You have been hired by a major nature-oriented magazine as a science consultant

Question

You have been hired by a major nature-oriented magazine as a science consultant to help writers with the presentation of certain technical aspects of their articles. Your job is to make technical and scientific parts of the stories more understandable to the general public and possibly to the author of the story. The current article you have been asked to help with is related to the influence of endocrine disrupting chemicals on animal health and reproduction. The writer of the article has provided you with some background information below that he/she is using to compose the story Glands in the endocrine system secrete hormones into the bloodstream that bind receptors in other locations in the body. When they bind to the receptors, these hormonal signals are responsible for controlling many different aspects of physiology, including metabolism, growth, development, and reproduction. In order to control these processes properly, the hormones must be released at appropriate times and in appropriate amounts (usually very small amounts). Hormones released at the wrong time or in a concentration that is too high may have a different or even opposite effect from normal. Certain human-made chemicals have structures similar to hormones and are actually capable of mimicking or blocking the hormones' actions by binding to their receptors. When humans and other animals are exposed to these chemicals through the food chain or through direct contact, disruption of normal endocrine function can occur. In 1980, there was a major spill of DDT (a persistent chlorinated insecticide) into Florida's Lake Apopka that caused high rates of mortality in much of the wildlife there. The American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) that survived the initial spill were found to have high concentrations of DDE (a metabolite of DDT) in their tissues. Decades later, the alligators in the lake still have DDE in their tissues and their populations do not seem to have recovered to pre- spill conditions. Dr. Louis Guillette began studying this population in the 1980s and soon realized that something was negatively impacting reproduction in these animals. Since then, he and his colleagues have published several papers (see references below for two of them) describing the findings of their research related to the effects of DDE and other human-made chemicals on American alligators at Lake Apopka. In these papers, they show that juvenile male

Explanation / Answer

Based on that information we can deduce that there is relationship between food we eat (not everything but some) and our endocrine functions.

Most common example we can take of Sugar, it is present in our food most of the times and in variety of fruits and juices. As we take sugar containing food our body produces insulin(hormone) to break that sugar into smaller units and help further metabolism. But when we take more amount of sugar our body produces more Insulin proportionally. And if we continue eating more amount of sugar our insulin receptors become resistant to insulin, producing DIABETES MELLITUS.

Similarly, cabbage, couliflower, kale, pepper and tomatoes are known to have effect of our thyroid hormones and cause a disease called HASHIMOTO'S THROIDITIS.

And SOY is structurally similar to estrogen(phytoestrogen) and bind to normal estrogen receptors leading to increased estrogen levels in body and decresed testosterone levels.and also produces "throid bonding globulin" which effects throid functions. In men it can result into feminine characters like gynaemastia, erectile dysfunction and infertility. Similarly in women causes weight gain, mood swings and easy fatigueability.

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