Your diet also includes a bit of that plastic container.

These are known as microplastics.

They're in our food, our water, and even in the air we breathe.

And while research into microplastics has focused on their environmental impact, new studies are showing the alarming toll they take on our health.

Microplastics are basically little plastics.

They're essentially invisible, but they're everywhere.

We have let plastics get essentially out of control in our environment.

Now we're all consuming them.

Tracy is director of UCSF's Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment.

Her team recently analyzed over a dozen animal studies on microplastics' links to cancer, infertility and more.

So what is it about microplastic that makes it so harmful to our health?

Most plastics are made from polyethylene, which comes from oil.

And yeah, that kind of oil.

Then it's mixed with a cocktail of chemicals that make our bendy straws bend and our cling wrap cling.

Since the 1950s, the world has fallen in love with plastics to make anything and everything in our lives.

Plastic has become so ubiquitous because it's supposed to be indestructible.

Dishes that bounce when they drop to the floor.

But we now know that's not really true.

Washing our polyester and nylon clothes creates microplastics, which leach into the water system and then to our food.

Driving on tires shreds microplastics into the air.

Heating plastic bottles sheds microplastics into our drinks.

Which is why researchers have found microplastics everywhere, like in human bloodstreams, our waste, and maybe most surprisingly, in placentas, meaning microplastics can impact our health even before we're born.

Now fetal development thrives on hormones connecting with their receptors to grow certain organs.

But chemicals and microplastics can interfere with that process by either mimicking hormones or changing how much of those hormones are produced.

For example, male fetuses need lots of testosterone to develop their sex organs.

But phthalates, a class of chemical used in certain plastics, can get in the way.

They reduce the synthesis of testosterone through different mechanisms so that when the child grows up later, it may not be that they don't produce sperm, they may produce less sperm.

Or their sperm may not all be as functional as they would have been if they hadn't had this exposure.

Some studies on phthalates suggest they can even increase erectile dysfunction.

If that wasn't alarming enough, because food and drinks are major sources of microplastics, the effects they have on digestive systems are looking grim.

Scientists have long studied the biological mechanisms that can increase your risk of cancer.

Smoking, or chowing down on lots of red meat, increases oxidative stress.

This process creates proteins called cytokines, which cause inflammation.

And study after study links these two things with higher rates of cancer.

The UC team's review found that consuming plastic has similar effects.

In one study, researchers noticed an increase in both oxidative stress and inflammation in mice's intestines after they were fed microplastics.

Now, more research needs to be done on humans, but the UC team's review suggested that microplastics are probably hazardous to human health.

Unlike so-called forever chemicals, which are found in a ton of products, many microplastics and their chemicals are cleared from our bodies, like through bathroom breaks.

But because we use so much plastic, our bodies never really get a break.

I think once we have more evidence, we're just going to see that there's way more health effects that we haven't identified yet that are coming from these microplastics.

We are trying to mitigate them before more harm is done.

Avoiding plastics altogether is impossible.

I wish I knew how to quit you.

Why don't you?

But there are ways to reduce your microplastics intake.

Just don't microwave them plastic.

That's actually kind of a big one that people don't realize.

One study showed some staggering numbers.

For example, three minutes in the microwave is enough to loosen plastic's molecular bonds and release millions of microplastics.

So when you can, store and heat your food in non-plastic containers like glass or ceramics.

Experts also advised drinking tap water instead of bottled water, eating more fruits and vegetables since microplastic chemicals accumulate in animal fat,

and be sure to clean your house with a wet mop since microplastics love to cling to dust.

So what do you do to avoid microplastics?

Let us know in the comments.

And if you want to know what sugar does to your body, check out our other video, which breaks it all down.