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Top Tips to help you avoid toxic chemicals

Tips to Help You Avoid Toxic Chemicals

Eighty-four thousand chemicals are legal for commerce in the US, all essentially unregulated. In 2011, chemicals accounted for more than $763 billion in revenue. As an example, the six billion pounds of BPA produced every year generates about $8 billion in profits for its manufacturers.

Roughly 13,000 chemicals are used in cosmetics alone, of which only 10 percent have been evaluated for safety, and new ones are introduced every year. Ordinary household products can be major sources of chemical exposure that add to your body’s toxic load.

Within such a dysfunctional system, you are the best one to keep your family safe. Although no one can successfully steer clear of ALL chemicals and pollutants, you can minimize your exposure by keeping a number of key principles in mind.

  1. Eat a diet focused on locally grown, fresh, and ideally organic whole foods. Processed and packaged foods are a common source of chemicals such as BPA and phthalates. Wash fresh produce well, especially if it’s not organically grown.
  2. Choose grass-pastured, sustainably raised meats and dairy to reduce your exposure to hormones, pesticides, and fertilizers. Avoid milk and other dairy products that contain the genetically engineered recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH or rBST).
  3. Rather than eating conventional or farm-raised fish, which are often heavily contaminated with PCBs and mercury, supplement with a high-quality krill oil, or eat fish that is wild-caught and lab tested for purity, such as wild-caught Alaskan salmon.
  4. Buy products that come in glass bottles rather than plastic or cans, as chemicals can leach out of plastics (and plastic can linings), into the contents; be aware that even “BPA-free” plastics typically leach other endocrine-disrupting chemicals that are just as bad for you as BPA.
  5. Store your food and beverages in glass, rather than plastic, and avoid using plastic wrap.
  6. Use glass baby bottles.
  7. Replace your non-stick pots and pans with ceramic or glass cookware.
  8. Filter your tap water for both drinking AND bathing. If you can only afford to do one, filtering your bathing water may be more important, as your skin absorbs contaminants. To remove the endocrine-disrupting herbicide Atrazine, make sure your filter is certified to remove it. According to the EWG, perchlorate can be filtered out using a reverse osmosis filter.
  9. Look for products made by companies that are Earth-friendly, animal-friendly, sustainable, certified organic, and GMO-free. This applies to everything from food and personal care products to building materials, carpeting, paint, baby items, furniture, mattresses, and others.
  10. Use a vacuum cleaner with a HEPA filter to remove contaminated house dust. This is one of the major routes of exposure to flame retardant chemicals.
  11. When buying new products such as furniture, mattresses, or carpet padding, consider buying flame retardant free varieties, containing naturally less flammable materials, such as leather, wool, cotton, silk, and Kevlar.
  12. Avoid stain- and water-resistant clothing, furniture, and carpets to avoid perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs).
  13. Make sure your baby’s toys are BPA-free, such as pacifiers, teething rings, and anything your child may be prone to suck or chew on—even books, which are often plasticized. It’s advisable to avoid all plastic, especially flexible varieties.
  14. Use natural cleaning products or make your own. Avoid those containing 2-butoxyethanol (EGBE) and methoxydiglycol (DEGME)—two toxic glycol ethers that can compromise your fertility and cause fetal harm.
  15. Switch over to organic toiletries, including shampoo, toothpaste, antiperspirants, and cosmetics. EWG’s Skin Deep database can help you find personal care products that are free of phthalates and other potentially dangerous chemicals.
  16. Replace your vinyl shower curtain with a fabric one.
  17. Replace feminine hygiene products (tampons and sanitary pads) with safer alternatives.
  18. Look for fragrance-free products. One artificial fragrance can contain hundreds—even thousands—of potentially toxic chemicals. Avoid fabric softeners and dryer sheets, which contain a mishmash of synthetic chemicals and fragrances.
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Candida Diet – What you can eat!

This is the strictest week, being carbohydrate free, and it affects people differently. When my wife and I did this jointly over ten years ago, she thrived on it and I felt like death warmed up! One important proviso is that people with M.E. or CFS should be aware that their energy may crash in this week, and if so they must eat some carbs mixed with protein in order for them to be able to function.

