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Episode 72: Avoiding Toxins in Your Family's Food
In this episode Megan Hunter, a registered nurse, talks about how you can avoid toxins in your food. She'll discuss how foods can contribute to your toxic load, how you can know what food to avoid, how essential oils can help as you are cooking and preparing foods, as well as what products doTERRA has to help cleanse toxins from your body.
doTERRA: It seems like you can't do anything these days without hearing about toxins. They can even be in the food you eat, so it might seem like an impossible task to stay away from toxins in your everyday life. But today, we'll discuss how you can take steps to make an impact on the toxic load in your life.
Welcome back to Essential Oil Solutions with doTERRA, the podcast where you'll hear exciting, useful, and simple everyday uses for essential oils from experts in the field. If you like what you hear today, rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen. We always appreciate hearing from you.
Today, we're excited to talk to Megan Hunter, a registered nurse, about how she and her family work to avoid toxins in food. Megan, thank you so much for sitting down with us today to talk about this incredible topic.
Megan Hunter: Thanks so much. I'm excited to be here.
doTERRA: So I think a lot of people find that once they start paying attention to toxins in their life, they start seeing them everywhere. One of those places they might start showing up is foods. Can foods contribute to my body's toxic load?
Megan: Well, of course it does. I think—we know so many different ways that toxins can enter our body. Right? We know that we have some ways that we cannot control, like pollution and, you know, even water we drink and things like that.
doTERRA: Right.
Megan: But we can be really intentional about the food we put in our body. And there definitely are foods that contribute to that toxic load. And then there's foods that help us to balance and help us eliminate and decrease that toxic load.
doTERRA: I think that's so right. And I think you touched on a big thing right there. There are some things that we can't avoid, but we should definitely try and take control of the things that we can. When I'm going about my day grocery shopping or picking out the foods for my family, how do I know what foods to stay away from?
Megan: Well what I've learned as—you know, about seven years ago is when I was first really introduced to essential oils, doTERRA. And it was kind of a gateway for me on making choices that led to other just good choices to just promoting a more wellness lifestyle. And I have been on a journey in my nutrition. And so I will definitely draw upon just the knowledge and what I've learned from other people and things.
The Importance of Whole Foods
And so, I think it's important to just remember that—you know—whether you're learning from all these different kinds of diets out there or other things you heard about, there's one thing that stays constant and that is whole foods. We need to be eating whole foods. We need to be eating from nature. We're designed, our bodies are designed to know what to do with whole foods. And so, when we are exposed, or if we eat foods that are not made from nature, our body does know what to do with it, but it's all about creating that balance—you know—having not too much of an overload for our body to be able to handle.
And so, I guess focusing on foods that can decrease that toxic load would be things like switching to organic produce, eliminating those toxins from pesticides, or additives, or artificial flavors, all those kinds of things, those chemicals or synthetic additives or even heavy metals that we can find in our foods. We just need to be intentional.
Start with Small Wins
I think sometimes this topic gives people overwhelm when they think, “Well, I know I need to eat better. But I don't want to be overwhelmed.” And so, I think it's taking things, just small wins—you know—small wins every day towards that larger goal of just looking and feeling and performing at our best. Whether we're an athlete or we're a parent just trying to be able to do all the things we need to do in our everyday life or work or whatever it is, we need to have a relationship with food that inspires us, like we're motivated to make intentional, good choices. You know?
So I think avoiding plastics with our food, looking at labels, increasing antioxidants in our diet, hydrating to flush those toxins out. Those are some of those things we could do. And just being very intentional and finding ways to inspire to make those little easy choices every day but over time really compound to that result we're looking for, that outcome or that lifelong vitality, I love to say.
doTERRA: Yeah, that's wonderful. And I think those are great simple steps that people can start taking in their lives. Like you said, it doesn't have to be this huge, overwhelming, daunting thing that’s standing in front of them.
Megan: Yeah.
doTERRA: So once I've got my food, I've tried to get the best food that I can, how can essential oils help as I am cooking or preparing that food?
Megan: This is where it gets fun. I think essential oils—when I was introduced to essential oils and understood just the purpose and the support and the assist that they can give my body and my family to reach our goals in wellness, which is help our body to naturally do what it does best. We really can use oils— like, those benefits we get from essential oils are such a—it's so it's so easy to introduce them into our cooking.
doTERRA: Absolutely.
Megan: And in how we prepare our food. So, you know, besides like that burst of flavor—remember, essential oils are just extracts from plants.
