5 Common Mistakes Making Your Kitchen and Food Toxic

 

Click Here to Find Out How to Naturally and Permanently Cure Leaky Gut Syndrome

Maybe you think you’re eating healthy. Maybe you’re buying the best organic food that you find that hasn’t been treated with toxic pesticides, herbicides, hormones, or other chemicals.

But have you ever stopped to consider that part of the problem with toxins in the food supply is coming directly from you and your kitchen?

It’s true…

All too often we focus entirely on farming practices but there’s a whole other part of the story that has more to do with the many ways that you introduce even more toxins into your food before it ever gets to the table.

So I’ve outlined 5 of the most common mistakes that you are making in your kitchen that is affecting the quality of your food while making your food and you toxic. And any of these can add significant stress and inflammation within your body to prevent you from healing and overcoming Leaky Gut Syndrome.

1. Microwaving Food

If you use a microwave and have never heard of the ill effects of microwaving your food, then this is a very important topic for you.

First of all, microwaves were never developed to be used to heat food. But someone decided there was a good opportunity to make some money without before we had the ability to properly research the negative effects first.

And more and more research is being done these days on microwaves and other high frequency radiation coming from cell phones and other electronics and the research results are not pretty.

Here’s a very short list of just a few of the ill effects that microwave radiation has on your food:

• Destroys and reduced the nutrients in your food necessary to sustain life.

• Alters the chemical structure of food to produce toxins

• Produces carcinogenic compounds that have been shown to lead to cancer

Here are some additional resources if you’re interested in digging further into this subject:

How and Why Microwave Cooking Causes Cancer

The Hidden Hazards of Microwave Cooking

2. Storing Food in Plastic

Plastics are another brainchild of science that are now beginning to be questioned heavily for the toxic chemicals that they contain which can easily leach into your food and water.

Research has been studying plastic for quite some time and they’ve already identified multiple toxic chemicals such as BPA, Phthalates, and other estrogen mimicking compounds.

When entering the body, these chemicals can and will attach to estrogen receptor sites which can and will lead to hormonal imbalances. They’ve also been shown to cause birth defects in babies.

And one larger scale study conducted in 2004 found BPA in nearly all urine samples taken. So there’s no arguing that these chemical are in fact getting into your body one way or another.

But these are just a small subset of the chemicals used. Just think about how many other chemicals are doing the same exact thing but just haven’t been researched as in depth yet. So BPA free plastic is a step in the right direction but definitely not a solution to a much bigger problem.

And when they remove one chemical such as BPA, they have to replace it with something else that likely hasn’t been fully researched and could potentially be worse.

Also stop to consider what other chemicals are being added that aren’t necessarily known ingredients. Think about how much plastic that you use is produced in China which somehow allowed Melamine to get into baby formula which was responsible for the lives of many babies.

What else do you think could be in your plastic?

3. Cleaning with Toxic Cleaners

Cleaning products are a big one that not enough people stop to consider.

Over 99% of home and kitchen cleaners are extremely toxic. And you’re using them to clean the same kitchen counters, utensils, supplies, etc that your food is coming into direct contact with.

And be sure to read your labels carefully because so many products are now being marketed as 98% non-toxic. That’s still toxic!

A general rule of thumb is, if you can’t eat it then you probably shouldn’t be cleaning your kitchen with it either.

4. Teflon or Non-Stick Coated Pots & Pans

Non-stick pots and pans became a big hit since they were more convenient and easy to clean. And I attribute much of this to the whole low fat craze because when you cook your food in healthy fats then sticking isn’t a problem to begin with.

But regardless, the chemicals that are used are extremely toxic. In fact, the EPA has declared Teflon a carcinogen and has only recently asked manufacturers to begin eliminating Perflurooctanoic Acid (PFOA) from their products.

And even when they do, what toxic chemical are they going to use next that hasn’t been studied?

Studies have shown that these non-stick cookware chemicals are being found in 95% of the American population. And what’s even scarier is that this includes most newborns!

And to add insult to injury, when these chemicals are heated they do outgas and release carcinogens and other environmental pollutants.

5. Plastic Utensils & Cutting Boards

I know that many people are beginning to catch on to some of these but this one gets almost everyone.

We’ve already discussed it and you know that plastics are toxic and bad for your health.

And you probably never stop to realize it but plastic cutting boards will actually leave plastic micro-shavings in and on your food as your knife cuts and scrapes across it.

