Balancing the metabolism is the long term solution to better vitality, sleep and hormonal balance

 

Metabolism refers to the biochemical process that is used in every cell of the body to breakdown and utilise food and nutrition, oxygenate the organs as well as support growth, detoxification and repair.

A healthy and balanced metabolism is important to achieve and sustain good levels of energy, sleep and weight.  An altered metabolism can often lead to weight gain, inflammation and chronic diseases like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and cancer.

Our body is like an incredible orchestra with all our organs and physiological processes working together in harmony. When we make poor food choices, have an overload of environmental toxins and face stress and pressure (or perceive stress and urgency), disharmony can occur leading to ill health and poor metabolic balance.

By balancing our metabolism, we are giving our body what it needs to nourish and support our lifestyle and health.

Our blood circulates all around the body into the tiniest capillaries through every cell and organ of the body.  It carries with it information on disease, inflammation and function of organs.  It is one of the many indispensable tools used to evaluate health.

Combining chemistry of your blood markers and your weight, height and body measurements with the chemistry of food, you get the blueprint to help you restore health.  We eat daily, we could consume food that nourishes us and enhances our vitality and health or foods that slowly poison us.

The Metabolic Balance program has complex algorithms that support this analysis and with proper coaching, helps you achieve your best possible health outcome. 

The program is divided into 4 phases:

1.      Preparation

2.      Change phase

3.      Relaxed phase

4.      Maintenance phase

The ultimate objective is to enhance vitality, performance and sleep, support acid/alkaline balance, achieve your desired weight, bring renewed energy and sense of wellness and improve your quality of life.

If you would like to know if Metabolic Balance is the program for you, please email to irene@nutriactionz.co.nz to make an appointment for a 15min discovery call.

Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen 2020

 The Environmental Working Group (EWG) most updated Dirty Dozen 2020 list:

1.  Strawberries

2.  Spinach

3.  Kale

4.  Nectarine

5.  Apple

6.  Grapes (note this if you eat raisins)

7.  Peaches

8.  Cherries

9.  Pear

10. Tomato

11.  Celery

12.  Potato

These top dozen fruits and vegetables have the most pesticide contamination and would pay to buy and eat organically.

The Clean Fifteen list comprises fruits and vegetables that have the least pesticide contamination on them.  When considering your grocery budget, these are the ones where conventionally grown ones can just make it into the shopping basket.

1. Avocado

2. Sweet corn (whilst this may not have much pesticides, beware of GMO)

3. Pineapple

4. Onion

5. Papaya

6. Sweet pea

7. Eggplant

8. Asparagus

9. Cauliflower

10. Cantaloupes

11. Broccoli

12. Mushroom

13. Cabbage

14. Honeydew

15. Kiwifruit

Kale and Beetroot salad

These two dark coloured vegetables, kale and beetroot, are super food for your liver.  This easy to make recipe is super tasty.

Ingredients:

2 medium size beetroot

1 bunch of kale, removed from the hard stem and torn

Sea salt

Mustard seeds

Olive oil

Lemon juice

Method:

Chop beetroot into chunks, drizzle with oil and slow roast in the oven at 160C for 45 minutes.

Wash kale, spin dry, remove leaves from hard stem and tear large leaves up.  Drizzle olive oil and sprinkle seasalt.  Rub the kale, oil and salt together.

This can be roasted on a lower tray from the beetroot for the last 10-20 minutes of the beetroot.  Short period of roasting of kale just wilts the kale, longer periods will result in some kale chips.  You can choose if you just want it wilted.  I often go for just wilted kale.

When beetroot is soft and kale limp, mix in lemon juice and mustard seeds.

This is a nice roast that can be made in advanced and extras stored for next day's lunch or next meal.  As there is very little manual job once you put the beetroot in to roast, you can spend the time vacumming the floor or wiping down surface whilst the veges are roasting!

Support your immune system during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic

With the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) and increasing number of people being infected, it is only prudent that everyone of us should be supporting our immune system.  Why wouldn’t you?  The statistics show that the number of deaths has way surpassed the number of deaths during the SARS epidemic in 2003 and MERS epidemic in 2012.

Put a group of people in a room and have the same virus present, not all the people are going to come down with the disease.  Those who are immune compromised or have other ongoing health issues (also called comorbidities) will be the ones most susceptible.

