Toxic Food
Detoxification is all the rage. Being in the health and fitness business, I get no less than ten emails every week and see a seemingly endless string of pop-up adds for detoxification products, some good, some bad, most just a waste of money. But did you know that the greatest source of toxins in your life is likely to be whatever is on the end of your fork. Yep, you’re eating toxins.
Many years ago, Jack LaLanne warned us. He said if something wasn’t food 100 years ago, it isn’t food today. I have to revise that, since he made the statement when I was in high school. Let’s now say 150 years ago. To be healthy, just eat real food — JERF. I’ll have more to say about how we got to this point, but for now I’ll try to be brief. Yeah, I know, it’s not like me.
The biggest threats to your health have nothing to do with nuclear waste or air pollution, nor with the SARS-2 virus. They are: linoleic acid, sugar and glyphosate. And one other, tangentially related issue that I’ll tell you about later. Consumption of both linoleic acid and sugar have exploded to more than 100 times the levels of the preindustrial era, and of course, glyphosate didn’t exist. The shortest way around these deadly toxins is to simply not put them in your mouth in the first place.
These three are fairly deadly toxins, but very slow acting. You can ingest them with seeming impunity, until the day your heart stops beating or your doctor diagnoses you with cancer, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Macular Degeneration or one of the other new diseases that have cropped up in the last 150 years, since we began eating new-fangled, processed, non-food. Along the way, they’ll interfere with optimal health. 200 years ago, these diseases were so rare that most folks didn’t know anyone afflicted with them; today these mass killers are everywhere, taking down close to 2 million people annually. The complete story of these poisons is long and involved, so let’s just jump to the solutions.
First, sugar. It’s hideous and it’s deadly, but you can fix the problem, even if you’ve got type 2 diabetes, by the simple act of eliminating it from your diet. I’ve seen diagnosed type 2 diabetes reversed in less than a month. Problem solved, but don’t think that substituting artificial sweeteners is the ticket, because they’re at least as bad and in some cases, worse. Just learn to enjoy the actual taste of food. It’s an adjustment, I know, but it’s extremely doable. I can assure you, as a former sugar addict, you can kick the habit. And, once you’ve done so, if you have a donut once a month, it probably won’t do any serious harm.
Next up, linoleic acid, an omega 6 fat, largely from artificial oils. While pre-industrial daily intake of omega 6 fats was only a few grams, most folks these days get more than 100 times that. These are more problematic, because they are fats, and they are in every processed food item you buy. While excess sugar disappears overnight, these harmful fats become part of you. Linoleic acid may be the deadliest toxin in your world. The problem here is that fats are not easily dislodged. In fact, it could take seven years or more to fully normalize your fats, and that’s if you’re not obese. And the answer isn’t dosing with fish oil or other sources of omega 3, because the problem isn’t so much a shortage of omega 3 as a surplus of omega 6. And fish oil and olive oil still contain some omega 6.
So, where does all this linoleic acid come from? You may think that swapping out your corn oil and Crisco for extra virgin olive oil is the answer, and it’s a good start, but the vast majority of your omega six ingestion is hidden. And the predominant source of linoleic acid will shock you: chicken. Restaurants rarely use good cooking or baking oils (tallow, ghee, EVO) because of cost. Restaurants operate on a tight budget and fail more than just about any other type of business. As much as I love to eat out, I rarely do so these days because it just isn’t safe. And those Crispy Cremes at the office? Loaded with omega 6. So much so that the oil is significantly more of a health hazard than the sugar. Stop at your favorite deli for a quick sandwich? Sorry, the mayo, mustard, and bread are loaded with omega 6. Pick up a chicken salad sandwich at the quick mart while you’re filling up? There’s a month’s supply of omega six in one of those things.
Synthetic oils weren’t a problem 150 years ago, because they didn’t exist. And as I said, neither did those diseases. And while some folks ate chicken (most raised chickens for eggs, not for meat) those chickens were different. We have bred both chickens and turkeys into something that is an affront to nature.
Next up, glyphosate, code name: RoundUp. Sadly, this poison is ubiquitous. Buying organic is helpful, but even some farmers claiming to be organic still us it. Although there is no “antidote” that I’m aware of, I recommend supplementing with glycine, 3000-5000 mg daily for 60-90 days to start, and 500-1000 mg as maintenance. Glyphosate is a hybrid of glycine, an amino acid involved in numerous pathways and a building block for collagen. Glyphosate can attach to glycine receptors, downregulating cellular function, so supplementing with glycine can reduce the available receptors to which glyphosate can attach.
Glyphosate is perhaps the most significant toxin in the destruction of beneficial gut bacteria, which use the shikimate pathway (which homo sapiens lack) for the biosynthesis of the aromatic amino acids, phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan. Since tryptophan is essential to the serotonin-dopamine pathways, this gut disruption could lead to mood issues, including depression, as well as other nerve related dysfunction.
Although it was denied for many years, Glyphosate has recently been demonstrated as a carcinogen. While Monsanto effectively defended Glyphosate from its earliest days, recent court decisions have gone against Glyphosate, and its current owner, Bayer. Sadly, America uses more than a pound of glyphosate per person annually, up from zero in 1974, and there are no regulations against its use in farming. The result of this proliferation is that glyphosate is now in both the air you breathe and the water you drink.