How Plastic Impacts Male and Female Fertility

Welcome back to Crunchy Stewardship! In Part 7 of our Fertility Series, we are tackling a toxin that is quite literally everywhere: Microplastics.

Have you heard the staggering statistic that the average person consumes a credit card's worth of plastic every single year? It sounds crazy, but when you realize how much of our food, water, and clothing is derived from petroleum-based plastics, it starts to make sense. Today, we are uncovering the sneaky places microplastics are hiding in your home and how this cumulative plastic burden is heavily impacting our endocrine systems, sperm health, and placentas.

But don't panic! We are wrapping up this episode with our brand new Crunchy Stewardship motto: "We don't go broke trying to get healthy." We share an incredibly encouraging 12-week study showing how quickly your body can bounce back, plus a list of free and cheap ways to drastically reduce your family's plastic exposure right now.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Crunchy Updates: Katie’s Random Revelation featuring Dr. Josh Axe’s new holistic Longevity Clinic in Tennessee and a bittersweet Wise Traditions podcast update.
• Hidden Plastics in Plain Sight: Why you need to look out for chewing gum, bleached tea bags, contact lenses, and even a popular over-the-counter stool softener (MiraLax).
• The Fertility Connection: How microplastics are reaching the placenta, infiltrating our organs, and what a recent 12-week study revealed about couples cutting out plastic and improving their fertility.
• Government Action: RFK’s STOMP program to systematically measure microplastics in the body, plus state-level bans on plastic food packaging.
• The Dust in Your Home: Why taking your shoes off at the door and vacuuming regularly is actually a crucial step to reducing your microplastic load.
• Budget-Friendly Swaps: How to switch to stainless steel, glass, wood, 100% food-grade silicone, and organic cotton without breaking the bank.

Resources mentioned:

• Clinic: Dr. Josh Axe's Longevity Club and Clinic - https://thelongevityclinic.com/
• Article: EWG (Environmental Working Group) on Microplastics - https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news/2023/10/making-meals-without-microplastics-tips-safer-cutting-boards 
• Facebook Post: Microplastic Fertility Study - https://www.facebook.com/share/18VnxyvSsa/
• Program: STOMP (Systematic Targeting of Microplastics) - https://www.hhs.gov/press-room/arpa-h-launches-groundbreaking-144-million-program-combat-toxic-microplastics-human-body.html 

Chapters:

00:00 Welcome to Crunchy Stewardship
01:08 Random Revelation - Crunchy Influencer Updates
05:55 Microplastics 101
11:20 Hidden Sources of Plastic
16:17 Plastic in Kids Stuff
18:36   Microplastics Found in Every Organ
21:08 Plastic Toy Wins and Fails
24:16 Impacts of Microplastics on Your Health & Fertility
31:22 Measuring Microplastics Program
37:07 State Bans And Tire Dust
40:34 Biblical Perspective on Microplastics
43:39 Simple Switches At Home
57:13 Budget Friendly Stewardship Wrap Up

Remember, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31).

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FREE How to Afford Non-Toxic Living Workbook: https://crunchystewardship.com/how-to-afford-non-toxic-living

Transcript

Speaker 0:03

Welcome to Crunchy Stewardship. I'm Chrissy Roach.

Speaker 2 0:06

And I'm Katie Fiola Jones. We are cousins on a mission to honor God by stewarding our health spiritually, mentally, and physically.

Speaker 0:14

From ancestral nutrition and natural remedies to biblical finance and holistic health, we are digging deep into how God intended us to live.

Speaker 3 0:22

So grab yourself a raw milk latte and join us as we unpack the ins and outs of crunchy stewardship.

Chrissy 0:33

Hey guys. Welcome back to Crunchy Stewardship, uh, Chrissy here and Katie is also here, and we are starting our, well continuing our series today on our infertility series, we've been talking about causes of infertility, um, different ways that we can mitigate our risks of infertility and things like that. So today we are continuing. That conversation talking specifically about microplastics. But before we get started with that, Katie, will you share your random revelation of the day?

Katie 1:08

Random revelation is actually just something new that I learned that one of our favorite health professionals in the kind of. Crunchy Maha Space. Um, Josh Acts is actually opening, or I guess at this point probably has opened a brand new clinic in Tennessee called the Longevity Club and Clinic. And I think it's really cool because I really like him and I love what he does. so if you're in Tennessee and you're interested, or I guess even if you're not in Tennessee, but want to. Josh acts as your doctor. Uh, you could do that by going to his clinic in Tennessee. And yeah, he definitely, he, he focuses more on longevity and kind of the, like a wholeness, what am I saying? What or what am I thinking? Like the. A holistic kind of point of view of your health. He kind of looks at every system and how they relate to one another versus, you know, usually if you go to the doctor for a specific, specific problem, they send you to a specialist who will then just tell you about the problem of that one area in your body. But what Josh Acts does is takes kind of more of a holistic view of. Being healthy. And so he focuses on, so the programs that they offer the clinic, um. Things like hypothyroidism, menopause, PCOS, and fertility. So if you are struggling with fertility, like we're talking about in this series, that is something that he does help with. Um, also diabetes, autoimmune disorders, male hormone challenges, um, cancer support and irritable bowel syndrome. So he has a lot of experience in reversing many of these health. Like chronic health problems. And I know that mostly because I follow a lot of his content and I've read lots of his books. We talk about him a lot on our podcast because we really like him because he is also a Christian and a believer, and that is super cool that he is that helping people get healthy in a way that we believe really does honor God. That, you know, Christy and I. I that taking this more holistic approach is really the way to go when when we wanna do it in the way that God originally intended, and just viewing our bodies as a temple and stewarding that well, the name crunchy stewardship of our podcast. yeah, I just wanted to share that. Found that very fun. Oh, also, this is another just random like change slash new thing for the crunchy wellness influencer space. But Chrissy, today actually I learned that Hilda Lebrato Gore, who is the host of the Wise Traditions podcast is moving on from the Wise Tradition Podcast. this new lady who I actually, I was just looking her up, but I, that was one of the tabs I was closing before we got on the podcast. notorious for having like 10 million tabs open before we start recording and it makes my computer slower, so I go and close'em all. I had her name up here. She seems she's done a lot, but in the social media space, she seems kind of like a nobody, because then I looked her up on Instagram and she only has two. and they're both about Western a Price foundation and her now being like the podcast host of Wise Traditions. And so I'm like, oh, they clearly just like had her start an account because she's now the podcast host of this podcast that I like. So I was sad that Hilda is going to be gone. She's so sweet and wonderful. But I, had something on her Instagram about where she's. on to, or what she's focusing on next. But she is definitely still, uh, my, one of my health idols, she's very wonderful. She's like in sixties or seventies maybe, but she's so spunky and energetic and does all these cool things and you just would never be able to tell that she is as old as she is. And I, I really, I just really admire that about her. And she's. Really wonderful and a follower of Christ as well, so that is very cool. Alright, that's it. Those are my random updates for those who wanna know about the Maha crunchy influencer space.