In situations like this, it is wise to be proactive rather than reactive.  Sure, put on your masks and wash your hands with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds(basic personal hygiene) and avoid crowded places, but what else?

Here’s what you can do:

1.    Get your vitamin C up.  Lots of fresh fruits and vegetables are good sources of vitamin C, but only if they are fresh.  If you have irregular intake of fresh fruits and vegetables, you should supplement.  I would recommend the sodium ascorbate form of vitamin C rather than any other form considering bioavailability and cost effectiveness, about 3000mg or upto maximum bowel tolerance. 

2. Increase your antioxidant intake.  This comes easily from dark coloured fruits and vegetables, minerals like zinc and selenium , and vitamins A, C and E.

3. Get your vitamin D from the sun, eggs, sardines, shitake mushrooms.  Get a test at Labtest to know your levels.  If your levels are too low, supplement.  If you just need to maintain, get vitamin D from the above sources.

4.  Keep your body alkalised.  Adopt a 80:20 rule when it comes to alkalising and acidifying foods.  Minerals like potassium, magnesium and calcium increases alkalinity.  Squeeze half a lemon in water or 1 Tablespoon of Apple cider vinegar in water daily.  Detox if you feel sluggish, heavy or tired. 

5. Manage your stress.  What do you do to de-stress?  Do you practise yoga, deep breathing exercises, have a hobby, go for a walk, exercise or keep a pet?  These activities can help to de-stress. 

6.  Adequate amount of sleep.  Making sure that you have restorative sleep is crucial to building a strong immune system.  Lack of sleep with difficulty getting to sleep or staying asleep can wreck havoc on your immune system.  An express detox, increasing mineral intake and keeping a healthy gut microbiome is important to maintaining good sleep.  

7.  Hydration, keeping your fluid intake adequate is absolutely crucial.  30ml/kg of body weight is what you require daily (excludes coffee and alcohol). 

8.  Do not panic – there is no reason to panic.  Although it seems like this pandemic has spread far and wide, the mortality rate is relatively low compared to SARS and MERS.  The best strategy is still preventative and keep your immune system healthy is crucial. 

9.  If you love herbs, use them.  Immune modulating herbs are useful in supporting the immune system.  When a virus infects a body, it latches onto the surface and enters through a vesicle.  Once it is inside this vesicle, the virus releases its RNA and hijacks the cells mechanism to produce viral proteins.  These viral proteins assist with the virus replication.  Nature has provided us with many antiviral herbs and essential oils. 

Culinary herbs like garlic, ginger, oregano, turmeric (ingested internally) and essential oils of tea tree, clove and eucalyptus put into a burner or used to clean surfaces can be good preventative measures.  NOTE: DO NOT ingest essential oils, these should only be used externally.  

10.  Eat good nutritious food, lightly cooked, steamed, stewed, baked or panfried.  Avoid processed foods.  

11. Cut down on sugar, high fructose corn syrup, glucose syrup and artificial sweeteners.  If you have diabetes or are prediabetic, this is the best time to naturally work on improving your blood sugar control and support your immunity.  

12.  Have plenty of rest if you are coming down with an infection and do not attend work or school or any social events.

Is alkaline water better?

This is a question I have been asked often by patients.  Often, they have been approached by salesmen of some alkaline water systems to buy a machine to alkalise water.  So do we need to drink alkaline water?  Some systems allkalise water to run at a pH of 9 for drinking.

Let’s go back basic physiology. Our blood runs at a pH of 7.35-7.40 (mildly alkaline), BUT our stomach runs at a pH of 1.5-3.5 (acidic), our small intestines and large intestines range in pH of 5.5 to 7 (mildly acidic to neutral).  Our stomach needs to run in that acidic pH range in order to breakdown proteins.  When the stomach acidity is compromised, there is delayed breakdown of food and rotting begins.  (you are now thinking about overacidity, that is lactic acid from fermentation, not hydrochloric acid which we need for proper breakdown of proteins!)

So if you drink alkaline water at a pH of 9, it will start to neutralise your hydrogen ions from your hydrochloric acid (which you need) in your stomach and bring stomach pH to a less acidic level (bad for your digestion, slows it down, decreases absorption of minerals that need an acidic medium like calcium and magnesium, and increase gas from fermentation). Not a good idea at all.  There is a distinction between body (blood) pH and stomach pH.  If you truly want to alkalise yourself, drink lemon in water, make sure your mineral intake is adequate and eat plenty of vegetables and some fruits.

