Everyone seems concerned about eating too much but what if you’re fat, sick or tired because of what you eat, not how much you eat? There is a very strong case for clearing the chemicals from your diet to relieve symptoms, improve mood and lose weight.
How do chemicals make you fat and keep you fat, sick and tired?
1. Chemicals Disrupt Hormones
Chemicals disregulate your hormones, particularly leptin, which is the boss of your metabolism.
When your hormones are out of whack, you cannot lose weight.
Your hormones tell your brain to keep eating or to stop eating. When this communication is impaired, the messages get scrambled.
2. Chemicals Cause Inflammation
Your body protects vital organs like the brain and heart by storing toxins in the fat and then avoids fat-burning so that these will stay out of the bloodstream. This inflammation is a protective measure and hard-wired into our biology. Inflammation can cause weight gain and stubborn weight retention.
Inflammation is the gateway to disease. Heart disease is inflammation of the arteries. Rheumatoid arthritis is inflammation in the joints. Colitis is inflammation of the large intestine.
Think of inflammation as a fire burning in your body and every time you take in chemicals, you fan the flames.
3. Chemicals Destroy Helpful Microbes
Chemicals immobilize or kill off heathy microbes in your gut. This may be the most profound driver of illness and obesity. We rely heavily on the healthy bacteria in our body to digest and create nutrition from the foods we eat. If you are eating chemicals you risk taking out your work force and becoming malnourished and very sick as a result.
The bacteria in your gut may determine whether you are fat or thin.
This is relatively new science but in any case, the fewer chemicals you eat, the better. There is overwhelming evidence that the chemical load you carry in your body has a huge impact on your health and weight.
With 80,000+ chemicals in our environment, we’re all exposed. Some of us more so than others: city dwellers, mine workers and painters, for example. If you work in a retail environment you have daily exposure to formaldehyde in the air you breathe. The personal products you use have endocrine-disrupting compounds. Deodorant, shampoo, fragrances and toothpaste have toxicants that build up in your body and alter your hormone levels. It should be illegal, but it isn’t. It's up to each of us to navigate the chemical minefield we call modern life and avoid the chemical exposures to the best of our ability. Knowing what and where they are is the first step.
There is no argument that our food supply is inundated with chemical additives: pesticides, herbicides and fungicides, artificial flavors and colors, preservatives, antibiotics, synthetic hormones and more. Many of these are clearly listed on the labels.
A REAL FOOD diet is your best defense.
What does that look like? Watch my 3 steps to walk away from the western diet: eliminate poisons, avoid products and limit processed food.
Start today by raiding your pantry and removing everything with chemicals on the label. Just throw it away and don't buy it ever again.
Don't think about how much it cost you, think about how much it will cost you if you eat it.