Chrissy 5:55

I love it. Well, let's transition into our talk today about microplastics. So microplastics are everywhere. I'm sure most of our listeners, if you've been anywhere around the crunchy space, or even honestly, I feel like it's probably mentioned like on five o'clock news or something like that. Like it's, it's really starting to, has been. Infiltrating throughout, uh, media in general lately, but in case you don't know because you've been living under a rock, microplastics are exactly what they sound like micro pieces or nano pieces of plastics. So wind, plastics starts to break down, which takes a long time, but with heat and like. Movement, I guess crunchy, crunching the plastic, moving it around, crushing it up. Um, it breaks down faster. So with that, it um, breaks down into microplastics, which cannot be seen by the eye, but can be carried through water, through wind, things like that. We breathe it in, we eat it, and um, it's kind of everywhere. So we're gonna be talking today about. Exactly how they have impacted our bodies and how they are impacting our bodies and what we can do to kind of protect ourselves a little bit from them as best we can. Um, obviously this one, just like PFAS, is one of those that you can't really. Protect yourself completely from them because they are everywhere. They're in the air that we're breathing. Um, but you can take steps to mitigate your exposure in your own home and things like that. So, um, first things first. What exactly are they? I already talked. They are pretty much teeny, teeny, tiny pieces of plastics that get into our environment as the plastic starts to break down. Um, it is often found in food, um, specifically food that has been prepared in plastic containers. So if you think, if you buy food in a plastic bag or if you buy food in a. Plastic bowl or if you mix your brownie mix in a plastic bowl or, uh, put your food in a plastic bag or you get takeout.

Katie 8:27

example was. mix of all things making brownie mix in a

Chrissy 8:32

What?

Katie 8:33

bowl.

Chrissy 8:35

Making anything in a plastic bowl, I guess. I don't know. I brownies.

Katie 8:41

up the microplastics bowl.

Chrissy 8:44

Not, cookies. Cookies don't do that. Mm-hmm. I'm kidding. Cookies do it. Definitely. I don't know, I just, I don't really make cookies that much. I make brownies more frequently, but even at that, I don't really make brownies, but

Katie 8:58

up, but make more cookies than I do brownies. But we made the brownie mixes from, we would get like the big thing from Sam's Club that had like

Chrissy 9:08

mm-hmm.

Katie 9:09

Packages that were wrapped and you'd rip the plastic bag open and add like eggs and canola oil. And

Chrissy 9:18

Yep.

Katie 9:19

okay, this is, this is a mom had a win this past week though. It's half of a win because, so Wes' birthday was just this past weekend and my mom was in town to watch Malachi because we actually went on a marriage retreat, which was super fun. And we came back on Sunday afternoon. It was Wes' birthday. And so she had made a chocolate cake for Wes for his birthday, and she did get the box mix from the grocery store, which I was like, oh my goodness. But she was like, well, the ingredients on here actually said to use vegetable oil. But I used, I think she ended up using a combination of. Olive oil and ghee. Um, and she was like, and I've never used ghee before, but you told me about it. And it's like butter. So I melted it and I. that into the cake. And I was like, that was really smart of you, mom. Good job. And it actually ended up tasting perfectly fine. And of course it was delicious. Uh, and I had a piece of it, even though, uh, the rest of the cake was not made with very good ingredients and stuff, but it was, I was like, good for you, mom. That was, that was definitely a win. Not that I even had vegetable oil in my house that you could have cooked with, but have boughten it at the store if you thought you had to use it, because the box said so. Anyway, that was a

Chrissy 10:38

I'm sure she didn't get the box from your house either. Did she buy the box?

Katie 10:45

Oh,

Chrissy 10:46

funny. I love it. Go mom.

Katie 10:48

fed a frosty from Wendy's, which definitely made me crinkle my nose and uh, definitely was not super happy about that, but she was like, it's fine, he'll be fine. And I'm like, ah, he doesn't eat that stuff, mom. Oh goodness.

Chrissy 11:08

Good thing that the Lord created our bodies to filter out toxins.

Katie 11:14

Random tangent from your brownie mixed bowl thing.