So the conclusion is:  You should just drink filtered water.  Invest in a good water filter and keep yourself hydrated! You don’t need fanciful alkaline water machines.

Toxins in cookware: Which type of cookware is safe?

We live in a world where there is increasing toxins from the environment that is affecting our lives, creating havoc in our ability to produce energy, causing degenerative diseases, affecting hormonal balance and reducing fertility.

One of the major contributors of toxins come from our cookware!  Yes our kitchen can increase toxic burden for us!  Heat in cooking can increase the leaching of toxic chemicals from the cookware into the food.  And cumulative consumption of the cookware toxins in food create more burden for our detoxification pathways.  There are lots of noise in the internet regarding what is a safe cookware.  The purpose of this article is to investigate and see which scientific evidence stack up.

Aluminium cookware and aluminium foil

Increased exposure to aluminium has been associated with increased risk of diseases like Alzheimers, microcytic anemia and allergy.  In a 2017 study, using Aluminium foiled pans in barbeque increases aluminium load in children especially if the meats are marinated in acidic juices.  One study found that pretreating the cookware in boiling water decreases the leaching of aluminium into the food.

Small doses of intake accumulated over a long period of time can pose a problem particularly for children.

PFOA

This is a key coating ingredient used in non-stick cookware like Teflon.  The exposure of this chemical is so rampant, it is even found in breastmilk! 

Studies in lab animals have found exposure to PFOA increases the risk of certain tumors of the liver, testicles, mammary glands (breasts), and pancreas in these animals. In general, well-conducted studies in animals do a good job of predicting which exposures cause cancer in people. Studies have looked at people with exposure to PFOA by living near working in these PFOA plants.  These studies have found higher incidences of testicular, kidney and thyroid cancer.  The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) is part of the World Health Organization (WHO). One of its goals is to identify causes of cancer. IARC has classified PFOA as “possibly carcinogenic to humans” (Group 2B).

PFTE

This is another chemical of concern in Teflon cookware.  Increase in temperature increases the release of these chemicals into the food. 

Copper and cast iron

Copper cookware may be beneficial or not depending on what your balance of copper and zinc looks like.  It can potentially be toxic if you have a high copper load.

Cast iron can leach iron into your food, which may be helpful if you are anemic but not useful of you have a genetic condition of hemochromatosis or excess iron load.

Stainless steel

This is a good option but because stainless steel is made from nickel, there is a risk of the leaching of nickel into the food, especially if it is acidic.  Hence, choose high quality stainless steel and if you are cooking something with an acidic base like adding lemon or tamarind juice, remove it from the cookware once it is cooked.  However, stainless steel is my preferred cookware.

Glass

Glass seems to be a safer option especially for long periods of cooking of casserole in the oven.  The same principle applies, choose high quality glass cookware so that there is little leaching of coating into the food.

Conclusion

Avoid using aluminium foil, Teflon or aluminium pots and pans in cooking

Do not use abrasive cleaners that can remove coatings from your metal cookware

Buy high quality stainless steel or glass cookware

If you cook anything acidic in metal cookware, remove soon as cooking is done into a glass container and avoid storing it, i.e. cook only as much as you would like to consume.

Why Detox?

We live in an increasingly chemical laden world with many new chemicals infiltrating our soil, air, water and food supply.  A toxin is a substance that can interfere with cellular function and have a negative impact on our short and long term state of health.  We have all been made to be able to detoxify a certain level of toxins.  How much we can detoxify depends on our capacity to detoxify and toxin exposure.  The higher the exposure and the lower the capacity to detoxify, the higher the toxic burden on the body and the more negative health outcomes we get.  Excess toxic load can show up as resistant weight gain, skin breakouts, digestive problems, fatigue, headaches, other aches and pains in the body, brain fog, poor cognitive function and mood swings.

