As some of you might notice, more and more organically grown vegetables, fruits and other food products are being sold in the supermarkets and organic outlets. Demand is higher now, compared to couple years ago. More people, starting to realize the health benefits of eating organic whole foods, but there are still majority of population have yet to change from non organic diet, to a cleaner, safer, more nutritious organic whole foods.
Today, I will discuss the final post about how pesticides exposure could cause damage to developing babies as well as sharing some of the ways to protect yourself from pesticides toxicity. With most conceiving soon to be mums are not aware of the harmful affects of pesticides contamination of food products, you may want to pay attention to this post.
While pesticides exposure may not be as great from eating contaminated foods, the cumulative effects can be significant, especially considering that exposure begins even before birth.
The brain is one of the systems to arise in the embryo, and its development continues long after birth, putting the organ at an extreme disadvantage during the nine month period in the womb. Most injuries to the brain during the early phase of development are fatal before birth, of greatest concern are those that occur later in the pregnancy and do not kill the fetus, but may cause serious defects in the child.
Most pesticides kill bugs either by interfering with neurotransmission, or by altering neuron function. Unfortunately, these substances also affect humans in the same way. The governing theory behind using these dangerous substances as bug killers is based on the idea of differential toxicity, as bugs are smaller then humans, so killing them requires a proportionately smaller dose. It may not kill us in smaller dose, but it certainly alter cellular functions.
Now, let's discuss abit about PCBs. Some of you might heard before, but most of you have never heard of this substance ever in your life. It's another contaminant which was banned for general use back in the 1970's. This oily substances was used in the electrical industry, in die and machine cutting oils, as heat exchange fluids, and in materials such as paints, plastics, etc. Like many other neurotoxic compounds, it is highly fat soluble. Bear in mind, the brain is composed of 60% fat, and readily accumulates these toxins.
Normally, the liver detoxfies these lipophilic substances by making them water soluble, thus, increasing their excretion from the body. However, PCBs inhibit the liver enzyme necessary to accomplish this task. As a result, toxins may linger in the body for a very long time. In fact, PCBs half life is about 8 yrs, meaning that after 8 years period, only half the PCB in your body will have been eliminated.
One disturbing article that appeared in Neurotoxicology, reported that children exposed to pesticides developed hypersensitive reactions to these or similiar pesticides as adults. This may explain some cases of multiple chemical sensitivity. Cross reaction among chemical toxicants is increasingly recognized in the medical literature. For example, exposure to formaldehyde makes one overly sensitive to cocaine. With enormous number of powerful chemicals entering our environment, we can only expect that occurances of such interactions will increase.
Let's move on to the following discussion. How do we protect ourselves? With so much toxins and chemicals and overload of daily ingestion of pesticides from foods and drinks, is it possible to reduce the damage and protect ourselves? First and most important, remove as many toxins, pesticides and chemicals from your immediate environment as possible. This means no further pesticide treatments, which include bugs treatment. Avoid bug sprays and use only safe natural insecticides outdoors if really needed. Next, cancel your lawn service if you do have one.
When comes to foods, you should avoid canned, packaged and other forms of processed foods. Eat as much organically grown local whole foods to your best ability on daily basis. When you buy vegetables and fruits, buy organic. I know most of you would be thinking, how on earth would I be able to eat organic celery and avocado? They are very expensive and I can't afford it. Well, if you can afford driving a HONDA, TOYOTA, or perhaps continental Europe luxury cars, eating organic whole foods seem resonable and sane. How about some of you spending few hundreds bucks monthly on beers and alcohol or junk foods but complain about investing on real foods? That is just ABSURD!
I've taught alot of my clients and friends on how to eat safe, healthy and nutritious foods on daily basis based on controlled budget. I don't blame some people whose monthly income is not very high, but it is their determination, discipline and mental strength which drive them to want to eat healthy and be healthy. You could be millionaire and still refuse to eat organically grown whole foods and spent on ess important stuff. Rings a bell? I know some of you who read this may hate me, but some of you may agree.
As for non-vegetarians, buy only free range organic meats from local people you know well. Some farmers may not be as honest as you think, you might need to do some homework to find out and go for safer, cleaner meats. Animals which are caged up or fedlot, overdosed with antibiotics and synthetic growth hormones and fed on diet contaminated with pesticides and GMOs, are basically sick malnurished animals. These animals most of the time developed certain nasty diseases and loaded with harmful microbes, pathogens and bacterias. Do you know that some commercial chickens are fed pig feces?? It is absolutely disgusting and you guys are eating the chickens!
For beef lovers, go for organic, grass fed cows which are not injected with antibiotics and synthetic hormones. Commercial cows are one of the most toxic laden animals on the planet. Heard of mad cow disease? Theoretically, ingesting 'infected' tissues of dead animals can spread mad cow disease. Vitamin manufacturers are switching to vegetable capsules and people are avoiding animal based products.
Now, people with powerful detoxification systems can tolerate exposures to many toxins that make people with weak detoxification systems very sick. Detoxification systems exist in most cells, but the body's major detoxification apparatus is the liver. This cleansing systems depends on a good supply of detoxification chemicals such as sulfur, glutathione, taurine and selenium to successfully accomplish this task. Several plants flavanoids and vitamins have been shown to possess a remarkable ability to stimulate the detoxification process. Some of them are cartenoids and curcumin. Also, milk thistle plant extract significantly improves liver cell function and it is a powerful antioxidant, protecting liver cells from free radicals and lipid peroxidation damage. Next, the flavanoid curcumin, also protects the liver, and improves flow of bile as well.
Also, riboflavin also plays a major role in detoxification, as it is a component in detox process. Magnesium deficiency is very common with heavy metals toxicity and toxic chemical exposure. Both of these toxicities cause increases the excretion of magnesium in the urine.
So, there you go. A list of important detoxification chemicals or supplements which can help you liver to detox more effectively. Of course, there are other herbs or supplements which are also beneficial to help liver detoxification, but these are some ideal ones to start off with, but each individual might not experience same results with others. Last but not least, try eat as much organic whole foods as possible on daily basis.
- Milk Thistle Extract
- Aged garlic extract
- Circumin
- Alpha Lipoic acid
- Thiamine
- Vitamin E succinate
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