So instead of having to store—I think it's so much cheaper to be able to add a drop or two of an essential oil like a Wild Orange or Lime or something like that, versus having that in my fridge or in the in the cabinet like it's such a great way to save money, first of all. And some herbs and plants have to be in season. They can go bad quickly. So oils can be used year-round. They’ll last for a long time, especially if you store them in a really cool, dark location.
So besides, you know, a little goes a long way, you can save money. And they can really give a punch in flavor. And then you also get some of those benefits because so many essential oils have antioxidant properties and really support our immune system, our digestive systems. So you get all those benefits when you incorporate them in your food.
doTERRA: I love that. And like you said, it's so easy. It's convenient because it's a lot of the oils that you already have on hand that start to double as these fun ingredients in your recipes.
Megan: Yeah, you know something else I love about oils? When you categorize them a little bit. There's some oils that are very sweet and spicy, like Cassia and Cinnamon and Ginger and Clove. And then there are savory spice oils, like the Ginger, Basil, or Dill. Like, there's so many choices, the citrus oils, mints. You can really have some fun.
Tips for Cooking with Essential Oils
But I will give a couple tips. Like, there are some oils that are very, very strong. So you might even just dip a toothpick in and swirl it around, for example, like Oregano. It's really—it has quite a punch. So just putting like a toothpick and then swirling it around in your sauces. Like, you'll taste it versus there might be some other oils like Lime or our Lemon. I love adding those to my salsas or dips or even fruit dips and things like that. And you could really maybe put a couple drops. But there are some things you can start learning about. If you're adding them to your baking or simmering or things like that, it's always good to add those oils a little later because they do evaporate. And so, adding it a little bit later in you're cooking, that's just a few tips I've learned as I've started using oils. But—you know—if you're adding them to a smoothie in the morning or adding them to your stir fry or things like that, just use a couple drops. One or two drops is all you need.
doTERRA: Well thank you for that. That definitely helps people who might not have used these oils in cooking before approach it with a little more confidence. My final question for you is if I get into a situation where maybe I haven't been eating the best foods, I've been putting a little bit more of a toxic load on my body, what products does doTERRA have to help me cleanse those toxins?
Megan: This is my favorite question because I really believe that doTERRA has amazing essential oils and supplements products that really can support those elimination pathways. Right? We have our skin, our intestine, colon, our kidneys, and our liver, and we need to support. That kind of goes back to testing before that we need to help our body be at balance, and if things are getting too overloaded it can lead to problems.
And we just know that just even from if we're not eating nutrient-dense foods, if we’re eating a lot of processed things, if we’re not helping our body to kind of eliminate and detox and be at its best, things get overloaded. And we might feel those results. But there are some great products, and I'll just share some my favorite, but there's so many I could talk about.
doTERRA Lifelong Vitality Pack®
But one of them is of course Lifelong Vitality. I think number one, even if we're really intentional with our food choices, and we're really caring, and we're looking at food as fuel and making those choices, we still can be lacking in what we need for that optimal nutrition, or the nutrients that we need.
And so, the Lifelong Vitality, it has such amazing ingredients with essential nutrients, just powerful metabolic factors, essential oils are in there. There's ingredients with antioxidant support, cellular support. It's an amazing product. And if you haven't tried it, then just try it for a month and see if you feel that difference. So I definitely want to give that invitation to everyone listening to try it for 30 days. Give it a test and see if you feel more energy and more vitality.
DDR Prime® Oil
You know one of the—we talk about antioxidants a lot. We hear about antioxidants, I should say. And we get that. We naturally produce that in our body, but we also get that from our food. And so antioxidants, they fight those free radicals. It helps to protect our body against that oxidative stress. And so there's oils that are really high in antioxidants. Like, one of those is a blend called DDR Prime. This blend promotes that healthy response in your body, to support your body to fight against those free radicals. So has those antioxidant oils, like Clove. It’s a powerful antioxidant property. And so that's a great product.
Black Pepper
And Black Pepper, this is a powerful antioxidant oil as well when you use it internally. It has, like, a high level. Any of those oils with those high levels of monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes there, they're really known for their antioxidant activity. So you can be using some of those oils internally. A couple drops, you know, in a capsule and really support your body in elimination. Right? Helping your body with those antioxidants support.
doTERRA: Right.