Doing a detoxification means supporting the elimination systems to detoxify as well as reducing or minimising ongoing exposure to those toxins including:

• Consume fresh seasonal fruit and vegetables, at least 5 cups a day;
• Avoid packaged and processed food;
• Eliminate foods containing gluten, dairy, added sugar, artificial colours, flavours, additives, flavour enhancers and hydrogenated fats
• Recreational drugs like caffeine, tobacco and alcohol

When doing a detoxification, include herbs and nutrition that support the detoxification process, as well as keeping well hydrated through enough pure filtered water, getting 30mls of fluids per kg of body weight.  This can be in the form of herbal teas, water and soups.

Including calming daily practice such as yoga is an useful addition to a detox regime.

The other area a lot of chemicals are hiding is in your bathroom - body and face care products as well as household cleaners.  When you are detoxing, make sure you are also reviewing what you are putting on your body topically and inhaling in the cleaning agents you use - detergents, bathroom and toilet cleaners and air fresheners.  Full article on this in the next blog post.

IBS Symptoms and what you can do to overcome them

How your gut feels can make or break your day.  IBS affects about 15% of the population, more commonly occurring in women than in men.  The symptoms of IBS include bloating, flatulence, excessively frequent bowel movement with soft, watery stools, or absence of bowel movement causing it very hard to defaecate.  IBS is different from IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease the likes of Crohn’s and Ulcerative colitis).  IBS patients do not have increased risk of bowel cancer but IBD patients do.  However, IBS patients can still feel a lot of abdominal discomfort, suffer from fatigue, headaches, nausea and dehydration.  

The triggers for IBS include food, stress and hormones.  Common foods that trigger IBS include dairy, coffee, chocolate, wheat, fried and fatty foods and fibre.  Some forms of IBS do well with more fibre and other form of IBS do better with less fibre!  Stress and nerves can make IBS worse and IBS can make mood worse.  That’s because the gut is the second brain.  Serotonin, the neurotransmitter that makes you feel good, control your appetite and sleep well is made predominantly in the gut.  Patients with IBS often can feel low in the mood due to low serotonin production.  Addressing your IBS will lift your mood and improve your sleep.

Women tend to suffer from IBS more than men as the menstrual cycle changes the hormones at different times of the month.  The days of ovulation or immediately following ovulation and a day or two prior to the period is when IBS symptoms can exacerbate. 

Is it possible to have IBS and be symptom free?  Yes, absolutely.  What needs to happen is to identify your trigger, help your gut heal and you don’t need to suffer from IBS anymore.  Identifying the trigger can be tricky. One man’s meat is another man’s poison. If you have problems, seek the help of a naturopath or naturopathic nutritionist who would address the underlying cause of your symptoms rather than mask the symptoms.  

If your IBS is more constipation than diarrhea, the focus is to help the bowels relax and reduce straining. If you do not empty your bowels adequately daily, you are not helping your body detoxify effectively and this can cause problems in the longer term.  Make sure you are well hydrated, 30mls per kg of body weight of fluid intake per day, and you are consuming adequate fibre from nuts, seeds, fruits and vegetables that do not irritate you gut.  If you are constipated, you may get the common symptoms of headaches, nausea, bloating or abdominal pain.  So understanding why you have IBS and what drives your IBS can help you sort out the root cause of your problem!

Inflammation: Problems with anti-inflammatory drugs and what you can do naturally

Inflammation is a biological response in our body to injury, infection or irritation to remove damaged cells and tissues and initiate repair.  It is likened to the lighting of a spark to attract attention of the immune system to hasten the healing process.  The hallmarks of inflammation include redness, pain, swelling and heat. More severe inflammation can lead to loss of function. Some or all the hallmarks may be present. Acute inflammation is necessary to move white blood cells to the area of need to carry out biochemical events to help the tissues heal. 

Long term inflammation that is not resolved will result in chronic inflammation.  That is when the spark that was intended to help the tissue heal or remove the irritation now turns into a forest fire.  When chronic inflammation happens, the conventional medical treatment is to use anti-inflammatories, which is commonly in the form of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.  These drugs can have many undesirable side effects, for example the increase in cardiac risk from the use of diclofenac sold under tradename like Voltaren. In 2004, the FDA in the US pulled a drug made by Merck, used for arthritis, Vioxx, off the market because of the increase in incidence of stroke and heart attack from its use. 

Think about this:  if pain and inflammation is a signal from your body to tell you that you are out of balance, why do you shut off that signal?  If your car dashboard has a red light, wouldn’t you want to know what has triggered the red light to happen?  You won’t use a hammer and smash the red light or use a plaster to cover over the red light, so that you don’t see it.  Why do we do that to our bodies?

