‍The Bad News

We all live in a toxic soup. It’s just a fact that we have to accept- there’s no way to completely eliminate all exposures to environmental toxins in our modern world. We’re exposed on a daily basis via multiple routes: food, skin, air and water. Every one of us has a different “toxic load” that we carry within us based on many lifestyle factors. Unfortunately, the studies even show that babies are exposed in utero, with umbilical cord blood testing (+) for 287 chemicals, before we’re even born, yikes.

Why You Should Care

Xenobiotics are chemicals foreign to the body, and are not naturally made. These include a bunch of endocrine-disrupting chemicals, meaning just that- they get into our bodies, get stored in fat (they are fat-loving molecules), and then hang around and cause hormone issues and symptoms if at high levels. These chemicals are called “forever chemicals” because they last longer than we do, and wreck havoc when they keep adding up with increased toxic burden.

Symptoms that can be related to excess exposure to these forever chemicals:

• Infertility, impaired metabolism (impairs weight loss), ADHD, early puberty, reduced response to vaccines, increased risk of preterm birth

Most common/studied endocrine disrupting chemicals to avoid:

• Phthalates, per- and polypluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), bisphenol A (BPA), atrazine, dioxins, percholrate, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (BPDE), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), triclosan

The Good News

There’s a LOT that can be done within your control, to both reduce and avoid exposures. So we do what we can, control what we can control, and we move on. What we can’t do, is get so overly preoccupied with reducing exposures, that we miss out on life. It’s a balancing act. Below I’ve listed many high yield options that I recommend to incorporate into daily decision-making to reduce exposures over time.

What We Can Control:

Food

• Eat organic and non-GMO when possible.
  • I recommend using EWG’s “Dirty Dozen” and “Clean Fifteen Lists” (see below) when grocery shopping. The Dirty Dozen is the list of the 12 highest pesticide/herbicide sprayed fruits/vegetables, so prioritize organic for these.
• Get high-quality meat/seafood.
  • “We are what we eat, eats”; eating industrial-raised and farmed meat, also means we’re indirectly eating antibiotics GMO crops that the animals are fed.
  • Wild-caught seafood: Prioritize Atlantic wild salmon (not farm-raised), and skipjack tuna has lower mercury exposure than albacore. SMASH fish (small, tinned fish) are lower on the food chain, thus have a lower heavy metal burden and lower risk of exposures.
  • Grass-fed, grass-finished meats: also contain more anti-inflammatory omega-3s, and less inflammatory omega-6 fats. They are fed quality food without antibiotics or GMOs.
• Food storage and preparation methods matter.
  • Cook with stainless steel, cast iron, ceramic pots and pans (no non-stick as these are sprayed with PFAs to be made non-stick).
  • Store leftovers in glass or stainless steel containers, or silicon bags.
  • Avoid plastic when able, and please, never microwave in plastic! (This leaches chemicals directly into your food)

Skin

• Take inventory of your personal care products and cleaning products.
  • Anything that we come in contact with on our skin is still getting into our bloodstream (it’s not just what we eat!) so this is a huge method of potential exposure that we can minimize with the right knowledge.
  • *Use ewg.org as a science-backed resource, updated on an ongoing basis (EWG is the Environmental Working Group) and follow recommendations for better beauty, skin, household products to use to reduce exposures we come in contact with. They are absolutely worth the small investment in your health to get quality products. Phone app below.

Air

• Get an air purifier for your home.
  • This will help capture floating aerosol particles, and others stored in dust particles (I have a simple and small Levoit filter).
  • We also can get off-gassing of chemicals that are on many carpets and furniture pieces made to prevent stains, especially new furniture or carpets.

Water

• Get a countertop or fridge water filter.
  • I recommend reverse osmosis, or a triple filtration system (I use AquaTru’s countertop filtration).
  • Drink out of glass or stainless steel, not plastic water bottles (which also can leach particle from the plastic into the water). Avoid aluminum cans when able.

Start Here

An easy starting place:

• Get a deodorant without aluminum! (I like the Arm and Hammer Essentials Deodorant)
• Download the EWG’s “Healthy Living” App to your phone!
  • Can scan product barcodes while shopping to compare and see levels of exposure based on ingredients, as well as search a vast product database for recommendations for all type of products

I’ll be running the ‘6-Week Not Your Average Detox’ again later this year if you missed the first round, but in the meantime, you can start to reduce your toxic load/toxic burden immediately! Every little bit counts, so pick something small. These will add up to big impact over time. Reduce your exposures, and you reduce your risk of symptoms, diseases, and dysfunction both now, and later in life.

If you want more help cleaning up your diet and lifestyle, I’d love to help. Book your free discovery call.

Be Well,

Sara