Episode 27: Identifying Toxins in Your Diet

Transcript

Hey everybody, my name is Rachel Loth and I live out in Fort Worth, Texas. I've been married about 19 years and we have six kids ages seven to 16 and we have been using doTERRA essential oils since I was pregnant with my first child so quite a while and we've used them for all sorts of things with of course long lists of amazing results. But I'm gonna talk today specifically about what we've learned about food and in gut health and toxins and how we've used our oils to get healthier in this regard.  

So, we're gonna talk about three things. How can we identify toxins coming in our diet so we wanna stop those bad things from coming into our body in the first place? What foods help us get rid of toxins, how we can support all of what our body is designed to do originally. And what oils and supplements we can use to then flush out any toxins that do get in because we live in a toxic world and it just happens.

The Power of Our Bodies 

So, our bodies are wonderfully made. They're very complex and one of the most eye-opening things for me on my own journey has been learning how everything is tied together, how intricately everything works together in our bodies. So, we're created to be this symphony, this beautiful symphony where everything works together, but when one thing gets off, we get toxins thrown in there, it's like throwing a wrench into the whole thing and we get noise and so what we wanna do is work on this process of detoxing always so that we have our body working at its fullest potential. 

Is your Food Hurting You?

One thing that I've told myself over time because we are surrounded by a lot of options when it comes to food in America is if we treat our body like garbage, we will feel like garbage. Sounds kind of harsh, but a lot of what we can choose to eat is technically pretty close to garbage and so we want to love our bodies and love ourselves enough to not put those in. 

We live in a culture that's obsessed with food so everywhere we go. It's on TV, it's on billboards. We give kids food and treats for playing soccer. We give them treats for doing their homework. We go to church and we have junk food together. And so, I totally sympathize that as we talk about food you might have overwhelming feelings that this is really hard, but it actually is really doable and we're gonna talk about baby steps and how to get started. 

Finding Answers Through Essential Oils

We are all busy. We have, our five kids, we just came out of seven sports at one time. So, we are on the go. Sometimes we compromise our beliefs to get through the day, but we do our best and that's all I'm hoping to inspire you to do today. 

So, I first started learning about food 12 years ago. My second son was three. I began to look at what was in food and this was way before I even knew what an essential oil was, but we began to look at what was he bringing into his body in his environment and in his food and that's when I began to make that connection for the first time. 

It wasn't until four years later that I finally found the right practitioner to connect with who would show me this full connection between his gut health and what he was eating. At that time our whole family went gluten free and we began to pull out foods that were irritating him and so that taught me a lot about how important food is. 

Detoxing for your Health

So fast forward to 2015. We moved into this beautiful home and I found myself in a very, very low place and a very hard place where I needed to make a change and so even though I was already gluten and dairy free, I was still allowing a lot of toxins into my body and so working with my naturopath, we put a huge focus on detox. 

So, this was June almost two years ago and I launched myself into learning about detox and how my body works. I got really strict about my food and began to heal. I lost 80 pounds over about 18 months, but more importantly I detox and so I'm gonna give you some tips on how you can begin the process of doing this for yourself. 

Why to Detox

Our detox system is intricate. We have many, many ways that our body moves toxins out of our body. Skin, lungs, liver, kidneys, our bowels. Keeping things moving is very, very important. Your lymphatic system moves fluid through your body that flushes out toxins, also very important. And so, we're gonna talk about how to support all of those systems. 

Learning to Detox your Food

So first how can we identify toxins in our diet and stop them from coming in? So, focus on whole foods. Everybody knows we're supposed to eat our fruits and vegetables and the days can get away from you and you're like oh my gosh, I haven't had anything green in a couple days so every day making sure that we're getting those greens and those veggies in, eggs, meat. 

Could your Grandma Make This?

I like to think one, can I make this at home if I'm looking at something to purchase. Could my grandmother make this at home? So, my grandmother could cook eggs in a pan and she could stir in some spinach, but she couldn't make Cheetos in her kitchen and so that would fall under processed foods. 

Of course, anything that has an ingredients list is somewhat processed and the longer the list, probably the worse for you it is. So, we wanna avoid those things as much as possible and focus on whole foods as much as possible. 

5 Foods to Avoid

I'm gonna give you five things to avoid to start off with if you are brand new to you know you need to fix your diet, you know you need to do better, but you're not quite sure where to start. 

Sugar

So, number one, high fructose corn syrup. Nothing with high fructose corn syrup should ever go into your body. There's absolutely no reason, no need whatsoever. Sugar in general is very hard on our systems. It's hard on our body. It deeply affects our gut health so sugar is something we all know we need to eat less of, but especially high fructose corn syrup. Cut those products right out. 

Food Dyes

Same thing goes for dyes. Anything with food dye in it is not a health food no matter what it is and you kind of have to be diligent about checking packages because the weirdest things like pickles can have dye in them. So, anything with dyes, cut those out. 

Bad Oils

The third thing is bad oils so anything hydrogenated. Vegetable oil, soy and canola, those kind of fit under that vegetable umbrella. Terrible for you. And you can go on from there and do some more research on other oils that you should avoid, but for simplicity sake, never ever vegetable, hydrogenated, soy or canola oil. 

The Dirty Dozen

The fourth thing is look at the dirty dozen. So, it can be overwhelming when we talk about eat as much organic as you can because it feels so hard and so expensive so look up the dirty dozen which is the top 12 fruits and vegetables that you should always eat organic. I have taken that list with me to the store many times and done my best. You might pick up something, you're like the organic's so much more expensive, but it's not on the list so you can buy the non-organic if you need to for your budget and move on. 

Nitrates

The fifth thing is nitrates. So, nitrates are typically found in processed meats like bacon and lunch meat and anything with nitrates should be avoided. There's almost always now an option that's nitrate free and so that's a really easy one these days to do. We cook everything in healthy oils, usually... We do use nitrate free bacon, ideally from our local farmers as much as we can and so we'll cook in the bacon grease as well. I know some people disagree with that, but stick to those healthy oils.