GX Assist® and PB Assist®+
Megan: Then there's some other great products to help with cleansing and detox. And I'll just share a couple of those, so GX Assist. This is one of my favorite products as well because you can use it for many things. But the GX Assist contains essential oils—the Certified Pure Tested Grade™ oils from doTERRA—of Oregano, Melaleuca (Tea Tree), Lemon, Lemongrass, Peppermint, and Thyme. And it also includes caprylic acid. And that's really amazing to help support that healthy digestive tract. And it creates that unfriendly environment. And we want to then replenish, after we're using the GX Assist for a couple of weeks, we can replenish it with the friendly bacteria that we need. And that's the PB Assist+. They also have the PB Assist® Jr for kids.
doTERRA a2z Chewable™
And I also love that they have the a2z Chewable for kids, like that Lifelong Vitality. So you can really be supporting nutrition and getting that that good flora.
Zendocrine®, DigestZen TerraZyme®, and Slim & Sassy®
There's other products like Zendocrine, TerraZyme, and Slim & Sassy, the Slim & Sassy blend. These are all oils that you can do as part of that cleanse. And I know many people that do this, you know, every quarter or maybe every couple months. They'll just really support their body and really focus in on those filtering organs and those elimination pathways to kind of give a boost, you know, give some extra support.
So those are some ideas, and these are my favorites.
doTERRA: And I think those are wonderful. You really showed how there are solutions that doTERRA has for not only you but your entire family to take advantage of.
Megan: Oh for sure. I think we all are, especially at this time, we're really aware of how we can support our family at home. And I guess I failed to mention one other product I would love to share and that's On Guard, well, also Copaiba. I love all the products. It's hard to even pick.
But, you know, just little things if you're feeling like, “Well, I'm not ready to do a cleanse with all these types of products.” Pick a couple things. Use them. It's the same thing as what we talked about with food. It’s just little wins. Like, what could I use today for myself and for my family for that small win to just be really aware and intentional.
And you, know, plants I love. I can't remember where I heard this from, but I love this phrase “Plants have purpose.” And so just what could I do today? What could I put my body to really help decrease that toxic load, protect my body?
doTERRA On Guard® and Copaiba
And On Guard, you know, has the Clove in it. We talked about that, you know, it's a powerful antioxidant support. And your pair in—you could use the Copaiba. And the Copaiba is also great for antioxidant support. So there's so many uses.
These oils I think just going into you know the different oils that are available, researching yourself. Look at some of the resources that we have online and in our books and just find what you'll already have. And then maybe make a wish list of some things that you could get to support those goals. And then you just start.
doTERRA: I absolutely love that. Megan, thank you so much for joining us today, for offering your great advice and experience from your life in these oils. We really appreciate it.
Megan: Thank you so much for having me. Thanks.
doTERRA: Thanks for joining us and congratulations on living a healthier lifestyle with essential oils. If you liked what you heard today, rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen. Also, if you want to try any of the products you learned about, go to doterra.com or find a Wellness Advocate near you to place an order today.
Welcome back to Essential Oil Solutions with doTERRA, the podcast where you'll hear exciting, useful, and simple everyday uses for essential oils from experts in the field. If you like what you hear today, rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen. We always appreciate hearing from you.
Today, we're excited to talk to Megan Hunter, a registered nurse, about how she and her family work to avoid toxins in food. Megan, thank you so much for sitting down with us today to talk about this incredible topic.
Megan Hunter: Thanks so much. I'm excited to be here.
doTERRA: So I think a lot of people find that once they start paying attention to toxins in their life, they start seeing them everywhere. One of those places they might start showing up is foods. Can foods contribute to my body's toxic load?
Megan: Well, of course it does. I think—we know so many different ways that toxins can enter our body. Right? We know that we have some ways that we cannot control, like pollution and, you know, even water we drink and things like that.
doTERRA: Right.
Megan: But we can be really intentional about the food we put in our body. And there definitely are foods that contribute to that toxic load. And then there's foods that help us to balance and help us eliminate and decrease that toxic load.
doTERRA: I think that's so right. And I think you touched on a big thing right there. There are some things that we can't avoid, but we should definitely try and take control of the things that we can. When I'm going about my day grocery shopping or picking out the foods for my family, how do I know what foods to stay away from?
Megan: Well what I've learned as—you know, about seven years ago is when I was first really introduced to essential oils, doTERRA. And it was kind of a gateway for me on making choices that led to other just good choices to just promoting a more wellness lifestyle. And I have been on a journey in my nutrition. And so I will definitely draw upon just the knowledge and what I've learned from other people and things.
The Importance of Whole Foods
And so, I think it's important to just remember that—you know—whether you're learning from all these different kinds of diets out there or other things you heard about, there's one thing that stays constant and that is whole foods. We need to be eating whole foods. We need to be eating from nature. We're designed, our bodies are designed to know what to do with whole foods. And so, when we are exposed, or if we eat foods that are not made from nature, our body does know what to do with it, but it's all about creating that balance—you know—having not too much of an overload for our body to be able to handle.
