Your Blood Sugar Could Be Rising Even After Dieting—Is Microplastic to Blame?

Today, diabetes has become a world health crisis. People with diabetes have excessively high blood sugar levels because of inefficient insulin management, and doctors usually advise a strict diet along with medication for people suffering from this disease. However, in recent years, people on a diet still face problems lowering their blood sugar levels. New research shows that this might be the effect of microplastics.   

Plastic is used in so many ways in our modern day-to-day life. Our food and drink packaging, certain apparel items, personal care and beauty items, and even our drinking water include plastic in the form of microplastics. Certain plastics are accepted as safe and have FDA approval, however, some polymers could be more detrimental to human health. The high amount of microplastics in your body can not only increase the chance of type 2 diabetes but also decrease the effectiveness of your diet to control high blood sugar. Let’s take a look at exactly how microplastic is detrimental to your health.   

What is Microplastic?  

Microplastics are little particles of plastic with a diameter of less than five millimeters (0.2 inches). Primary microplastics include microfibers released from clothes and other fabrics, such as fishing nets, and small particles made for commercial usage, like cosmetics. Particles known as secondary microplastics are produced when bigger plastic objects, including water bottles, break down, and exposure to external factors, primarily the sun's rays and ocean waves, causes this breakdown. 

Like all plastic objects, microplastics have the drawback of being difficult to decompose into harmless molecules. Plastics may harm the environment by taking hundreds or thousands of years to break down. Furthermore, microbeads, a subset of microplastic, are little fragments of synthetic polyethylene plastic that are used as exfoliants in cosmetics and health goods like toothpaste and certain cleansers. People may be at risk from these microscopic particles, which may harm their biological systems and cause changes in their bodily functions. 

Effects of Microplastic on the Body  

Microplastics build up in tissues and organs, such as the liver, where they induce lipid accumulation and inflammation, alter metabolism, and cause oxidative stress or cell damage. Exposure to microplastics also changes the gut microbiome, and insulin resistance and ultimately Type 2 diabetes are caused by all of these variables. Additionally, exposure to microplastics has been connected to gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), or diabetes during pregnancy. When you have enough amount of microplastic in your body, the methods for lowering blood sugar levels, including dieting, can become inefficient and you may find that your blood sugar levels remain high even after you diligently follow a healthy diet.    

Take Precautions to Reduce Microplastic Intake   

It is possible to prevent microplastics from entering your body even if total eradication may seem impossible. Here are the things you can do to reduce your exposure to microplastic: 

1. Avoid Highly Processed Food Items  

Higher levels of phthalate microplastics in the body, particularly in children, have been associated with the intake of highly processed foods, such as hamburgers, ready-to-eat meals, french fries, and canned goods. That is why you must increase your intake of whole foods, reduce processed meals, and think about giving up highly processed items entirely. 

2. Don’t Microwave Food without Taking the Plastic Wrap Off  

According to a study, the average individual consumes around the same amount of plastic each week as the size of a credit card, a large portion of which comes from the food and water we use on a daily basis. The BPA and phthalates wrapped over food containers can attach more easily to the food when heated, so despite the temptation to reheat leftovers or takeout directly in the container, avoid this practice. Take off the wrap from the pre-made, frozen meals that are microwave-ready before heating them, and move the food to a glass or ceramic container.  

3. Drink Filtered Water  

A research found that bottled water has almost twice as many microplastics as filtered water, therefore it's time to stop using it. People who use plastic water bottles for their fluid intake are about two to three times more likely to be exposed to microplastics than people who use other types of water bottles. Fill a reusable glass, stainless steel, or silicone bottle with filtered water rather than grabbing a plastic bottle. You also shouldn’t use tap water because research shows more than ninety percent of tap water contains microplastics, which may be removed by filtration.   

4. Replace Tea Bags with Tea Leaf  

Around 25% of teabags are composed of some sort of plastic material, and even those that are sold as paper are often created using polypropylene, a type of plastic. It is best that you use loose tea at home and do not buy this beverage from shops.   

5. Limit Seafood  

Almost four hundred aquatic species, more than half of which are utilized commercially as seafood, have been discovered to have microplastics in their body, and the issue is predicted to get worse as ocean plastic pollution increases. There is evidence that microplastics and nanoplastics can pass from fish stomachs into their muscular tissue, which is what people usually eat. That is why one crucial step in reducing the amount of microplastics we consume is to avoid seafood. Avoiding seafood also keeps plastic equipment out of the water and out of our bodies since abandoned fishing gear, such as nets and ropes makes up around 10% of all waste in the ocean. 

6. Use Eco-Friendly Packaging  

Support environmentally friendly packaging options such as rice husk bowls and storage containers, stainless steel bento boxes, bamboo lunch boxes, glass storage containers, portable bowls, and reusable water containers. Selecting these substitutes lowers the amount of microplastics in your food supply and your total exposure to them. 

7. Use Plastic-free Self-care and Beauty Products  

Even the items we use to clean our teeth and wash our bodies contain microplastics. Like many toothpaste and body/face scrubs, some lotions utilize plastic to encourage absorption. Despite a prohibition on the use of microbeads, plastic particles are often used for exfoliation, in rinse-off cosmetics, businesses have managed to get around the law, so make sure plastic isn't listed in product ingredients. Check for phrases like "acrylate copolymer" which are interchangeable with plastic, instead, choose plastic-free and microbead-free solutions or natural products that include biodegradable microbead substitutes. When buying beauty products and other scented goods, seek brands that declare "fragrance-free", not just "unscented" or "phthalate-free", because phthalates are frequently found in body products containing fragrance.   

Final Remarks  

High blood sugar levels from type 2 diabetes are difficult to manage but the process can be made even more difficult when you have a large amount of microplastic in your body. The steps we discussed above can help you reduce microplastic intake, and as a result, you will enjoy much better health. If your blood sugar level isn’t decreasing even after dieting and medication, your doctor will suggest a new blood sugar test along with other tests to find out more about your health condition.  

Contact Pathkind Labs today to set an appointment and get the tests done by expert technicians in a top-class facility!