We need to deal with the underlying cause of inflammation.  Identifying whether the source inflammation is from the diet, lifestyle, mental states e.g. stress, insomnia or depression; lack of nutrition, excessive exercise or increased exposure to toxins is important to treat the cause rather than just the symptoms.  It is important to maintain good quality of life whilst you correct the underlying physiology and using natural anti-inflammatories in therapeutic doses like turmeric, fish oil, astaxanthin and mineral combinations can help to manage the cause of inflammation without undesirable side effects.

One man’s meat is another man’s poison.  Addressing your individuality and which food works for you and which ones do not can reduce a large inflammatory burden on your body.  A review of your toxin exposure, exercise and lifestyle can also reveal where other triggers for inflammation are for you.  Your naturopathic or functional medicine doctor will be able help you do that.  Most of your diet should be made up of good, wholesome, clean food, not necessarily raw, but lightly cooked to assist digestion and uptake of nutrients.  You do not need to be vegan to reduce inflammation, as long as food is nutritious and wholesome, you will benefit.  As to which food items are setting off your inflammation, this needs a personalised approach and it is advisable for you to seek professional help.

So when the dash board light comes on, be curious!  Find out what is driving that problem, do not put out the light by just shutting it down.  The engine could be struggling hard and is a ticking time bomb waiting to burn out or break down.

5 reasons why you could be struggling with constipation and what you can do

Constipation is a lack of regular bowel movement or bowel movements that require straining and does not empty completely.  Many people claim they are regular and their definition is once every 2 days or 3 days.  Being regular really means one to two bowel movements a day.  There is a problem if we eat 3 times a day, but we eliminate only once every 2-3 days.

Bowel emptying is a very important part of healthy living, detoxification and weight loss.  Our liver processes toxins and dumps them into the bowels for elimination.  In cases of delayed bowel emptying, the toxins can reabsorb creating increased toxic burden resulting in low energy levels, nausea, headaches, aches and pains or a crampy uncomfortable abdomen. 

If you have constipation, the first thing you need to investigate is your diet.  Are you having enough fresh vegetables, some fruits, seeds and nuts?  Fibre is required to bind and bulk.  Are you drinking enough water?  A normal healthy person requires 30mls of fluid (excluding coffee and alcohol) per kg body weight. 

Are you on any medication where the side effect includes constipation?  If so, it is time to review your medication.

Do you have a healthy gut flora?  Have you been on antibiotics more than twice in the last 2 years?  Are you on the oral contraceptive pill? If your gut microbiome is out of balance you could be constipated.

Are you stressed?  Our ancestors were hunter gatherers and stress meant that they had to run from the saber tooth tiger.  When trying to safe our lives in an emergency, our bodies do not get us to waste time visiting the lavatory.  That said, our modern day stress is different but the impact on the nervous system and signalling remains the same.  If you are stressed, get onto natural stress management protocols.

Do you have a habit of holding it in each time you an urge to defaecate that your body is losing its ability to move the bowels regularly.  If so, make sure you listen to your body’s signalling and go when you feel the urge.  To stimulate the large bowels, squatting for a period of time to induce the urge is a great strategy.  We used to have squat toilets until sitting toilets were invented.  We were not meant to be sitting and defacating at the same time!

Don’t underestimate the benefits of pooping regularly.  

Autism is Reversible

Many people think that autism, is a genetic brain disorder which is rather disempowering.    Dr. Kenneth Bock, in the 2011 International Congress on Natural Medicine which I attended, presented the factors that set autism off and they arise from a combination of genetic predisposition combined with environmental insults or triggers.  The triggers include an impaired ability to detoxify, heavy metal burden, immune response and gut health.  So it is a biological rather than psychiatric disorder.  The Centre for Disease Control in the United States published that 1 in 150 children were diagnosed with autism in 2010 compared to 1 in 2500 in 1950!