(O) denotes that the food should be organic.

(G) denotes that this food is a grey area.

Rather than formulate prescriptive recipes, this information takes the form of foods you can eat, and you are free to mix and match them to suit you and your tastes.

 

Proteins

Chicken (O); Turkey (O); Eggs (O) unprocessed organic ‘happy meat’ (O); sardines; cod; trout;

soya mince; haddock; seeds (pumpkin, linseed and hemp are best but all are OK; nuts (freshly

cracked); unsweetened soya milk( diluted with water 50/50); tofu (G); shellfish (G); mackerel (G); salmon (G); tuna (G).

 

Veg

broccoli; spinach; kale; runner beans; peas; courgettes; garlic; cabbage; sprouts;

cauliflower; onions; lettuce; watercress; alfalfa sprouts; celery; fennel; salad leaves etc.

 

Fats

Butter; extra virgin olive oil (do not use for cooking); coconut oil; palm oil; omega and seed oils (do

not use for cooking); ghee.

lentils; swede; broad beans;

Drinks

Water (filtered or bottled); herbal teas (not fruit teas); Rooibos tea (again not fruit flavours); caro;

 

Condiments

herbs & spices; yeast free stock; organic meat stock;

 

 

 

Weeks 2, 3 and 4

 

The foods included during weeks 2 to 4 can be a bit more varied; it is advisable to plan ahead to make this as easy as possible.

 

Proteins

Chicken (O); Turkey (O); Eggs (O) unprocessed organic happy meat (O); sardines; cod; trout;

soya mince; haddock; seeds (pumpkin, linseed and hemp are best but all are okay); nuts (freshly

cracked); hummus; unsweetened soya milk(diluted with water 50/50); quinoa; etc. Yoghurt

(unsweetened) (G); tofu (G); shellfish (G); mackerel (G); salmon (G); tuna (G).

 

Veg

Peppers; broccoli; spinach; kale; runner beans; peas; courgettes; garlic; cabbage; sprouts;

cauliflower; carrots; onions; lettuce; watercress; alfalfa sprouts; celery; fennel; salad leaves etc.

 

Fats

Butter; extra virgin olive oil (do not use for cooking); coconut oil; palm oil; omega and seed oils (do

not use for cooking); ghee (clarified butter).

 

Carbs – eaten in small quantities

Quinoa; beans (Kidney beans – Black eye beans etc); lentils; sweet potato; swede; broad beans;

beetroot; oats; oat cakes (try & avoid wheat and corn and keep it unprocessed); rice (brown

Basmati is best); rye crackers; oat milk. Pasta (G); Couscous (G); any type of grain (G).

 

Drinks

Water (filtered or bottled); herbal teas (not fruit teas); Rooibos tea (again not fruit flavours); caro;

Barley Cup.

Condiments etc…

Carob (sugar free); herbs & spices; yeast free stock; organic meat stock; coconut.

 

 

4 week maintenance plan

 

  • Introduce fruit gradually (1 piece a day maximum and only if it doesn’t upset you). The best fruits to eat are apples and pears.
  • Tinned Tomatoes can be used sparingly (only if it they don’t upset you)
  • Remain off sugar and stimulants (If circumstances do force you to stray, up your dose of Custom Probiotics CP-1 for a week and be ultra careful with your food).

Proteins

Soya mince; chicken (O); turkey (O); quinoa; sardines; cod; trout; eggs (O); haddock; cottage cheese; unprocessed organic ‘happy meat’ (O); seeds (pumpkin, linseed, & hemp are best but all are OK); nuts (freshly cracked); hummus; chick peas; unsweetened soya milk (diluted with water 50/50); yoghurt (unsweetened)(G); tofu (G); shellfish (G); mackerel (G); salmon (G); tuna (G).

 

Veg

Peppers; broccoli; spinach; kale; runner beans; peas; courgettes; garlic; cabbage; sprouts; cauliflower; carrots; onions; lettuce; water cress; alfalfa sprouts; celery; fennel; salad leaves.