And so, I guess focusing on foods that can decrease that toxic load would be things like switching to organic produce, eliminating those toxins from pesticides, or additives, or artificial flavors, all those kinds of things, those chemicals or synthetic additives or even heavy metals that we can find in our foods. We just need to be intentional.
Start with Small Wins
I think sometimes this topic gives people overwhelm when they think, “Well, I know I need to eat better. But I don't want to be overwhelmed.” And so, I think it's taking things, just small wins—you know—small wins every day towards that larger goal of just looking and feeling and performing at our best. Whether we're an athlete or we're a parent just trying to be able to do all the things we need to do in our everyday life or work or whatever it is, we need to have a relationship with food that inspires us, like we're motivated to make intentional, good choices. You know?
So I think avoiding plastics with our food, looking at labels, increasing antioxidants in our diet, hydrating to flush those toxins out. Those are some of those things we could do. And just being very intentional and finding ways to inspire to make those little easy choices every day but over time really compound to that result we're looking for, that outcome or that lifelong vitality, I love to say.
doTERRA: Yeah, that's wonderful. And I think those are great simple steps that people can start taking in their lives. Like you said, it doesn't have to be this huge, overwhelming, daunting thing that’s standing in front of them.
Megan: Yeah.
doTERRA: So once I've got my food, I've tried to get the best food that I can, how can essential oils help as I am cooking or preparing that food?
Megan: This is where it gets fun. I think essential oils—when I was introduced to essential oils and understood just the purpose and the support and the assist that they can give my body and my family to reach our goals in wellness, which is help our body to naturally do what it does best. We really can use oils— like, those benefits we get from essential oils are such a—it's so it's so easy to introduce them into our cooking.
doTERRA: Absolutely.
Megan: And in how we prepare our food. So, you know, besides like that burst of flavor—remember, essential oils are just extracts from plants.
So instead of having to store—I think it's so much cheaper to be able to add a drop or two of an essential oil like a Wild Orange or Lime or something like that, versus having that in my fridge or in the in the cabinet like it's such a great way to save money, first of all. And some herbs and plants have to be in season. They can go bad quickly. So oils can be used year-round. They’ll last for a long time, especially if you store them in a really cool, dark location.
So besides, you know, a little goes a long way, you can save money. And they can really give a punch in flavor. And then you also get some of those benefits because so many essential oils have antioxidant properties and really support our immune system, our digestive systems. So you get all those benefits when you incorporate them in your food.
doTERRA: I love that. And like you said, it's so easy. It's convenient because it's a lot of the oils that you already have on hand that start to double as these fun ingredients in your recipes.
Megan: Yeah, you know something else I love about oils? When you categorize them a little bit. There's some oils that are very sweet and spicy, like Cassia and Cinnamon and Ginger and Clove. And then there are savory spice oils, like the Ginger, Basil, or Dill. Like, there's so many choices, the citrus oils, mints. You can really have some fun.
Tips for Cooking with Essential Oils
But I will give a couple tips. Like, there are some oils that are very, very strong. So you might even just dip a toothpick in and swirl it around, for example, like Oregano. It's really—it has quite a punch. So just putting like a toothpick and then swirling it around in your sauces. Like, you'll taste it versus there might be some other oils like Lime or our Lemon. I love adding those to my salsas or dips or even fruit dips and things like that. And you could really maybe put a couple drops. But there are some things you can start learning about. If you're adding them to your baking or simmering or things like that, it's always good to add those oils a little later because they do evaporate. And so, adding it a little bit later in you're cooking, that's just a few tips I've learned as I've started using oils. But—you know—if you're adding them to a smoothie in the morning or adding them to your stir fry or things like that, just use a couple drops. One or two drops is all you need.
doTERRA: Well thank you for that. That definitely helps people who might not have used these oils in cooking before approach it with a little more confidence. My final question for you is if I get into a situation where maybe I haven't been eating the best foods, I've been putting a little bit more of a toxic load on my body, what products does doTERRA have to help me cleanse those toxins?
Megan: This is my favorite question because I really believe that doTERRA has amazing essential oils and supplements products that really can support those elimination pathways. Right? We have our skin, our intestine, colon, our kidneys, and our liver, and we need to support. That kind of goes back to testing before that we need to help our body be at balance, and if things are getting too overloaded it can lead to problems.