Why do we have a sharp rise in the numbers?  We are living in more toxic environments and the systems of medicine that we are using are not treating the person as a whole.  If a child has got constant ear infections, bad bowel movements, bloated abdomen, lack concentration and verbal communication and cannot see you in the eye, these are not individual problems that render one drug for each condition.  The child has to be treated as a whole. The immune system, gut, detoxification profile, especially gluthathione, is struggling to make this child’s biology work!  Running a genetic test will reveal which genes are affected and using nutrigenomic principles support the shortfalls and take out the excesses!  In fact, for a child with constant ear infections and glutathione genetic polymorphism, giving paracetamol for ear infections will lower gluthathione further!

Impaired methylation and sulphation are important detoxification disorders present in autism.  As a result, the child is not able to excrete toxins and metals leading to an increase in body burden.

Gluten and dairy are common insults to the gut.  Removing these common allergens often reduce gut inflammation.  Helping the proper digestive process to take place and replenishing with a good probiotic is important to reduce inflammation in the gut.

Improving nutritional intake through increased minerals, a good, pure omega 3 fatty acid, and activated vitamins can help improve nutritional status and the genes to work better.

Every child’s cause for autism is slightly different.  You need to identify the causative factors and genetic polymorphisms with your child and you will be able to reverse his/her autism to a large degree!

Mold – how it is affecting your health and what you can do about it

You may be suffering a mold problem that you aren’t even aware of, realise or think about!  It is often insidious and not recognised by many healthcare professionals.  However, mold can play havoc in our lives.  With this winter being so wet, walking into the garden can have us stepping onto mouldy citrus fruits on the ground and mouldy fallen leaves that are lying on the ground.  Condensation can be a problem with temperature difference inside and outside the house and we can wake to a “sweating” window or ranchslider.  With doors and windows shut, this can be the perfect breeding ground for molds.

Mold is toxic, and can make you fatigue, out of breath, give you weak immunity, headaches and other respiratory or cognitive problems.  Toxic mold can occur in any colour but the most well-known is black mold.  It can grow in any humid or damp area and produce mycotoxins, which can enter our system through the air we breathe, spores on the food we eat and once it enters our system, can cause multiple or persistent symptoms in our health.

The first step to handling a mold problem is to get rid of it.  If an area of the house is affected, it should be cleaned out, if it is a small area, it can be cleaned with water, soap and a tea tree spray, and dried out.  If it is a large area, you may need an external party to help clear it.  Look out for water stains in the ceiling, wall and floor.  Remove any furniture or carpet that has been soaked in water for 48 hours.  Allow air to flow and keep a dehumidifier on.  Keep your shower and kitchen clean and dry.  Open the curtains and let the sun shine in!

When your immune system is regularly exposed to mold mycotoxins e.g. in a damp building, your immune system keeps firing and fighting in response to the exposure and this creates inflammation.  Mold disrupts our microbiome and creates an imbalance.  You also have to make your body a hostile terrain for the mold and that is by avoiding sugar, grains, processed food, mushrooms, cheese and alcohol. 

Increase your intake of garlic, ginger and turmeric to help with immunity and liver detoxification, and boost glutathione levels.  Increase your antioxidant intake like fresh fruits and vegetables to support your immunity.  I often prescribe herbs to remove and bind on to mold to kick start the healing process.  Each patient’s individual history is important to prescribe appropriately for personalised course of treatment.  Restoring the microbiome is also important to the whole healing process.

So if you have some persistent too hard to solve health issue, you could be battling with mold!

2016 Environmental Working Group Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has published the produce with the most pesticides on them (also termed the Dirty Dozen) and the produce with the least pesticide residues on them (also known as the Clean Fifteen).  The lists are as follows:




Dirty Dozen:

1. Strawberries
2. Apples
3. Nectarines
4. Peaches
5. Celery
6. Grapes
7. Cherries
8. Spinach
9. Tomatoes
10. Sweet bell peppers
11. Cherry tomatoes
12. Cucumbers

Clean Fifteen:

1. Avocado
2. Corn
3. Pineapple
4. Cabbage
5. Sweet Peas
6. Onions
7. Asparagus
8. Mangoes
9. Papaya
10. Kiwifruit
11. Eggplant
12. Honeydew
13. Grapefruit
14. Cantaloupe
15. Cauliflower

Buy organic produce in the Dirty Dozen to minimise pesticide intake to get the biggest bang for your money. Conventionally grown produce for the clean fifteen should be fine.

Why Detox? Tips for a Proper Healthy Detoxification

Do you have headaches regularly?