Chrissy 11:19

No problem. Anyways, so we get microplastics when you make brownies in a plastic bowl or cookies or anything really. Um, some other places we get microplastics that you might not actually think of is chewing gum. Um, chewing gum is often made of plastic. Um, um, tea bags have a lot of microplastics in them. So when you're looking at tea bags, it's important to look for ones that are like. Some of them are like cotton, like made of cotton, honestly. And some of them are just paper. And you also wanna make sure they're unbleached because that's important. Um, other places you can find microplastics is in your contact lenses. So Katie and I have kind of talked about this before. How both of us have been trying hard to wear contacts less and to wear our glasses more So, um, for various reasons, wearing glasses, well wearing contacts can decrease blood flow to your eyeballs. Um, which I don't know if you've ever noticed, if you go to your eye doctor. Most employees at an eye doctor's office are wearing glasses. Very few of them are actually wearing contacts. And I asked about that last time I was there and they said, oh yeah, because contacts can decrease blood flow to your eyes and make your eyesight worse. And I was like, woo. Fascinating. They don't tell people that.

Katie 12:46

Oh my you're so right though. Every eye doctor I've gone to, like, I'm thinking of like the three or four that I've gone to in my life. They've all

Chrissy 12:56

all wearing glasses. Mm-hmm.

Katie 12:59

my gosh. Why has no, That makes me so frustrated at all four of them none of none of them have said anything to me. Wow.

Chrissy 13:10

That's funny. I think it was my, um. Eye doctor in Dallas who told me that, or maybe it was like the receptionist at that eye doctor in Dallas, whoever it was, it was someone who didn't really have a filter, but it was kind of funny. Anyways, so you get'em from your contact lenses. Another one that I just thought of, um, as we were preparing for this episode is a very common over the counter medication that so many people take MiraLax. Is quite literally polyethylene glycol, which polyethylene is a petroleum derived plastic. And it's so interesting when you Google search like what is polyethylene? It's like this is a petroleum derived plastic. And then you Google search what is polyethylene glycol? And they say this is a non-toxic, over the counter stool softener, relax, osmotic ative. And I'm like.

Katie 14:12

Yeah. Wow. We that, like our foster daughter who I've mentioned many times, the one who has autism and has many health challenges, she. Oh, like on a very regular basis we were supposed to be giving her polyethylene glycol and, and it was like, that was the name of it. It was the prescribed one versus the over the counter MiraLax. And I never thought about the fact that it said poly. I mean, basically anything that has poly in it is a polymer, it's like plastic. It's from petroleum and it that is. never thought about that. Like I never put that together myself. So you saying that is like, oh my gosh, not only were we giving her lots of other medications that the doctor had prescribed her, um, like steroid creams for her but she also was getting that on a very regular basis and that is really scary.

Chrissy 15:13

I, it really makes me wonder'cause MiraLax is like the go-to especially for children.

Katie 15:20

Mm-hmm.

Chrissy 15:22

Because it's considered like the safest one on the market and the most gentle because it pulls the water into your digestive system and like uses the o your own water from your own body to make things flow. But I just wonder, I'm like, is it really the safest or are we just having very few short-term consequences of it? And maybe the consequences aren't. Really GI related, you know, um, maybe the consequences are more so long term and related to, uh, heart health or brain health or something like that, that we just haven't linked back to common microplastics in general in our lives, especially as children. You know, just a thought.

Katie 16:17

Well, and like from a kid's perspective too, how many things are plastic for them? And that's, that's what we've kind of been trying to do our best with is everything like plastic is very durable. And that is one of the benefits for it, or, or of it is that. You know, if you drop something that's plastic, sometimes yes it'll crack and break, but most of the time, like if you bla, if you drop a plastic plate, it's not going to drop. If you drop a plastic cup, it's not going to drop. you drop plastic toys, they're not going to crack and break and everything. So there's a benefit and I see that, but at the same time, it's exposing our children to so many microplastics when we. Put their drinks in plastic cups when we put their hot food on plastic plates. When we give them plastic silverware, when we put their food in plastic baggies to go to school in a plastic lunchbox and everything's plastic. And then we have the just pre-wrapped foods that are in plastic stuff, and then their clothes are made from plastics and then their toys are made from plastics and everything. It's plastic at the end of the day and we don't really realize it until like what Chrissy's just saying like, oh yeah, this is technically derived from a plastic and we're eating it, we're drinking it, we're breathing it. We do absorb minute amounts through the skin. It's tougher to get plastic to your bloodstream through your skin. But if you think about all of the clothes that are made with those plasticizers that we talked about last week, and especially you think about like. Workout clothes when you are hot and sweaty and your pores are wide open and now the chemicals from the plastic clothing basically is leaching into your skin. And that is it. It again, okay, we go back to that whole, it makes me really paranoid about a lot of things when we talk about it or when I start learning things and I have to just remind myself like small steps and. Ah, it's okay. We're, we're still alive. Like it's not killing us today. But yet the cumulative effect over time and the, the continued exposure is what we want to try to mitigate. So we should do the best we can for our children as well, but especially when we are trying to get pregnant or when we are pregnant, because what so many studies have found is that microplastics get to the placenta. In fact, I have this, um, statistic here that. Researchers at the University of New Mexico found MI microplastics in 100% of placenta that they tested with concentrations up to, I don't even know if this, this number might not make any significance or mean any significance to anybody, but seven 790 is that ug per gram of tissue.

Chrissy 19:19

Those are micrograms. Mm-hmm.

Katie 19:22

I've never seen this little symbol Um, but,

Chrissy 19:27

a, a cursive U micro.