Just because you can’t necessarily see it doesn’t mean it isn’t there or affecting your health.

Then you have plastic utensils that come into contact with your food which under heat will leech even more plastic chemicals into your food.

The Big Picture

So if you consider the number and amount of different toxins that get into your food just while you are making then you can see how ridiculous it really is.

And stop to consider that the average American is putting food on counters cleaned with toxic cleaners, cutting the same food on plastic cutting boards, cooking it in toxic non-stick pots and pans, stirring with plastic utensils, storing their dinner and leftovers in plastic containers, and then reheating it all in the microwave the next day.

How many different chemicals do you think this would expose you to?

Watch these 3 videos below to avoid the common mistakes making your kitchen and food toxic –

11 Common Kitchen Items That Are Secretly Toxic

4 Types of Toxic Cookware to Avoid and 4 Safe Alternatives

Toxic Household Products – Top 5 List of Dangerous Chemicals in Your Kitchen

Author Bio:

Karen Brimeyer is a nutritionist, functional medicine practitioner, and health consultant. She has helped over a hundred personal clients heal their leaky gut, digestive problems, lose weight, and resolve their chronic symptoms and conditions.

She is the owner of Optimal Self-Healing in Tampa Bay Florida, a private nutrition and health consultation business and author of the Leaky Gut Cure program.

Karen has worked with a wide variety of populations from new moms to athletes overcome their health problems and achieve optimal health.

Karen found her passion for nutrition as a teenager. While striving to achieve optimal health by following the widely accepted diet and nutrition tips of the media and conventional medicine, she found her own health declining rapidly with the development leaky gut which led to digestive problems and chronic fatigue.

Unwilling to accept her situation, she set out to determine the truth about health which led her through her own research as well as studying and working with some of the best holistic doctors and holistic practitioners in the fields of nutrition, functional medicine, and life coaching.

She has since applied her knowledge with herself to overcome her own leaky gut and achieve an unprecedented level of health and wellbeing. Her happy and healthy pregnancy and now two-year old son, TJ, are a testament to the health she has achieved.

To find out more about this program, click on Leaky Gut Cure

How to Restore Complete Gut Well-Being and Be Toxin-Free

 

Click Here to Find Out How to Naturally and Permanently Cure Leaky Gut Syndrome

Why Leaky Gut Makes You Toxic

This is an important concept that most people with Leaky Gut Syndrome never stop to consider.

Your liver is an important part of your digestive system that works to process the toxins in your body so that they can be properly removed. But when you have leaky gut, your entire digestive tract becomes burdened and your liver can easily become backed up.

And when this happens, you are unable to eliminate toxins and they build up inside you which can contribute to many of your leaky gut symptoms.

Maybe you think that you live a pretty clean lifestyle so your exposure to toxins is minimal.

Think again!

The truth is that toxins are everywhere and there is no escaping them no matter how hard you try. All you can really do is minimize your exposure and keep your detoxification pathways clear so that your body is able to process and eliminate as many toxins as possible.

2 Common Sources of Toxins

As of 2006, there were over 82,000 synthetic and potentially toxic chemicals documented within the US alone of which 75% (60,150) have never been tested for toxicity. And these chemicals are being used in consumer products every single day.

The truth is that there are far more toxic chemicals being introduced every single year than the EPA is able to test so these numbers are only growing.

Of course, I couldn’t even begin to touch the tip of the iceberg of toxins but I would like to share with you two of the more common sources that you are exposed to on a daily basis.

1. Leaky Gut Causing Food Chemicals and Additives (Your Food)

Yep, rest assured that with every single bite you take, you’re ingesting toxins. For example, conventional strawberries are sprayed with 19 different pesticides so you can only imagine what you’re really eating.

Or try this on for size. Most conventional cured meats such as bacon and hot dogs are full of the food preservatives such as Nitrates which helps meat keep its color and maintain freshness.

But this toxic substance is also known to cause cancer. So why is it still be used every single day? Because the FDA claims that no suitable alternative has yet to be identified.

Well, I personally love bacon but I opt for the all-natural choice that contains no Nitrates, chemicals, or other preservatives and trust me, it tastes amazing.

Then you have artificial sweeteners (which are not allowed on the Leaky Gut Cure diet). These may be no calorie sweeteners but you have to consider that these are really synthetic chemicals that your body sees as toxic.

