Reducing Our Exposure to Environmental Toxins
As a nutrition therapist, my focus is mostly on food. However, as a holistic nutrition therapist, I’m also interested in other areas that impact our health. This includes sleep, stress, social connection, and our “toxic load” or “toxic burden.” Everyone has a toxic load, but the degree varies from person to person. Things like air pollution, soil and water quality, personal care products, household cleaning products, working conditions, and food storage can all contribute to one’s toxic load.
Unfortunately, environmental toxins are all around us and are nearly impossible to escape. As discouraging as that is, it’s good to know that there are ways to reduce your toxic exposure, ranging from small tweaks to bigger investments. Also, it’s important to keep in mind that stressing about toxic exposure can be just as bad as the exposure itself. So it’s important to recognize where you can make improvements, but not dwell on it too much.
Another thing we can do to help ourselves is support our natural digestive and detoxification system. I really cannot stress enough how vital our GI system is; it houses 70-80% of our immune system, absorbs critical nutrients from the food we eat, it communicates intimately with our brain and nervous system, and it detoxifies and expels toxins and waste to keep them from building up in our system. Honestly, the list could continue.
What Are Environmental Toxins
Environmental toxins are chemicals found in everything from the air & water to personal care products & food storage. The most common environmental toxins include pesticides and Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs).
Pesticides are pretty well understood, and include herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, rodenticides, and algicides. Essentially anything that will kill something that gets in the way of growing a crop. The most common pesticide is Round-Up, which contains the highly toxic chemical glyphosate. The purpose of using such chemicals is to desiccate the crop ahead of harvest, allowing for a faster, more efficient harvesting process. However, this “efficiency” is at the detriment of our hormonal, neurological, reproductive, and digestive systems.
POPs include the now-infamous “forever chemicals.” These include PFAS, PFOAs, dioxins, PCBs, HCBs, and more. Part of the criteria of being considered a forever chemical is that it remains intact for an incredibly long time (hence the name forever), and is readily distributed through soil, water, and especially the air. Perhaps the saddest part of all of this is that POPs and other environmental toxins can cross the placenta, so even newborn infants have some level of contamination in their blood the minute they arrive in the world.
Other common sources of environmental toxins include Teflon or non-stick coating, plastic (even if it’s BPA-free), aluminum foil, fragrance, nail polish, artificial food dyes & flavor, take-out containers, smoking, car exhaust, waterproof furniture & clothing, microwave popcorn bags, mattresses & pillows, rugs, and many more.
Why They Are Problematic
I feel like this section is stating the obvious, but I wanted to highlight two areas of particular concern when it comes to environmental toxins and our health.
The first is xenoestrogens. These are chemicals that interfere with our body’s natural ability to produce and metabolize estrogen. This is problematic because excess estrogen leads to estrogen dominance, which can contribute to a variety of symptoms and conditions. These include, but are not limited to, amenorrhea (or loss of a period), weight gain and/or obesity, PCOS, endometriosis, and in some cases, uterine & breast cancer.
The second is obesogens. These are environmental toxins that, again, interfere with our hormones and promote fat gain and retention. Many of the toxins I’ve already listed are considered obesogens, and many are found in personal care items, household cleaning products (including detergents), pesticides, and the like.
What You Can Do About Your Exposure
If you’re anything like me, you may be reading this and feeling completely hopeless. I get it. I have lost many a night’s sleep going down rabbit holes, worrying about my & my kids’ exposure to these harmful chemicals. While it’s easy (and valid) to feel that way, we actually can do things to mitigate our exposure.
The first, and most obvious thing, is to avoid toxins as much as possible. It is impossible to avoid them entirely, which is why I encourage a “low-tox” lifestyle. I also think about this as controlling the controllable. I can’t necessarily control things like the packaging our bread comes in, but I can be mindful of the personal care products I use on myself and my kids.
While being low-tox is, in my opinion, important and well worth it, I think it’s just as important not to stress over your (controllable) exposure. That might sound surprising, but the stress caused by worrying can be just as detrimental, if not more so, than the actual toxic exposure. Our body is equipped with a natural detoxification pathway, so as long as that is supported and working effectively, you can be a little less worried about the detriments from any toxic exposure.
That said, it’s a big job to detoxify, so just because your body can do it doesn’t mean you should overburden it.
Supporting Our Natural Detox Pathways
When I start panicking and feeling hopeless about our exposure to toxins, I rein it in by remembering that our bodies have a natural detox system. However, even this system can get bogged down, so it’s important to support it regularly, versus doing these one-off, “fad” detox programs.
That said, some individuals would do well with a proper detoxification program that can reset their system. This should be a multi-faceted approach, using food, hydration, movement, and lymphatic support to properly remove toxins from the body. In addition, because there are three phases to detoxification, there is an ideal order in which to move through a program like this.
If you are looking for general, overall support of your detoxification pathways, you should focus on a well-balanced, varied diet that includes minimally processed, whole foods. Vitamins B, C, and E are especially important, as well as selenium and zinc. Sulfur-rich foods, such as garlic & cruciferous veggies, should be included, as well as adequate, good-quality protein.
It’s also important to avoid alcohol consumption. When confronted with alcohol, the liver puts everything else on hold in order to detox the alcohol as quickly as possible. This means it’s likely your detox pathways won’t actually be detoxing other toxins which can then build up in your body.
My Favorite Products
I’ll be working on updating this, but if you’re looking to make some swaps to lower-tox items, you can check out some of my recommendations here.
Are you ready to start feeling your best?
Knowing where or how to start is often the biggest hurdle we face when starting something new. I’ve been there, too. I’m here to help so you can finally start feeling your best.