Katie 19:30

That makes but yeah. And preterm births, um, preterm birth placenta showed significantly higher levels of microplastics, but 100% the placenta tested. microplastics, which is really, it's crazy. And, and I think that kind of just goes to show that they really are completely unavoidable because they are in everything. Um, and I even have this other quote from, um, the RPA dash H. She's the director, Alicia Jackson, but she said that microplastics are in every organ. That they look at, which really crazy because that's your whole body is just plastics. And I, I read some quote a while back and I remember sending it to my mom or something that we eat about a credit card's worth of plastics. year. So you think about just literally eating a credit card, which may or may not sound like a lot'cause you, you think about like, oh, a credit card doesn't look like that much, but then what are like, it's all just like teeny tiny pieces of plastics your bloodstream and in your organs and in your brain even. And what is that doing to all of us? don't know. I mean, we kind of are starting to know, but, uh, there's a lot of. Really bad things. I have other stuff to say, but Did

Chrissy 21:06

Yeah.

Katie 21:07

to say, Chrissy?

Chrissy 21:08

I did, I wanted to go back to the microplastics in toys because you shared a win from your mom this week. I wanna share a win from my mom this week. Um, she was invited to, they have a neighbor, um, with a three-year-old little girl, and my mom loves this little 3-year-old and. It's so cute because this little girl, they speak Spanish in the home and so when she sees my mom, she tries to speak English, but she doesn't do a very good job because she's pretty much only learned Spanish up to this point. Um, and sometimes she gets some Spanglish, but it's funny. Anyways, so, um. My mom was invited to this little girl's birthday party and she said, Chrissy, I'm so excited. I bought her a tea set, and in my head I'm like, oh boy, why did you buy this 3-year-old a plastic tea set? She said, but don't worry. It's made of wood. So it's not toxic. And I was like, you know what, that's actually genius because you know, like you were saying, plastic toys don't break when you drop them. Well, neither do wooden toys, you know? And so I think wood, like wooden toys in general is a really great alternative. Two plastic toys because they make about the same amount of noise when they drop. Unlike a stainless steel plate versus a plastic plate, you know, the stainless steel plate is gonna, you know, it's just so obnoxious versus if you use wood, like it kind of makes the same amount of noise as plastic when it hits the ground and it doesn't break easily, you know? So I thought that was a really great win from my mom. thought I would share.

Katie 22:47

Way I feel like we should

Chrissy 22:50

We love it.

Katie 22:50

battle between our mom. So who'cause my mom lost points in the toy area this weekend. Also, when was babysitting Malachi, they, she took Malachi to the store and him pick out his own birthday presents.'cause he also has a birthday coming up. And, She said he picked'em out and they were all toys with buttons and loud noises and very plastic and brightly colored. And I was like, mom, these are going to mysteriously end up at your house and you're gonna be like, why are all these toys here? And we'll just be like, we'll, for quote unquote, forget them at your house. Next time we come over and you'll just wonder where. Why they're all there. I'm like, they're fun. Malachi, they do have a time and a place I, those toys do keep him more occupied in the car, which is great. Uh, the ones she did pick out, they were more geared towards learning and stuff versus just. Purely buttons with lights and stuff. It's like the ones that you can like play little games with and, and they'll be like, find the number two or whatever. And he's really cute because in the car today, actually he was in the backseat and he was like number two. And he's like starting to say words and phrases together. And so it was really adorable when he's like, number two and I'm like, yeah, buddy. Number two, you're gonna be two years old anyway. Uh, so plastic fail, plastic toy fail on that part. So anyway. There. So I wanted to share some of these other things that I had learned, um, kind of about why we should be not necessarily okay, I don't wanna use the word scared of microplastics, but why we should be aware of them and trying to avoid them. Um, so I had quote from an EWG article, which I'll link to in case you're interested in seeing more, but, um, I think the article was all on. Uh, microplastics in your foods. Um, but I just wanted to share this quote here that says, growing evidence suggests microplastics may be a public health concern. Microplastics have been found in human lungs, blood, and even the placenta. A group of scientists. In South Korea recently sounded the alarm about potential health harms. After reviewing research on microplastics, microplastic shapes can interfere with digestive and respiratory systems, and the chemical additives that they release can disrupt the endocrine and the reproductive systems. So this is just to kind of bring it back to the fact that they have been shown to disrupt. Our reproductive systems and obviously our endocrine system, which is what we've been talking about, which, um, is like our hormones and they help govern being able to get pregnant and stay pregnant. And so the chemicals from plastics. Are all disrupting these systems, making it harder to get pregnant. So, and, and even if you think about it, like it's not like one of these things is the silver bullet that's killing you. It's microplastics and then it's like the PFAS that we were talking about, those forever chemicals, and then it's our poor nutrition and our lack of sleep, and it's the fragrances and the parabens and the phthalates. It's all these things combined in our systems. It's just completely wreaking havoc on us, and we wonder why everybody's so sick and why nobody can get pregnant anymore. And so I don't necessarily think that one these specific things is going to solve somebody's problem. Um, it will, does help by reducing all of, like these toxins that we're exposed to. But I did actually, when we were kind of preparing for this, I, I happened to, it was like serendipity that I across this post on Facebook, um, about microplastics and specifically in relation to fertility. So it's, it's like a series of posts. It was kind of interesting. So the first one starts out saying that four out of five couples got pregnant after cutting plastic for 12 weeks. So, I mean, I don't know how they just completely cut plastic first off, because that is, uh, again, like we said, plastic is like just everywhere. But, um, then it kind of goes into. Oh, okay. Here, this kind of answers the question. So what did they do? It said five couples, 12 weeks, one focus to reduce plastic exposure. The changes that they made were that they stopped storing and heating food in plastic containers. They swapped. To glass and stainless steel instead of those plastic containers that we were talking about. they cut out fragranced products, which have the hidden tth lights like we talked about last week. Um, and then they reduced synthetic fabrics and plastic packaging. So they really did, I mean that did, those are like some of those major hitting areas that have plastic. Um, and so. Said, all had been trying. Okay, so all these couples, so all five couples had been trying to start a family, trying to have a baby and get pregnant for, uh, over a year, it says, and then what happened? Is that their chemical levels dropped fast. So within 12 weeks, um, BPA significantly decreased and key phthalates also dropped. So these are hormone disrupting chemicals found in plastics. So my guess is that they were doing blood tests and were checking the levels of the microplastics in their blood. Um, and then it had an impact on sperm. So it's, it said that sperm kind of started to shift in the right direction. So before they started. Reducing their plastic. Five out of five men were in the subfertile range, which we actually talked about like sperm, um, morphology and everything in our male fertility episode. I kind of had a little on that. Um, then after they started reducing their plastic, three out of the five men improved to the above. Or, okay. Three out of five improved above that threshold. So it doesn't actually say what the increase or improvement was, but just that they did improve, which is great. And they kind of just talk about, you know, this is important because. Uh, like we're, we're starting to realize that plastics, like the microplastics in our systems, really do make an impact on our fertility and our ability to actually get and stay pregnant. So, yeah, our environment really does play a very meaningful role. In our fertility, and so we have to be aware of that. But it's really encouraging that these changes for these couples actually happened in as little as 12 weeks. So that's like, that's really encouraging, right? Because when we start to panic and be like, oh my gosh, there's microplastics everywhere and I can't get rid of them all. Just taking these simple steps can actually. Put, like start walking you in the right direction. And so if you start doing this way before you're even ready to get pregnant and you're preparing yourself for pregnancy, then your chances of getting pregnant sooner are probably a lot better. So yeah, that is, I thought that was really cool. And I happened to stumble upon that post, like kind of at the right point. I felt like, I'm like, oh, this is perfect. Great, great facts. Um, and I think that the Post actually had like links to the study and stuff. Um, and obviously it's a pretty small scale study. What did I say? It was like 12 couples. So it doesn't give you a big