Aspartame for example is used in more than 6,000 food and beverage products. And while the FDA claims that it is safe, there are numerous studies that have linked it to many diseases such as cancer.

2. Leaky Gut Causing Pharmaceutical Drugs (Your Water)

If you don’t filter your tap water, then you might want to strongly reconsider. Tap water is so full of toxins that the Environmental Working Group found over 140 different contaminants in tap water.

And even more recent studies are finding many different prescription and over the counter drugs in your tap water, most notably: antibiotics, anti-depressants, birth control pills, seizure medication, cancer treatment drugs, pain killers, tranquilizers, and cholesterol drugs.

Can you count how many of those contribute to Leaky Gut Syndrome?

Almost every single one does.

What You Can Do About Toxicity

Even though toxins are everywhere, there is a lot that you can do.

First you want to ensure that your detox pathways are clear and eliminating toxins properly. And one of the most important pathways is your digestive tract. So you want to ensure that your liver is functioning properly and your bowels are moving properly.

Any disruption in this chain and you’re really just a toxic ticking time bomb.

And once these pathways are clear, you can help support the detox process. There’s a quote I like to use that holds true for your body…

“The Solution to Pollution is Dilution”

Or in other words, one of the best ways to flush toxins out of your body is to drink more high quality water.

But here are some good examples to keep in mind.

1. Eat organic as much as possible.

This limits your exposure to pesticides, food additives, and other food chemicals.

2. Use a drinking water filter and shower filter.

Your skin absorbs chemicals when in contact with water too so if you are filtering your drinking water, you should be filtering your shower water too.

But the most important aspect of being able to detoxify properly is restoring your detox pathways. And because toxins can have such a big effect on your leaky gut, I have made this an integral part of the Leaky Gut Cure program.

Eat This, Not That

Eat: Organic versions of the following produce: Strawberries, Bell Peppers, Spinach, Cherries, Peaches, Celery, Apples, Apricots, Cantaloupe, and Green Beans.

Not: Conventional versions as these are the most heavily treated with pesticides.

Watch these 2 videos to learn how to restore complete gut well-being –

Probiotics Benefits + Myths | Improve Gut Health | Doctor Mike

The “HEALTHY” Foods You Should Absolutely NOT EAT | Dr Steven Gundry & Lewis Howes

Bonus Tip

So much focus is put on organic produce but the most important part of your meal that should be all natural, free range, or organic is your meat. This is because meat contains many more nutrients than any plant based food.

And animals are dealing with the same toxic environment that we are so you can bet that they are toxic too. And in the same sense that the healthier we are the better we are able to eliminate toxins, the same holds true for animals.

And there is no doubt that all natural, free range, and organic animals are far healthier and treated with far fewer chemicals and drugs than their conventional counterparts so they pass far less toxins on to you.

Hopefully you now understand the significance of toxins in your struggle with leaky gut and how they play a role in making your chronic symptoms worse. But there is something that you can do about it. And I welcome you to take that step by following the Leaky Gut Cure program.

Author Bio:

Karen Brimeyer is a nutritionist, functional medicine practitioner, and health consultant. She has helped over a hundred personal clients heal their leaky gut, digestive problems, lose weight, and resolve their chronic symptoms and conditions.

She is the owner of Optimal Self-Healing in Tampa Bay Florida, a private nutrition and health consultation business and author of the Leaky Gut Cure program.

Karen has worked with a wide variety of populations from new moms to athletes overcome their health problems and achieve optimal health.

Karen found her passion for nutrition as a teenager. While striving to achieve optimal health by following the widely accepted diet and nutrition tips of the media and conventional medicine, she found her own health declining rapidly with the development leaky gut which led to digestive problems and chronic fatigue.

Unwilling to accept her situation, she set out to determine the truth about health which led her through her own research as well as studying and working with some of the best holistic doctors and holistic practitioners in the fields of nutrition, functional medicine, and life coaching.

She has since applied her knowledge with herself to overcome her own leaky gut and achieve an unprecedented level of health and wellbeing. Her happy and healthy pregnancy and now two-year old son, TJ, are a testament to the health she has achieved.

