November 2019 -

The hidden toxins in your diet and how to remove them

In my previous post I have you some suggestions on how to clean up your environment. It may not be something you can do in one big swoop, but if you change the products you use little by little, you will improve your health.

In today’s post I want to talk about the hidden toxins in your diet: what they do to your health and how to remove them from your diet.

Here’s the problem with our food: when you go to the supermarket and you buy fresh, whole food – vegetables, fruit, meat – you expect to buy healthy, fresh food don’t you?

When in fact, you’re not!

Let me share a story with you. A few years ago my daughter and I visited a dairy farm. One of the owner’s proudly showed us around the milking shed, showed us the milking machines and explained how they looked after the cows. The cows looks lovely and healthy! And then she showed me the computer program she used to know when each cow needed her monthly antibiotics injection.

I wasn’t even sure that I heard her correctly. And then I realised that my daughter and I were drinking milk and eating dairy products from cows that were routinely treated with antibiotics, whether they needed it or not. As a preventative measure.

That day, I switched to organic dairy wherever I could.

To provide their products to the main supermarkets and make a profit, farmers need to be able to produce their products fast and at large quantities without the risk of diseases.

That means they need to use chemicals to protect their crops and animals.

One of the most dangerous chemicals used in crops is glyphosate (or Round-Up). Glyphosate kills cells, disturbs the cells processes and builds a toxic load in the body.

Washing your fruits and vegetables won’t remove the chemicals, as they are sprayed on with a waxy formula to prevent it from washing away in the rain.

The best way to remove hidden toxins from your diet is by eating organic food. Unfortunately, organic food is more expensive, because farmers have to apply more labour-intensive practices.

So here is my recommended top 8 to go organic on:

Apples. The most sprayed fruit and because most of us eat apples with skin-on. If you can’t afford, or can’t find, organic apples, peel the skin.
Strawberries and blueberries. These berries are sprayed heavily to prevent fungi. Organic berries may be hard to find in the supermarkets. You could always grow some strawberries yourself!
Cherry tomatoes. A great snack, but because they are so small, the skin surface area is quite large. Again a food I love to grow myself (also because they taste sooooooo much better that those from the supermarket).
Normal potatoes. Interestingly, sweet potatoes contain hardly any pesticides, whereas our much-loved spud does.
Spinach. Not only does spinach contain pesticides that are harmful to us, in some cases insect repellent that is killing honeybees.
Nectarines and peaches. The issue is the same as with apples. The pesticide is very hard to remove from the skin, and most of us will eat the skin.
Grapes are very susceptible to many diseases, so they are sprayed heavily and we eat them skin and all. Plus, we eat quite a lot of them at a time.
Cucumber. Again, the sprayed skin is the problem here. And you could peel the cucumber, but that would remove a lot of the valuable nutrients.

My advice is to pick the food that you love to eat the most, and switch to organic. Then slowly add more as you find them.

And let me finish with some good news. These fruits and vegetables are not a problem at all, and you don’ t need to go organic:

Melon
Mango
Onion
Cabbage
Pineapple
Eggplant
Peas
Avocado
Mushrooms
Kiwi fruit

Cleaning products and endometriosis: not a good combination

So what is the connection between cleaning products and endometriosis you may wonder. They seem so safe, after all, they’re used for cleaning! For improving the home we live in; the clothes we wear; even out bodies.

Let’s look at those 3 areas separately and how the products you use may be making your endometriosis worse.

Your home

I definitely appreciate a nice, clean home. In fact, I like it so much that I pay a professional to clean my house every week. And it is not the cleanliness of the home that we need to consider, it is what we use to clean that can cause major issues.

Most cleaning products that are specifically for cleaning the home are full of strong chemicals. These chemicals not only attack your immune system (read more about the role of your immune system in your endometriosis) but can also affect your microbiome (read more about the importance of a healthy microbiome here). And of even more concern is that they can alter our genetics.

The worst culprit is chlorine, found in many disinfectants. Chlorine creates dioxin, which is just about the most toxic substance in the world. Chlorine reduces the production of hydrochloric acid, making your digestion less effective. And it kills the good bacteria in the gut as well as omega 3 fatty acids.

So what should you use instead? You know, good old vinegar and bicarb soda do an excellent cleaning job, cost much less, and don’t create the health problems that chlorine does.

Your clothes

It is such a lovely feeling to put on nicely washed clothes that are soft and smell beautifully fresh. Unfortunately, most of us use fabric softeners to achieve this experience.

And what you may not know is that fabric softeners contain artificial fragrances plus chemicals to bind them. And these are toxic: they can kill nerve and brain cells. The biggest concern is that fabric softener puts a coat on your washing that is very difficult to wash out. Your clothes (and bedding, don’t forget those) are in constant contact with the skin. The skin absorbs chemicals really well, so they enter the body constantly.

I highly recommend you don’t use fabric softener at all! And to take it even further, consider buying washing powder that is a natural product.

Your body

As I’ve said above, the skin is very good at absorbing chemicals. It may look like an intact membrane, but it is actually quite porous. That means that any products you use that come in contact with the skin should ideally be chemical free. Think about shampoo, conditioner, creams and lotions, perfumes, nail polish, make-up remover, and make-up.

Try switching over to natural alternatives. Before you buy, check the list of ingredients. And if you use tampons make sure they are not bleached with chlorine.

The main reason cleaning products and endometriosis are not a the best buddies is because of the toxic chemicals in them that interfere with your immune system, besides directly doing damage to cells.

In next week’s blog I’ll talk about some of the invisible toxins in your environment you are exposed to that affect the immune system.

5 reasons why you should improve your environment if you have Endometriosis

As a nutritionist it makes sense that my main focus when helping clients is on what they eat. But food is not the only factor that impacts health. There are some key reasons why you should improve your environment as well. And that is the focus for this month.

When we use food to improve health, we are using and influencing biochemical processes in the body. The food and the nutrients it contains are little cogs in the various body processes that are involved in your Endometriosis.

Here are 5 reasons why you should go beyond nutrition and improve your environment as well.

The body doesn’t exist in a bubble, and the environment affects the body’s biochemistry directly. So it makes sense to minimise the negative effect of your environment if you’re taking the trouble of improving your diet!
We live in a highly toxic environment: we breathe in toxic air (even when you live in a lovely rural area); we put toxic chemicals on our skin; we drink water that contains toxic chemicals. All these toxins have a direct effect on your body's processes.
Modern convenience has increased our exposure to toxins, from the cookware we use to how we store food.
Your immune system is already super-sensitive. It reacts to things that it doesn’t need to in your food (read the posts on the Immune System) and it overreacts. It will be beneficial to remove as many environmental triggers as we can.
Toxins from the environment have a nasty habit of building up in the body, and the poor liver has a hard time trying to get rid of them. An overworked liver is not going to be helpful when trying to reduce your inflammation.

In my posts this month I will discuss how our environment affects your Endometriosis and suggest ways you might be able to increase the effectiveness of your diet by removing some of the toxic load the environment places on your body.

In this practical online workshop you will learn:

What Is Really Causing Your Endometriosis Symptoms
How Food and Diet Affect Your Symptoms
My 4-Step Approach To Tweaking Your Diet
How You Can Win a Nutrition Consultation With Me

When: Friday 15 November 2019, 12.30-1.30pm.

Month: November 2019