Nowadays, in the wellness world, experts will tell you everything is toxic: alcohol, smoke, coffee, sugar, salt, dairy, gluten, meat, rice, seed oil, and so on. So basically if you are not eating all organic plant-based whole foods and live in a pristine air purified environment, you have toxins in your body and you will have to detox, constantly.
This sounds quite extreme but it does bear some truth in it. The first thing I learned from Toxicology is that anything can be toxic, depending on the dose. Even the most harmless water, if you drink too much of it, you may experience water poisoning, intoxication, or a disruption of brain function. It is also true that we are living in an environment that is filled with hazards, biological, chemical, and the worst form, radiological.
However, it is also important to understand that we are resilient. A low level of exposure is not going to cause severe damage to our body and we don’t want to live in constant fear to avoid any contact with any potential toxins. The key here is to find balance but also recognize the top toxins that we are most likely taking into our bodies. I did a blog on environmental exposure. In this blog, I will focus on toxins in our day-to-day foods.
Top 1: Heavy metals
Heavy metals can cause a lot of problems for us, ranging from neurological effects to reproductive issues. But what makes things worse is that heavy metals can reside in our bodies for a long long time. It is really hard for our body to excrete them naturally. The first thing we can do is to ensure the water we drink every day is filtered because we drink so much of it and boiling it alone will not get rid of heavy metals. You can use reverse oasis or charcoal to filter the water. Another major source is methyl mercury in fish, especially large fish due to global water contamination. The antidote is to eat smaller fish such as salmon and cooking also reduces mercury content in fish.
Top 2: Sugar & Refined Carb
Wellness experts can have different opinions on different foods or diets, but it is a consensus that we must eliminate, reduce or limit sugar consumption. We live in a society that is pumped up with sugar and sugary foods. Not only, do we over-tax our body and insulin to process it, and convert it to fat, but it also tricks our brain to keep wanting more of it but never satisfied with it (addiction). So many modern diseases are linked to high sugar consumption and you are the gatekeeper for your body and brain. Eliminate sugar and refined carbs! If you have to eat them, at least eat with a lot of fibers and protein.
Top 3: Processed Food
Food additives are ubiquitous in processed foods. Emulsifiers, detergent-like additives, can disrupt the mucus layer of the GI tract. In animal models, emulsifiers reduce microbial diversity, induce low-grade inflammation, and cause an increase in body fat, higher blood sugar levels, and insulin resistance - key markers of metabolic syndrome.
Not to mention processed meat, nitrite that is used to cure meat becomes a carcinogen called nitrosamine in our body. If you do have to satisfy your craving for bacon, please eat with vitamin C, which can prevent nitrosamine formation in our bodies.
Recently I learned to love the foods that love you back. You may love those toxins but they do not love you back. Do you eat any of these 3 foods? Is there any way you can eliminate or reduce the consumption?