 

Carbs – still to be eaten in small quantities

Quinoa; beans (Kidney beans, Black eye beans etc…);lentils; sweet potato; swede; broad beans; beetroot; oats; oat cakes (try & avoid wheat and corn and keep it unprocessed); rice (brown Basmati is best);rye crackers; oat milk; Rice Dream (vanilla flavour is nice on the cold cereals);

‘Millet Rice’ cereal; sweetcorn. Any type of grain (G); Pasta (G); Couscous (G).

 

Fats

Butter; extra virgin olive oil (do not use for cooking); coconut oil; palm oil; omega and seed oils (do not use for cooking); ghee.

 

Drinks

Water (filtered or bottled);herbal teas (not fruit teas); Rooibos tea (again not fruit flavours); Caro; Barley Cup.

 

Fruit

Apples; pears; fresh tomatoes (G).

 

Condiments etc…

Carob (sugar free); herbs & spices; yeast free stock; organic meat stock; coconut.

 

It may be useful for you to obtain a pocket book on the glycemic index of foods. This will give you relative GI values – choose one with foods in a list form for ease and quick reference.

 

 

HELPFUL GUIDELINES FOR THE PROGRAMME

 

  • ·      Organic is the best choice.
  • ·      You should try to drink plenty of filtered/bottled water a day. Avoid drinking from a soft plastic bottle that has allowed to become warm.
  • ·      Avoid drinking with a meal.
  • ·      Tofu is a grey area so if you are not a vegetarian, use sparingly.
  • ·      Eggs can be boiled, poached, scrambled or an omelette but not fried.
  • ·      Poultry should have skin removed. All meat & eggs must be organic and as lean as possible in order to avoid ingesting hormones and antibiotics.
  • ·      Tinned fish (if you can’t get fresh) should always be in brine or spring water.
  • ·      Potatoes should be boiled or steamed.
  • ·      Carbohydrates should not be refined e.g. – white
  • ·      Water (filtered or bottled)should be tepid especially for taking supplements with. If you can afford it invest in a ‘Reverse Osmosis’ filtration unit. Also, read the book ‘Your Body’s Many Cries For Water’ (ISBN 1903571499)
  • ·      Try & eat as balanced a diet as possible
  • ·      There is no limit to the amount of veg you can eat
  • ·      Eat as much variety as possible and learn to try new foods !
  • Before initiating the diet, start the process of healing your leaky gut.
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Candida Diet – Foods to avoid

THE CANDIDA DIET – AARRGGHH !!!!!

The more books you read on anti-candida diets, the more that you come to realize no-one can fully agree on what you should and shouldn’t eat. There are definitely grey areas, but the crux of the matter is that you are trying to make life as difficult as possible for the fungal organism that are causing your health problems. Rather than be on a restrictive diet for years, our philosophy for getting rid of candida overgrowth is to hit it as hard as possible in a short space of time. It is important to remember that you will not rectify a fungal dysbiosis by diet alone, as there will always be substrate in the gut for it to feed on, but it is an integral part of the treatment strategy.

There are diets that are quite moderate in terms of the foods that they allow, and unsurprisingly, they give a moderate result.  Some well known Practitioners have had their clients on anti-candida diets for as long as five years with no end in sight! The stricter you are with your diet, the better and quicker the result you will get. It starts with a 4 week plan which should then be followed up with a maintenance plan.

The first week has, if possible, no carbohydrates in it and weeks 2 to 4 have small amounts of complex carbohydrates in them. (You will need to design your own menu plan.) If you are a vegetarian then your challenge is slightly harder, just do the best you can and remember it’s only for 4 weeks. Please note that the purpose of this diet is to get rid of the candida overgrowth, so it is a diet for a particular purpose. We don’t recommend it as a longterm healthy diet. As long as you keep off the foods that encourage the candida to grow and foods to which you are intolerant, you will do well. Above all, remember to check every food label. Please note that these lists of foods are not exhaustive and are given as guidelines for the sorts of foods you need to avoid. Foods which are considered a grey area are written in italics.