Are you often tired or lethargic?

Are you suffering from muscle ache and pains regularly?

Do you suffer from allergies?

Do you feel bloated or suffer from diarrhoea, constipation or other digestive issues regularly?

Do you have poor short-term memory or concentration affecting your ability to function at work?

If you answered “yes” to any of the questions above and are not feeling well, toxicity may be the reason you feel unwell.

Toxins are very common in our busy modern world.  Everything we encounter nowadays is exposed to environmental toxins to a certain degree, which include things like heavy metals, pesticides, chemicals, food additives, drugs and pollutants.  These may be present in the air, water and also food that we consume.  Toxins do not only come from your external environment; toxins can also be generated internally by “bad” bacteria, yeasts and parasites in your digestive system.  These internally generated toxins are then absorbed into your bloodstream, affecting your health and vitality.

Toxins are harmful to our body and your body, naturally, has the mechanisms for eliminating them.  However, if you continue to produce, consume or absorb more toxins than you can easily get rid of, your body’s detoxification pathways can become overwhelmed and start to be less effective.  To avoid this, you need to reduce your exposure to toxins as much as possible and optimise your body’s ability to eliminate toxins everyday, rather than letting them build up.  If you are not feeling 100%, a safe proper healthy detoxification program can help.

Do not take any detoxification program lightly.  A natural detoxification program can be one of the most effective ways to rapidly improve your state of health as it will help clear accumulated toxins out of your body and leave your feeling energetic and healthy.  Detoxification is a serious business and you need to ensure that you are safe and comfortable with the detoxification process.  Everyone is different and the detoxification program needs to be suited to your individual needs.  A standard detoxification package may not be suitable for you and may actually leave you feeling sick and tired.  You should not attempt to do a detox without guidance and support from a qualified healthcare professional.

Our 3R Approach to Detoxification

A safe, proper, healthy and effective detoxification program involves the completion of three stages:

1. Remove – this stage focuses on removing “bad bugs” from your digestive system. 
2. Rejuvenate– this stage is aimed at replacing the “bad bugs” and populating your digestive function with the “good” bugs to facilitate the final stage below, so that wastes or toxins eliminated by your liver and kidneys can be moved out of the body effectively. 
3. Release – this is the final stage and it involves the consumption of natural medicines to support and enhance your body’s (especially your liver and kidneys) capacity to remove waste and toxins.

During your detoxification stages, you need to be eating the right foods for your body in order to maximise the detoxification process, a diet based on your individual requirements.

Here are some tips on how you can make simple dietary changes today to help reduce your level of toxicity:

• always look for fresh seasonal fruit and vegetables;
• avoid packaged and processed foods as much as possible;
• eliminate foods containing artificial colours, flavours , sweeteners, additives and flavour enhancers as well as foods containing hydrogenated fats; and
• always read the ingredients list to ensure that your food does not contain high amounts of saturated fat, salt, gluten and/or sugar.

Also, live the detox lifestyle – exercise, drink plenty of water, avoid recreational drugs and minimise the use of heavy metal and chemical based skin / hair care products, cleaning products and deodorants.  If the label contains many numbers and chemical names that you can’t pronounce, avoid them unless you know what they are, e.g. botanical names for essential oils.

The truth about Lemon Detox

A lot of people asked us about the Lemon Detox Diet. The suppliers of the Lemon Detox Diet approached us to sell the product. But we have not taken on the product. Well, we are losing customers from a business point of view because we are not meeting demand and supply, but from a naturopathic and health point of view, we stand by our principles of helping you look good and feel great through sound nutritional practice.

We will not recommend this product because we care. What is more bizarre is that this program is promoted as a Weight Loss Program. How can drinking sugar syrup mixed in lemon juice and cayenne pepper be a healthy way to losing weight? You do not need to be a rocket scientist to work out that if you stop eating, you will lose weight. But, are you losing weight healthily i.e. are you losing fat? What happens to your muscle mass?

Amino acids derived from proteins are the building blocks of your muscles. A sugar syrup, lemon juice and cayenne contain hardly any amino acids if at all. Without amino acids, you lose lean muscles. Loss of lean muscles will help you lose weight but it is not healthy at all. And beware of the rebound weight gain once you start eating again! For more information, visit our Free Articles page and download the article on the truth about Lemon Detox diet.