Chrissy 30:51

think it was five couples in 12 weeks.

Katie 30:55

couples in 12 weeks. So. It doesn't give you a, a full of what everybody is going to if they do that, but just that small scale study is quite encouraging for those who are just looking for any way to start their fertility and chances to get pregnant.

Chrissy 31:21

Agreed. Agreed. So there are methods that, um, they're actually developing to help us identify how much microplastics we actually have within our bodies, because like we've said, microplastics are everywhere, which means they have pretty much made their way everywhere into our bodies. They are in placenta, as Katie said, in our hearts, in our brains. Um, they actually have found that. The brains of people with, um, dementia had drastically higher levels of microplastics in them than people without dementia. Um, similarly, they found microplastics in the heart, in the blood. Things like that. So it's kind of everywhere, but there are ways that we can actually identify these microplastics in our own body. So Robert F. Kennedy launched a, uh, new program, it is called Stomp. So systematic targeting of microplastics. Essentially it is a federal funded research program that, um. Is intended to measure and remove microplastics from the human body because essentially the United States government wants to be able to quantify these microplastics before they are willing to see the the need to regulate them, which makes sense in terms of science. Stuff like that. Like you need to have a number to regulate things because if there's not a specific number, then how are you gonna regulate it? You can't just say, you can never have any of these products, because that's just not a reality because they're everywhere. So, um, that is the goal of this program, is to be able to quantify microplastics in the human body so that they can adequately regulate them. So he's building this, uh, program right now. It has two phases. The first phase is to, um, build accurate lab methods that detect, um, down to nano-sized plastics in biological tissues. So this will be validated by the CDC and will be available across labs. Um, and they'll be consistent across labs, uh, throughout the United States. And then the second phase is to translate these tools into actual clinical tests so you could be able to go to the lab and get your blood tested for your plastic burden. Um, and then. Hopefully from there they'll be able to, um, create pharmaceutical or some other bioremediation approaches to remove microplastics from the body. Think something similar to dialysis, like they take the blood out of your body, filter it and put it back in your body, all nice and clean without the microplastics in it. Although, I wonder if dialysis machines have microplastics probably. Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm sure they do.'cause everything does. Um, so yes, that's one thing the federal government is working on doing to protect us from these microplastics. Obviously it's going to be a long road ahead and it, any program like this takes a very long time to be implemented, but it is in the works people.

Katie 34:58

one of the wins, like quick, like quick wins that is coming from this program is actually something that you mentioned earlier, Chrissy, and the fact that more people are finding out about the dangers of microplastics and, and just using plastic in general in our society and developing a program like this. Really starts to bring that to the surface and it's alerting people that, Hey, we think there's a problem here. And so even before they go through and build this whole program and start testing people and, and doing all that and getting the numbers, it's bringing to the surface for the rest of us, like, oh, hey, why, why are they testing this? Is this a problem? Maybe I should stop using plastic when I can and, so. I know that there's a lot of people who, anytime RFK says something, they're like, I'm gonna do the opposite, because he's not a scientist and he doesn't know what he's doing. And that's rather unfortunate because it. He's not a scientist, right? But he is just speaking what other scientists and health professionals have told him. And there's a lot of really smart people who are working behind the scenes to give him the information. And he has done a lot of research on a lot of this stuff. And he is very, very wise when it comes to of the toxins and health stuff out there. And so. Uh, it's unfortunate'cause I've definitely seen that people are like, well, if he says that I shouldn't be using plastic now, I'm gonna use plastic for everything. And it's so sad because then people are really hurting themselves by doing that, and I just don't think they. Realize that, and I just am very sad about that. But I think it's great that they are bringing this to the surface and letting people know, Hey, this is probably a problem and we're going to figure it out. So at least it's starting to get the alarm bells ringing for the rest of the population.