And we just know that just even from if we're not eating nutrient-dense foods, if we’re eating a lot of processed things, if we’re not helping our body to kind of eliminate and detox and be at its best, things get overloaded. And we might feel those results. But there are some great products, and I'll just share some my favorite, but there's so many I could talk about.
doTERRA Lifelong Vitality Pack®
But one of them is of course Lifelong Vitality. I think number one, even if we're really intentional with our food choices, and we're really caring, and we're looking at food as fuel and making those choices, we still can be lacking in what we need for that optimal nutrition, or the nutrients that we need.
And so, the Lifelong Vitality, it has such amazing ingredients with essential nutrients, just powerful metabolic factors, essential oils are in there. There's ingredients with antioxidant support, cellular support. It's an amazing product. And if you haven't tried it, then just try it for a month and see if you feel that difference. So I definitely want to give that invitation to everyone listening to try it for 30 days. Give it a test and see if you feel more energy and more vitality.
DDR Prime® Oil
You know one of the—we talk about antioxidants a lot. We hear about antioxidants, I should say. And we get that. We naturally produce that in our body, but we also get that from our food. And so antioxidants, they fight those free radicals. It helps to protect our body against that oxidative stress. And so there's oils that are really high in antioxidants. Like, one of those is a blend called DDR Prime. This blend promotes that healthy response in your body, to support your body to fight against those free radicals. So has those antioxidant oils, like Clove. It’s a powerful antioxidant property. And so that's a great product.
Black Pepper
And Black Pepper, this is a powerful antioxidant oil as well when you use it internally. It has, like, a high level. Any of those oils with those high levels of monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes there, they're really known for their antioxidant activity. So you can be using some of those oils internally. A couple drops, you know, in a capsule and really support your body in elimination. Right? Helping your body with those antioxidants support.
doTERRA: Right.
GX Assist® and PB Assist®+
Megan: Then there's some other great products to help with cleansing and detox. And I'll just share a couple of those, so GX Assist. This is one of my favorite products as well because you can use it for many things. But the GX Assist contains essential oils—the Certified Pure Tested Grade™ oils from doTERRA—of Oregano, Melaleuca (Tea Tree), Lemon, Lemongrass, Peppermint, and Thyme. And it also includes caprylic acid. And that's really amazing to help support that healthy digestive tract. And it creates that unfriendly environment. And we want to then replenish, after we're using the GX Assist for a couple of weeks, we can replenish it with the friendly bacteria that we need. And that's the PB Assist+. They also have the PB Assist® Jr for kids.
doTERRA a2z Chewable™
And I also love that they have the a2z Chewable for kids, like that Lifelong Vitality. So you can really be supporting nutrition and getting that that good flora.
Zendocrine®, DigestZen TerraZyme®, and Slim & Sassy®
There's other products like Zendocrine, TerraZyme, and Slim & Sassy, the Slim & Sassy blend. These are all oils that you can do as part of that cleanse. And I know many people that do this, you know, every quarter or maybe every couple months. They'll just really support their body and really focus in on those filtering organs and those elimination pathways to kind of give a boost, you know, give some extra support.
So those are some ideas, and these are my favorites.
doTERRA: And I think those are wonderful. You really showed how there are solutions that doTERRA has for not only you but your entire family to take advantage of.
Megan: Oh for sure. I think we all are, especially at this time, we're really aware of how we can support our family at home. And I guess I failed to mention one other product I would love to share and that's On Guard, well, also Copaiba. I love all the products. It's hard to even pick.
But, you know, just little things if you're feeling like, “Well, I'm not ready to do a cleanse with all these types of products.” Pick a couple things. Use them. It's the same thing as what we talked about with food. It’s just little wins. Like, what could I use today for myself and for my family for that small win to just be really aware and intentional.
And you, know, plants I love. I can't remember where I heard this from, but I love this phrase “Plants have purpose.” And so just what could I do today? What could I put my body to really help decrease that toxic load, protect my body?
doTERRA On Guard® and Copaiba
And On Guard, you know, has the Clove in it. We talked about that, you know, it's a powerful antioxidant support. And your pair in—you could use the Copaiba. And the Copaiba is also great for antioxidant support. So there's so many uses.
These oils I think just going into you know the different oils that are available, researching yourself. Look at some of the resources that we have online and in our books and just find what you'll already have. And then maybe make a wish list of some things that you could get to support those goals. And then you just start.
doTERRA: I absolutely love that. Megan, thank you so much for joining us today, for offering your great advice and experience from your life in these oils. We really appreciate it.
Megan: Thank you so much for having me. Thanks.
doTERRA: Thanks for joining us and congratulations on living a healthier lifestyle with essential oils. If you liked what you heard today, rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen. Also, if you want to try any of the products you learned about, go to doterra.com or find a Wellness Advocate near you to place an order today.
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