To find out more about this program, click on Leaky Gut Cure

Why Using Cleanses and Other Detox Promoting Supplements Hurt Your Health

 

Click Here to Find Out How to Naturally and Permanently Cure Leaky Gut Syndrome

Detoxing Your Body and How It Can Hurt Your Health

In recent years, detoxing your body has become quite the trend. Now there are countless numbers of detox kits or cleanses on the market all touting the many health benefits of removing toxins from the body. Even celebrities are talking about how they detox and all of the amazing benefits they’ve experienced.

But is detoxing your body right for everyone?

The answer is absolutely not.

In fact, trying to force your body to detoxify can have many negative effects on your health.

And when you suffer from Leaky Gut Syndrome, detoxing your body can easily make your symptoms worse by taxing your already congested liver even more.

Your Liver’s Role in Detoxing Your Body

As you probably already know, your liver plays many extremely important roles in your body. One role it serves is as a filter which is responsible for metabolizing or breaking down toxins so that they can be properly disposed of by excreting them from your body. But remember, these toxins have to be first processed by your liver before they can be disposed of.

Because we live in a society that is literally full of toxins everywhere you look, it is becoming more and more difficult for your liver to keep up with the growing number of toxins you encounter on a daily basis.

Toxic chemicals are in your…

• Meat, vegetables, grains, and any other food
• Soaps, shampoos, and conditioners
• Toothpaste, deodorant, and other personal hygiene products
• Makeup
• Cleaning products
• Carpet
• Car
• Water
• Plastics
• and the list goes on…

So it’s easy to see how your liver is already working overtime to remove as many of these toxins as it can on a daily basis.

And what your liver can’t keep up with gets stored away in your fat cells for future processing.

Forced Detoxification

Using cleanses and other detox promoting supplements is a way of forcefully detoxing your body or what I refer to as forced detoxification.

And forced detoxification causes your body to re-release these toxins back into your system to be properly processed by your liver and excreted. And because many of these toxins are stored in your fat cells, detoxing your body this way has become a big fat loss fad.

But what nobody stops to consider is that your liver is already backed up and congested which is why it stored those toxins away in the first place.

Instead, these toxins are released out into your body which puts a significant stress on your body and will make your chronic symptoms even worse. And this can have serious negative effects on your health depending on how congested your liver already is.

So if you suffer from Leaky Gut Syndrome or any chronic symptom then you might want to consider this before assuming that detoxing your body is great and will only improve your health.

Supporting Your Detox Pathways

Instead of focusing on detoxification, you really should be focusing on supporting your detox pathways which will help improve your body’s ability to detoxify efficiently and remove the congestion of your liver.

Without going into too much detail about all of the different detox pathways that exist in the body, there’s one major detox pathway that I like to focus on first which is your colon.

You should be moving your bowels at least once a day and a big reason for this is because your body uses your colon to excrete many of these toxins. Otherwise, these toxins will literally float around your colon only to be re-absorbed into your body again, further congesting your liver.

Watch this video – Should You Spend Money on Juice Cleanses? – Sharp Science

Detoxing Your Body Naturally

The only time I will ever recommend forcefully detoxing your body is after your detox pathways have been cleared, your liver has had time to catch back up, and you are more than capable of properly processing all of the toxins that will be released into your body.

And to do this, I always start with your diet.

If you change your diet and follow a diet plan like I recommend in my Leaky Gut Cure program, then you will not only be eliminating some major sources of toxins from your food but it will also help you to clear your colon and allow your digestive tract and liver to function much more efficiently.

And this does take time which is why I recommend waiting a minimum of 2 weeks in order to give your liver a little bit of a break before introducing anything that could cause more stress on your body. But this way, naturally detoxing your body can not only be healthy but can also help improve and reduce your chronic symptoms.

Bio:

Karen Brimeyer is a nutritionist, functional medicine practitioner, and health consultant. She has helped over a hundred personal clients heal their leaky gut, digestive problems, lose weight, and resolve their chronic symptoms and conditions.

She is the owner of Optimal Self-Healing in Tampa Bay Florida, a private nutrition and health consultation business and author of the Leaky Gut Cure program.

Karen has worked with a wide variety of populations from new moms to athletes overcome their health problems and achieve optimal health.

Karen found her passion for nutrition as a teenager. While striving to achieve optimal health by following the widely accepted diet and nutrition tips of the media and conventional medicine, she found her own health declining rapidly with the development leaky gut which led to digestive problems and chronic fatigue.

Unwilling to accept her situation, she set out to determine the truth about health which led her through her own research as well as studying and working with some of the best holistic doctors and holistic practitioners in the fields of nutrition, functional medicine, and life coaching.