Chrissy 37:06

Yeah,

Katie 37:07

go ahead.

Chrissy 37:07

there are some, um. Programs, I guess initiatives, they're being undertaken by states also. Um, some states in particular are not waiting for the gov federal government to figure themselves out. They have just gone ahead and started eliminating these things. So 11 states have actually already. Banned PFAS in their food packaging. And um, California specifically had a safer pack food packaging act of 2025 that targets BPAs, which is pretty much plastics and phthalates in all food packaging. And so that's encouraging to me, um, that. Some states are taking it on themselves to start this initiative. Um, and they're not waiting for the federal government to do the research and then figure out the plan and blah, blah, blah. They're just kind of hitting the nail on the head and, um, getting rid of these microplastics and PFAS and phthalates in food packaging specifically. So that's encouraging to me.

Katie 38:13

I know a lot of one of them that stopped using plastic grocery bags. I think California might be another one I, I know.

Chrissy 38:21

Okay. But they still have a lot of plastic food packaging, like, you know, like cereals and meat even. Uh, I dunno why I can't think of anything else right now. Vegetables? Yeah, like. I feel like everything is already packaged in plastic that like, okay, limiting the plastic bags that you would get at the end of your grocery store run could, is probably impacting the microplastic load in the world. But also like there's a lot more that we could do. Yeah.

Katie 39:02

thing that helps, or the one thing that resulting from less plastic bags is kind of like what you said, it's reducing the microplastics. the rest of our environment because, um, you know, one of our primary sources of microplastics is actually our, our own drinking water because microplastics are just in our world. And so in the oceans, actually, I think I had this other one, this other fact written down about microplastics in the oceans. Um, I think it's made up of. Where is it? Tire dust? Here it is. So it basically says any plastic object can become a source of microplastics once it begins to degrade. a Pew Charitable Trust study pointed to tires as a major source of pollution, finding that 78% of microplastic particles in the ocean comes from tire dust, which is. Wild. I mean, I just, I think about like places when I like drive by and you just see these giant mounds of tires and eventually all of that is going to degrade and break down and go into our soil and go into our water and go into our plants that grow from the soil. And, ah, it's,

Chrissy 40:29

I wonder what those fossils are gonna look like.

Katie 40:34

Ugh.

Chrissy 40:34

I just wonder, like, you know, looking back in time, you see the fossils of dinosaurs and humans and everything like that. And then. Now I'm like, Hmm. Tires, fossils. But also, I'm gonna go a little tangent, tangenty here. If we're thinking about the world from a biblical perspective, so biblical perspective, young Earth, um, means that the world is only. What is it? 6,000 years old, right? I think'cause it was about 2000 years between the creation of the world and Abraham and then 2000 years between Abraham and Jesus and now 2000 years between us, Jesus and us. And I just, I think, you know, the world is 6,000 years old. We are in like the, the post messianic. Time period right now. And it just makes me think that in the grand scheme of like how the Bible works and the Lord's timing, I don't think the world is still gonna be around as it is by the time these tires are degrading and able to become fossils. That's just my thought,

Katie 41:55

a really good point.

Chrissy 41:57

you know? And maybe like I. The new earth at the end of time might have tire fossils and that would be really cool and God could do it. Um, but I just don't think the current earth that we have is going to be around long enough for that. What does my personal opinion, you can come at me if you want on our Facebook group and we can talk through it. Crunchy Christian Mamas on a budget. We'll talk through it. What do you think? Do you think tires will become fossils one day? I don't know.

Katie 42:31

I actually, I because we're talking now about like creation and stuff. I across this, um, reel or I guess a, a short or whatever the term is when it's on Facebook. It's, it's one of those short videos. It's only a few seconds on Facebook and it says, scientists discovered that the earth was made by vibrations. Which are sounds, and then it's like this guy, like, you know, pondering and looking off in the distance, da da, da da da. And then it like flips over to like a Bible verse that says, the Earth was spoken into existence by God. And that's in Psalm 33, 6. So it's like, oh, science is now catching up to the Bible. That yes, it was created by sounds and vibrations. In fact, it was the voice of God. It's like, thank you. We already knew this from the Bible. Oh, anyway.

Chrissy 43:24

Sometimes it just takes some time to prove the Bible, but the more that people try to disprove the Bible, the more they actually end. Up proving the Bible, which I'm, I'm okay with that. They can just keep on. I'm good with it.

