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