Sugar:

The first thing we need to do is to remove sugar from the diet – in whatever form. This is one of the most important foods to remove as sugar is a ready food source for the candida.

So avoid any food or ingredient ending in –ose because it is a sugar, e.g. fructose; maltose; glucose; sucrose; dextrose; lactose (as in products that come from a cow) etc… Make sure you check those food labels for the list of ingredients!

Also products like honey; dried fruit; fruit; tinned fruit; syrup; fruit juice; malt; desserts; cakes; canned drinks; tinned tomatoes; sweets; biscuits etc…

Stimulants:

Stimulants have a similar effect on the candida as sugar because they cause the adrenal glands to release glycogen into the bloodstream, which is quickly broken down into glucose, so these also need to be avoided.

Tea; green tea; coffee; sugar; alcohol; chocolate; tobacco; fizzy drinks; anything with caffeine in i.e. stimulant drinks.

Fungi & Yeast:

Stay off fungi and yeast products for the four week programme. After this, on the maintenance programme, they can be reintroduced in moderation. However, if you are intolerant to them you should stay off them for the maintenance programme too.

Bread; breadcrumbs; most stocks; Vegemite; Bovril; soya sauce; mushrooms; certain vitamin tablets; anything fermented (including alcohol); vinegar and associated products; Quorn; Monosodium Glutamate (If you have a Chinese meal you can ask for it to be cooked without this); peanuts and peanut butter. Malted productsanything that is smokednuts (nuts grow mould on them very quickly so if you have them at all make sure they are freshly cracked.)

Grains & Carbohydrates:

Avoid all grains that you are intolerant to along with processed carbohydrates. Learn to rotate your grains and carbohydrates and try not to make them the main part of the meal.

Avoid jacket potatoes as they have a high glycemic index (this depicts how quickly a food is converted to sugar in the body).

Bread; pizza; pasta; white rice; wheat; jacket potatoes; refined carbohydrates; grains you are intolerant to; corn.

Coming soon – the 2 month diet Plan!

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Immediate and delayed food allergies

The best known and well-studied form of food allergies is called a Type 1 immune reaction. Type 1 food allergies occur in less than 5 percent of the population — mostly in children, They are also called immediate-onset, IgE-mediated and/or atopic food allergies. Usually occurring in the genetically predisposed individual, the immune system begins creating a specific type of antibody called IgE (immunoglobulin IgE) to certain foods. One side of the IgE antibody will recognize and tenaciously bind to the allergic food. The other side of the antibody is attached to a specialized immune cell packed with histamine, called the Mast cell. Primed for action, the IgE antibody now only have to patiently wait for re-exposure to food allergens. When you eat the allergic food the next time, IgE antibodies hungrily latch onto the food. Instantaneously histamine and other allergy-related chemicals — called chemical mediators — are released from the mast cell, rapidly bringing on the unwelcome appearance of stomach cramping, diarrhea, skin rashes, hives, swelling, wheezing or the most dreaded of Type 1 reactions, anaphylaxis.

Type 3 Delayed-Onset Food Allergy… Type 3 immune reactions are much more commonly involved in food allergy than Type 1 reactions. A Type 3 food allergy also involves the immune system. They occur when your immune system creates an overabundance of IgG antibodies to a particular food. The IgG antibodies, instead of attaching to mast cells like IgE antibodies in Type 1 allergies, bind directly to the food as it enters the bloodstream, forming different sizes of so-called circulating immune complexes (food allergens bound to antibodies circulating in the bloodstream). The allergic symptoms in Type 3 immune reactions are delayed in onset, appearing anywhere from within two hours up to several days after consuming allergic foods (Example: migraine headaches characteristically first appear 48 hours after allergic foods are eaten).

Delayed food reactions may emanate from any organ or tissue in the human body, provoking over 100 allergic symptoms and well over 150 different medical diseases. An estimated 60 to 80 million Americans suffer from clinically significant food allergies, most all of whom suffer delayed symptoms.