Katie 43:39

well, let's maybe talk about some simple switches. We've kind of been talking what, what's interesting about microplastics and then the PFAS and the t thalates and fragrances and parabens, all these things basically all come packaged together most of the time. Like they're all, like we've talked about, oh, you should filter your water because all of these things. Are found in water and you should stop using plastic because then all these things are found in plastic and you should switch to this and that and this. And you, this, it might sound repetitive that some of these things, suggestions of, of simple switches that you can be doing it, it'll sound repetitive because they're all very closely linked together all these chemicals and toxins, which should hopefully be a good thing for us in, in the sense that. There's not tons and tons of things, I guess. It's like, okay, you need to filter your water and it will get rid of all these toxins. And so it's not like filter this and then do that and then do this. I mean there are still other things, but it's like filtering your water will get rid of these things and that's oftentimes like our water is one of the greatest sources of toxins because we need water to survive and water is everywhere and most of us live in. Areas where we're using city water, which is then exposed to much higher levels of a lot of these toxins. the first one is filtering your water and away from plastic water bottles as much as you darn well can. I mean, obviously if you're in a situation where it's either being super dehydrated or drinking from a plastic water bottle, drink the from the plastic water bottle. Don't dehydrate yourself because that's super important. But if you can. Bring your own stainless steel reusable water bottle wherever you go. It also helps you save money by not buying plastic water bottles. And then you can, you know, pre-fill it with your filtered water at home before going out because. Anytime you drink water anywhere else, like the tap water from restaurants or drinking from the drinking fountain or going to your friend's house and they don't have a filtered water, those places will all have these chemicals in it. So it's such an easy way and I feel like it's so normal now to like, just bring your water bottle places that. bats an eye, and it's super easy. So get yourself a cool stainless steel water bottle. Yes, I know. This is, this is the one thing that I've actually heard people say about switching from, like a PLAs, a reusable plastic water bottle to a stainless steel one is that they're heavier and then when you drop them, they, they give that like clinginess noise and stuff, but I, I don't know if you've ever had like a reusable plastic water bottle, but Chrissy, but over time you could just tell that. is degrading because it like starts changing colors and it just like, looks really scuffy and just distorted and stuff, and it's like, yeah, it's the plastic just slowly degrading into your water and then you're just drinking it. So, um, highly recommend that as a first step is okay. Maybe if you can't purchase a water filter, get yourself a reusable stainless steel or glass. Glass is also another option. I do actually have a really nice. Glass water bottle that comes in like a cool silicone sleeve, but I really only use it around home versus like going out anywhere.'cause that sounds dangerous with a glass water bottle, but people do it too. So if you're into that, that's an option. wanna share any other options and we can kind of go back and forth with some ideas.

Chrissy 47:25

For sure. Um, microwaving things, we've talked about this before, but microwaving your food in a glass container rather than a plastic container, um, greatly decreases your microplastic exposure. They've done studies that heating food and plastic containers can actually release millions of microplastic particles into your food and. On top of that, microwaves in general aren't the greatest for your food because it's literally using radiation to heat your food, which denatures the proteins in and of themselves. So we got denatured proteins on top of plastic particles, and that's just a recipe for disaster. So heat your foot up the way our ancestors did it. You get a pot. You fill the bottom of the pot one inch with water. You put the glass container inside the one inch of water, put the lid on top and turn on the stove and it heats up, gets all nice and steamy in there. And then your food is like fresh, like new. Um, you could also use a toaster oven. Those are really easy to reheat food also. Um, highly recommend those.

Katie 48:37

popular these days, but just be careful. If you do have an air fire, it likely has like a non-stick coating on the inside of it, um, which we've talked about plenty of times in other episodes that, yeah, it is what the um, the forever chemicals are in the non-stick stuff. So it's basically anything that's like resistant to something, um, will be PFAS and so.

Chrissy 49:05

And with Crockpots, I know they sell those plastic crockpot liners that make it so easy to clean your crockpot, but those are horrible. Just don't do that. Just clean your crockpot. okay, I promise. Okay.

Katie 49:22

This is probably gonna make a lot of people really sad. All of those rotisserie chickens at your grocery store or Costco that come in, those nice little plastic bags. Stay away from them. Not only are the chicken, like the chickens themselves probably full of stuff that you really just don't want, including like antibiotics and hormones and probably fed soy food and it's just, it's not going to be very nutritious for you in general. But it's also going to be like microplastic soup in there because it was like, it's been sitting in a hot plastic bag and they're like a thin plastic too, so it's degrading so quickly. Anyway, any, anytime there's like. Heat and plastic together, just stay away from that. but that was not actually the tip I was going to recommend. The one that I really wanted to share was actually it has, we, we kind of talked about this before, but we've talked about like dust and like the indoor pollution and how it can be worse than outdoor pollution. Um, in, in many cases, and. Whatever is on our shoes and whatever is like we're, we're tracking in from the outside. just stays in our house when there's not a lot of airflow going on. And so if we're not dusting and vacuuming regularly and cleaning all that out, uh. Our house fills up with microplastics. And so you think about like even just your clothes breaking down or your kids' toy chips apart and there's pieces of teeny, itty bitty plastic or I mean, any of these things again that we've been talking about, um, that have plastics in them, they. Do degrade, and you find like the microplastic fibers everywhere, and so the dust in your home could be filled with it, so then you breathe it in or you're stepping in it, or your kids are playing in it, or your dogs and cats are eating it because it's on the floor. And so be cleaning your house regularly, but also take your shoes off before you come inside. It also reduces exposure to pesticides and feces that was on the bottom of your shoes and stuff. So. Definitely keep your house clean in that way, and that's free. Like you just clean your house, that's free, and you can reduce your microplastic exposure.

Chrissy 51:36

Yep. Um, other ways is switching your cutting board. So if you switch to a wooden or stainless steel, or sometimes even a glass cutting board, that can be a much better option than a plastic cutting board and switching to silicone instead of plastic silicone. Can still break down. It is a form of plastic, but it's more durable than most other plastics. And, um, really only breaks down with like heat and, fat contents around it.

Katie 52:07

wanna silicone is actually made from

Chrissy 52:11

Yes. Oh,

Katie 52:14

is like,

Chrissy 52:14

that.