She has since applied her knowledge with herself to overcome her own leaky gut and achieve an unprecedented level of health and wellbeing. Her happy and healthy pregnancy and now two-year old son, TJ, are a testament to the health she has achieved.

To find out more about this program, click on Leaky Gut Cure

How Exercise Can Improve Your Gut Health Naturally

 

Click Here to Find Out How to Naturally and Permanently Cure Leaky Gut Syndrome

If you’re suffering from any sort of health issue, Leaky Gut Syndrome or other, then you have no excuse not to exercise. But we’ve become such a sedentary society that the only time that most of us are not sitting is when you’re walking to and from your car.

Yes, we sit in front of the TV. We sit in front of the computer. We sit at the table…

And most people who go to the gym sit down on the gym equipment!

All that sitting has a negative effect on your digestion.

How Exercise Effects Your Gut Health

Few people stop to consider that exercise has a much bigger impact on your gut health then you might realize.

Below I’m going to cover just a few of the effects that exercise can have on your digestive health.

Exercise Improves Constipation

Weight bearing exercise has been shown to be a necessity for you to properly eliminate your bowels. When you perform weight bearing exercise on your feet, your abdominals are forced to stabilize your spine which creates pressure within your abdominal cavity.

And it’s this abdominal pressure that is responsible for simulating many of your internal organs to help you move the food you eat through your digestive tract. So without the right kind of exercise, you can easily become constipated!

Exercise Balances Blood Sugar and Hormone Production

You might not realize it but this is something that I stress in my Leaky Gut Cure program. You absolutely must balance your blood sugar if you want to heal.

This is because your blood sugar has such a drastic effect on your stress hormones and the production of cortisol in your body. And over-production of cortisol will turn off your body’s natural ability to heal, your gut included.

Exercise alone has been shown to help balance blood sugar and other hormones within the body.

And it’s a great way to accelerate the positive effects that you’re already getting from your diet.

Exercise Improves Liver Function

We’ve discussed in the past that whenever the gut is impaired, then the liver becomes dysfunctional. And exercise can also help take some of the stress off the liver and to help it detoxify more efficiently.

For starters, exercise can help get blood moving throughout your body and to your liver more efficiently.

But aside from blood flow, your skin is actually one of your most important detoxification pathways in the body. So by working up a sweat, you are helping your body to eliminate toxins which can help take some stress off your liver.

Exercise Boosts Immune Function

Science is really only beginning to scratch the surface of understanding the complexity of the immune system because there are many different components involved.

But there have been plenty of studies on the direct effect of exercise and immune function. And it has been proven time and time again that moderate exercise can significantly improve your immune function and decrease inflammation within your body.

But the body is so complex in nature that these 4 simplified examples of how exercise can have a positive effect on gut healing is really just a small snapshot of what is really happening within your body when you exercise.

The key is to make sure that you’re taking advantage of the benefits of exercise because it’s not only a major contributing factor to your overall health but it can literally help accelerate the gut healing process.

Watch this video to learn how this exercise can improve your gut health naturally –Yoga For Gut Health | 18 Min. Yoga Practice | Yoga With Adriene

Bio:

Karen Brimeyer is a nutritionist, functional medicine practitioner, and health consultant. She has helped over a hundred personal clients heal their leaky gut, digestive problems, lose weight, and resolve their chronic symptoms and conditions.

She is the owner of Optimal Self-Healing in Tampa Bay Florida, a private nutrition and health consultation business and author of the Leaky Gut Cure program.

Karen has worked with a wide variety of populations from new moms to athletes overcome their health problems and achieve optimal health.

Karen found her passion for nutrition as a teenager. While striving to achieve optimal health by following the widely accepted diet and nutrition tips of the media and conventional medicine, she found her own health declining rapidly with the development leaky gut which led to digestive problems and chronic fatigue.

Unwilling to accept her situation, she set out to determine the truth about health which led her through her own research as well as studying and working with some of the best holistic doctors and holistic practitioners in the fields of nutrition, functional medicine, and life coaching.

She has since applied her knowledge with herself to overcome her own leaky gut and achieve an unprecedented level of health and wellbeing. Her happy and healthy pregnancy and now two-year old son, TJ, are a testament to the health she has achieved.To find out more about this program, click on Leaky Gut Cure