Immediate vs Delayed Food Allergy… Here’s a overview of the important differences between these two types of food allergies: Once thought to be the only “true” food allergy, immediate food allergy is common in children, but rare in adults. Once thought to be uncommon at best, delayed food allergy is now thought by many investigators to be quite common. In fact, it is the most common form of food allergy in children and adults. Allergic symptoms in immediate reactions occur within two hours of eating. Allergic symptoms in delayed reactions do not appear for at least 2 hours, not infrequently showing up 24 to 48 hours later (there are even reports of delayed symptoms appearing 3 to 7 days after eating). Immediate-onset food allergy involves one or two foods in the diet, as a rule. Delayed reactions characteristically involve 3 to 10 foods, sometimes as many of 20 foods in very allergic, “leaky” individuals. Because a small amount of a single food is involved and the allergic symptoms appear immediately, immediate food allergy is usually self-diagnosed. You eat the food. It causes symptoms quickly. You see the connection. You stop eating it.

Due to a combination of delayed symptoms, multiple foods, and food cravings, Type 3 delayed-onset food allergies are rarely self-diagnosed. To detect the allergic foods here you will need the skills of a health professional who’s smart about food allergies and the use of laboratory immunoassays needed to help you discover what foods you’re allergic to. Immediate food allergy involves foods that are rarely eaten. Unfortunately, delayed food allergy involves commonly eaten foods, foods that you eat every day and may even crave. When people quit eating foods that cause immediate symptoms, they have no withdrawal or detoxification symptoms. They don’t crave or miss these foods. Powerful addictive cravings and disabling withdrawal symptoms are reported in over 30 percent of delayed food allergy patients when they stop eating food. Immediate food allergens primarily affect the skin, airway and the digestive tract. Virtually any tissue, organ or system of the body can be affected by delayed food allergy. This includes the brain, joints, muscles, hormone-producing glands, lungs, kidneys, and nervous system. In fact, delayed-onset food allergy is linked to over 100 medical conditions involving every single part of the body and some 100 different allergic symptoms.

Immediate-onset food allergies are frequently permanent and fixed allergies. Once you develop an allergy to peanuts or shellfish, for example, it’s for life. Delayed-onset food allergies are commonly reversible. If you strictly eliminate the allergic foods for 3 to 6 months, you can bring most of them back into your diet and remain symptom-free. Because delayed-onset food allergies are so often undetected and untreated, they lie behind many of chronic medical conditions of unknown cause. These allergic people suffer for years, even decades, without ever suspecting that their health problems are rooted in what they eat. Immediate-onset food allergy is often a skin-test positive allergy. The doctor can diagnose it with a simple skin test. Delayed food allergies are skin-test negative. The traditional skin tests are poor tests for detecting delayed food allergies. Instead, delayed reactions food often require state-of-the-art blood tests. These tests detect serum levels of IgG antibodies to foods — IgA antibody as well as IgG in gluten sensitivity and celiac disease. Because delayed food allergies do not make themselves apparent immediately and can be caused by multiple foods, they are very difficult to detect without sophisticated laboratory testing. There are many forms of allergy testing available such as cytotoxic, computerized cytotoxic, applied kinesiology, vega tests, and others, but each of these tests share the same critical disadvantage… they are frequently unreliable, so the test of choice is the IgG ELISA food allergy test.

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Early Testing Could Limit Risk Of Celiac Disease

Individuals showing the early symptoms of digestive health condition celiac disease have been advised to seek medical attention.

Speaking at Digestive Disease Week 2011, researchers from Finland revealed that diagnosing the illness in its earliest stages could be beneficial for patients, Celiac.com reports.

Scientists from the University of Tampere discovered that sufferers found relief in adopting a gluten-free diet before the symptoms worsened.

Participants who had chosen to remove the substance from their diet were found to display significant mucosal healing as a result.

Senior investigator Katri Kaukinen said: “If we see early signs of disease, why should we wait when we can do something for them now?”

Web MD urges people to familiarise themselves with the symptoms of celiac disease in a bid to reduce the risk of worsening the condition, which can lead to infertility in women.

Patients have been advised to look out for diarrhea, weight loss and flatulence, which are well-known signs of the illness.

Extract: Patients who are displaying symptoms of celiac disease have been urged to seek medical attention.