Katie 52:16

but there's a caveat of that. It has to be a hundred percent because if it's not, it often does have plastic fillers and um, like the plasticizers and stuff in it. And so of the time if you find like a really cheapy silicone something, it likely is not 100%, or if it just doesn't say the percentage at all, it likely. plastics in it, so you do want to make sure, especially so you think about. going to children's stuff that is made from silicone. You think about like baby bottle nipples or teething toys are usually silicone. You think about, yeah, like our spatulas and cooking stuff are often made with silicone, so you just wanna be really careful that you're finding like food grade a hundred percent silicone versus. Something that is cool and rubbery and flexible, but it's so honestly, a lot of kids' toys specifically are not made with a hundred percent silicone. So you think about like the, like fidgety, I'm talking about? Like the rubbery fidgety things that they make these days? Those are likely,

Chrissy 53:21

Like the little worms.

Katie 53:23

that kind of a hundred percent silicone because why would they spend

Chrissy 53:28

No.

Katie 53:28

on that, but make sure anything that are putting in their mouth regularly. Pacifiers is another, um. Good example. So you gotta be careful.

Chrissy 53:38

Yeah. Well that's good to know. I learned something today. I love it. Um, another thing we could do is using beeswax instead of plastic wrap. We've kind of talked about this even in episodes past. Um. Using bees, WAPs bees wax to wrap your food. Um, instead of using a Ziploc bag or something like that can be really helpful for decreasing your, um, microplastic intake also. Yep.

Katie 54:08

I think that's, those probably

Chrissy 54:10

I.

Katie 54:10

of the bigger ones, but sure as we've been going through the episode, you as a listener have probably been thinking about all of the plastic in your home, and honestly, my journey to reducing plastic, plastic been one that I've actually enjoyed because I find that the things that aren't made from plastic or aren't made from plastic derivatives. They tend to be prettier and nicer and longer lasting than the things that are made from plastics. So I think about even just switching to like cotton and wool for clothing and those pieces of clothing tend to be nicer feeling and softer and like all the things made from wool that I own, which right now has not, there's not a lot that I own that are wool, but those things. Tend to feel more durable. Um, and from my understanding, it's longer lasting than a lot of those, like just all of our clothing basically. You think about like all of the fast fashion out there right now, really cheapy pieces of clothing that you could get on Amazon or at Forever 21 or h and m, all these like or Sheen. Sheen is like a really big. Fast fashion place where those things, I think they've literally found, um, metals and terrible stuff in Sheen clothing. There's, if, if you Google it, I'm sure things will come up.'cause I heard it in the news at one point, like on an article somewhere. Anyway, um, you just gotta be really careful with a lot of that stuff and things that are just coming from China and they're really affordable, which sounds super great for our budgets, but. It's not going to farewell with our bodies when our bodies are taking in all the toxins from our clothing. And I talked about this I think two episodes ago, but like our, uh, all of our underwear and bras and stuff, just the parts that touch our more delicate areas, they really should be that's like organic cotton. And that's been something that we've been purposely pursuing, uh, lately. And again, it's, it's hard because. You learn these things and you're like, man, I have to go and replace all this stuff. But we've been doing it slowly. This is Chrissy's thing, you know, like she's, she's really good at reminding us, like, just once you run outta something or once you need to replace something, then replace it with something better. Because think we kind of talked about this last week. I, I

Chrissy 56:41

For my favorite wait for a sale, especially for like. Undergarments.'cause I'm gonna be honest, I could still wear the same undergarments that I wore in high school. Right? And like, they just don't really wear out all that much unless you get a hole in them. Um, but yeah, wait for a sale because that's another way that you can save money while also improving your wardrobe and your toxin exposure and things like that.

Katie 57:13

Was going to say that that is a really great idea and we, feel like we need to have like a new I was thinking about it earlier. Hold on. I think I wrote it down because I was like, this is really good. where is it? I'm really excited to share it Oh. We don't go broke trying to get healthy. And I think this is a good reminder that we kind of talked about it. I think you said this last week, Chrissy, that a lot of like gym bros out there who are like, you gotta go broke to get healthy, but. That I, that's really not the case. And I find that when we, when we simplify things, it tends to be better on our budgets and better on our health. And so our catchphrase really is that not gonna go broke, getting healthy. In fact, we, we do want to focus on our budgets and we do wanna be good stewards of the resources that God has given us, but also our health. And so. I do think there are times, there's a time and a place where it makes sense to invest a little bit of money in our health, then there's a time and a place where actually spending less makes way more sense. And sometimes those things just coincide very nicely. So yeah, don't go broke. Getting healthy, that doesn't honor God, I don't think. Um, I guess I, I shouldn't say that flat outright because maybe he's calling you to go broke, uh,

Chrissy 58:52

He also calls us to be wise, wise stewards of our finances. So keep that in mind, however that wisdom looks. If it's wisdom from the Lord, it might, it's not gonna look the same from a. For everybody. But, um, definitely something to keep in mind that it's a, it's a delicate balance between the health of our financial world or like the health of our finances and the health of our bodies and the health of our minds. It's, it all works together. Yeah. So

Katie 59:24

Amen.

Chrissy 59:24

in general though, we wanna leave you with that. Um. Keep in mind that all of this is really baby steps. We don't wanna overwhelm you with all of this information. We just wanna give you tools and resources that you can use to make step next steps in your walk to stewarding your life better, in order to glorify God better. And with that, remember that whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do it all for the glory of God. We'll see you guys next time. Thanks for listening to Crunchy Stewardship.