Is your Metabolism Being Highjacked?
You are diligent about your health- you eat as cleanly as you can, exercise regularly and get regular check-ups but the scale is not budging. Your cholesterol or glucose may be trending upward and the frustration about what to do keeps rising.
What is going on? Metabolism is a combination of not only lifestyle but many environmental factors.
Many of these factors you may not even be aware of. Air, water, heavy metals, herbicides and pesticides and plastics all play a major role on the gut microbiome and thereby impact the metabolism.
On average we are exposed to over 700,000 toxins per day and 80,000 chemical compounds per day. 10 million tons of toxins are released into our environment by industries each year.
Toxins have a multi-systemic effect, and females have a higher toxic load than males due to body fat (and fat cells are nice little storage lockers).
Air and water have a big impact on our metabolic health. Are you REALLY filtering your water – what you drink, what you shower in, what you wash your food in? The filter on your refrigerator is not enough. Water is full of heavy metals including cadmium, lead, mercury and arsenic and over time your liver can become overwhelmed with detoxifying these metals. When your liver is overwhelmed that can increase your glucose or cholesterol.
Your lungs (which are a large detox organ) are constantly filtering the air to keep you safe and when air quality is compromised this again starts to build up in your system.
Heavy metals exposure as well as exposure to herbicides and pesticides is alive and real. If you golf on a regular basis or play sports at a park you may be constantly exposed to glyphosate (AKA Roundup) which is very challenging for the body to eliminate. If you eat non-organic wheat, corn, soy, coffee, and alcohol you are also under constant exposure to glyphosate.
Glyphosate is an antibiotic for plants (which cuts down on time for harvesting thus saving money for farmers). It affects over 291 enzymes in the body that we know about which decrease optimal cellular and mitochondria health. You may be eating organic foods at home but if you eat out even a few times a week it’s rare for any restaurant to use organic foods due to cost.
We all know it’s not a good idea to be on antibiotics due to the elimination of your good gut bugs but have you ever thought about daily exposure to antibiotics through regular intake of these non-organic foods with glyphosate?
Plastics and microplastics can dramatically change the terrain of your microbiome. Are you drinking out of plastic bottles, cutting your food on plastic boards, storing your food in plastic containers, ordering take take-out food that is hot that comes in a plastic container or chewing gum on a regular basis? All of these have a high level of exposure to millions of plastic particles.
A study in the Journal of Hazardous Materials reported that chewing even1 stick of gum exposes you to over 250,000 microplastics (MP). MP’s are tiny plastic particles that come from larger plastic items.
These challenges can be overwhelming with these constant exposures so where do we start?
Perhaps a way to start is focusing on 1 change per week. If you can control 80% of what you put in or on your body, you will start to notice your metabolism shifts to work more efficiently.
1. Focus on clean water – buy a reverse osmosis (RO) system or hydrogen water system for your house, under your sink or on the counter.
2. Get a good air filter for your home that has a medical-grade HEPA and 15 pounds of charcoal (see this guide from NAEM).
3. Buy organic food (focus on wheat, corn, soy, coffee, alcohol) and produce and eat home as much as possible. Avoid take out due to containers and exposure to plastics (especially hot foods).
4. Drink only out of glass or stainless-steel containers and store food in glass containers. Re-evaluate using any plastic bottles or containers for eating.
5. Consider lifestyle changes that do not expose you to glyphosate/Roundup.
It’s easy to focus on just diet and exercise with weight challenges but exposure to toxins, pesticides, and plastics may be impacting your metabolism is ways far greater than the usual suspects. Although it’s challenging to go with the flow of what is easy, these changes can do more for your health than just helping your weight – it could be lowering your risk of many illnesses thus saving you pain and time in the future.
