Excess dietary sugar and lack of exercise are not the only factors influencing your weight. Research shows environmental and dietary toxins also play a role—and perhaps a significant one. As recently reported by Scientific American:13

"A new study14 suggests the long-held industry assumption that bisphenol-A breaks down safely in the human body is incorrect. Instead, researchers say, the body transforms the ubiquitous chemical additive into a compound that might spur obesity.

The study is the first to find that people's bodies metabolize bisphenol-A (BPA) — a chemical found in most people and used in polycarbonate plastic, food cans and paper receipts — into something that impacts our cells and may make us fat."

When you're exposed to BPA, it takes about six hours for your liver to metabolize approximately half of the concentration. Up to 90 percent of what your liver metabolizes is eventually excreted, but the fact that it's metabolized and excreted doesn't mean it's harmless. By treating mouse and human cells with the BPA metabolite, called BPA-Glucuronide, the researchers showed the cells had a "significant increase in lipid accumulation," which is an indication that the cells are turning into fat cells.

What this means is that the BPA metabolite is not inactive, as was previously assumed. It's actually quite biologically active, so we cannot make blanket statements (assumptions, really) saying that since it's a metabolite, it's inactive and therefore has no health effects. As noted by one of the study's authors: "Hopefully this [study] stops us from making assumptions about endocrine disrupting chemicals in general."

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