One of the worst things in your food and drink isn’t an ingredient at all — not in the usual sense, anyway. It’s a hormone-like chemical used in the packaging.

It’s called bisphenol-A, or BPA for short, and the problem is that it doesn’t remain inside the packaging. It leeches out into your food and drink, giving you a small-but-steady hormone boost with every swallow.

BPA has been linked to dozens of health risks, and the latest research adds another to the list: heart disease.

British researchers compared the records of 758 patients who were healthy at the start of a 10-year study, but went on to develop heart disease, to 861 people who remained free of the disease the entire time.

And as it turned out, the heart disease patients had higher overall urine levels of BPA at the start of the study.

That alone doesn’t prove that BPA causes heart disease, but other studies have also found a link between the two — and if that’s not enough to scare you away, consider all of the other risks.

This chemical, which mimics estrogen inside the body, has been linked to obesity, diabetes, and sexual problems — including problems with sperm counts, concentration, vitality, and motility.

And in children, BPA has been linked to developmental problems, behavioral problems, early puberty and more, especially in kids who were exposed in the womb.

Getting rid of BPA isn’t easy, since this chemical is used in most food-grade plastics. It’s even used in the linings of metal cans and the caps of sealed glass jars.

You can see where this is going, right? The best way to slash your levels is to switch to the foods you should be eating anyway — and that means nothing that comes from a package or container of any kind.

One study I told you about last year showed that switching to a diet of organic fresh foods slashed BPA levels by 60 percent in just three days.

But don’t stop at three days. Make it a permanent habit, and you could bring your BPA levels down even further — and boost your health and the health of your entire family at the same time, since you’ll be eating better, too.

Empty calories aren’t just bad for your belly. They can be downright ruinous for your brain — and the latest research shows again how people who eat the most have the highest risk of memory problems.

That means watching what you eat now could be the simplest way to avoid dementia later on.

Researchers divided some 1,200 seniors between 70 and 89 years old into three categories based on how many calories they ate each day: a third consumed between 600 and 1,526 calories a day, a third chowed down on between 1,526 and 2,143, and the final third ate between 2,143 and 6,000 calories a day.

Those in that last group had double the risk of mild cognitive impairment compared to the rest of the eaters in the study, even after adjusting for other risk factors like age, education and health history.

But if you’ve noticed that the last category was rather broad, you’re not alone.

It seems to me there’s a huge difference between someone who eats 2,200 calories a day — which can be healthy, depending on how you get those calories — and someone who gorges on 6,000 calories a day… which isn’t healthy no matter what you eat.

Yet in this study, they’re both lumped into the same group. In addition, the study was based on food frequency questionnaires — so those numbers are guesstimates at best.

But I’m not ready to write this study off yet, either, because there’s a clear link between diet and dementia — and other studies have also found that people who weigh the most have the highest risk of the condition.

One study found that women with the biggest waistlines in middle age had double the risk of dementia in old age. Another found that men and women alike with the highest levels of abdominal fat have more than triple the risk of dementia of those with the least.

And yet another study last year found that overweight people see significant improvements in both memory and concentration when they lose weight.

But if that’s not enough of a reason to drop the extra pounds, consider all the other risks that accompany obesity: heart disease, diabetes, cancer, depression and — of course — an early demise.

If you can avoid all that by eating a little better, I say go for it.

Look at all the research on kids and sleep, and two things become clear quickly:

1) Kids don’t need as much as most of us think they do, and
2) They’re still not getting enough anyway.

One new study looked at 37 sleep guidelines for kids issued since 1897 along with more than 200 studies on how much nightly sleep kids have actually gotten during that time and found a few surprises.

The number of recommended hours of sleep has decreased over the years, and no matter what those hours are or how much they’ve decreased, kids always manage to get an average of 37 minutes less.

Anyone who’s ever sent a kid to bed at 8:00 in hopes he or she might actually arrive there by 8:30 (or even 8:37) knows how that is.

And even a century ago, people blamed technology for all those sleep-avoiding kids, according to the study published in the journal Pediatrics.

Once upon a time, it was that newfangled lightbulb. Today, it’s all the digital entertainment options kids have literally at their fingertips: videogames, text messages, music downloads and probably a few things we adults don’t even know about.

It’s bad news for many kids because too little sleep has been linked to any number of physical and mental issues in people of all ages — and in kids in particular, poor sleep has been connected to everything from obesity to low test scores.

But surprisingly, the sleep guidelines that have been issued over the years have been based on little to no actual science.

And while no one’s saying kids should be allowed to play videogames until dawn, a new look at data on 1,724 primary and secondary school students across the country finds that kids between 16 and 18 years old actually do better on less sleep.

Federal guidelines call for nine hours a night, but researchers found the kids with the highest test scores actually got around seven.

Younger kids, on the other hand, needed a little more: Between nine and 9.5 hours a night for 10-year-olds and between eight and 8.5 hours a night when they reach the age of 12, according to the study in Eastern Economics Journal.

Of course, research is one thing — but people are different. Some need more, some need less. If the child or grandchild in your life is tired all the time, they’re obviously not getting what they need.

And if they’re not studying when they’re awake, then even perfect sleep habits won’t boost the grades.

I can think of about a million reasons to get outside and bask in the sunlight every day — but if you’re looking for one of your own, how about this: It can slash your risk of a stroke.

The latest research shines some light on stroke risk, with one new study finding that people who live in the nation’s sunniest climates have a 60 percent lower risk of stroke than those who live up north.

The one exception to the rule: The so-called “stroke belt” of the south, where obesity and diabetes — both big-time stroke risks factors of their own — are higher than they are in the rest of the country.

In other words, all the sun in Georgia won’t undo the ravages of a double-extra-large waistline.

But if you’re slim, trim and living in Minnesota or Maine, you don’t have to lower your latitude to lower your stroke risk — because you can harness the real power of sunlight anywhere on earth.

All you need is some vitamin D, as another new study shows again how the sunshine vitamin is the real reason for that lower stroke risk.

In this one, researchers found that people who had the highest intake of D were 11 percent less likely to suffer a stroke than those with the lowest.

If that sounds a little… well… unimpressive, that’s because the new study didn’t offer a real look at D levels. Instead, the researchers used food frequency questionnaires.

Most people don’t get the bulk of their D from food anyway.

Once you look at real levels of D, you see real benefits — with other studies showing that low D can boost your stroke risk by up to 50 percent.

If that’s not enough of a benefit, other studies have shown that vitamin D can help protect your heart, bones and brain and slash your risk of colds, the flu, diabetes, allergies and even cancer.

You can let your body make its own D by stepping out into the sunlight, but unless you live in a warmer clime don’t count on that alone. Everything from your clothing to the seasonal angle of the earth can impede D production — so take a supplement to make sure you get what you need.