Detox Diet Tips

Scientists already know how environmental toxins overstress our livers and colons, making it harder for our bodies to metabolize fat and digest food. But beyond the effect on our liver and colon, environmental toxins have a much more insidious ability to sabotage our weight.

Many scientists believe that the human body, when working properly, has a built-in weight-regulation system, the result of a complicated interaction among hormones, organs, calories and physical activity. All things being equal, we should feel hungry when we need food, and full when we're nourished. Our natural appetite should regulate itself to ensure that our weight stays at a stable, healthy level.

Sadly, all things are not equal. New scientific evidence now suggests that many environmental toxins, in addition to poisoning our bodies, behave as though they were specifically intended to disrupt our natural weight-regulation system.

In some cases, this is literally true. The feed that non-organic farmers give to their cows, lambs, pigs, chickens and turkeys is deliberately designed to cause those animals to gain weight, fattening them up for the marketplace. When we consume the meat and dairy products that come from those animals, we start 'fattening up,' too.

However, even industrial chemicals intended to kill insects, preserve wood or protect crops from fungus seem to have the fattening effect, disrupting our natural weight regulation and making us vulnerable to weight gain. Although most industrial chemicals have not been specifically studied for their weight-gain effects, virtually every study that has been done seems to point in this direction.

One of the pioneers in the field of 'fattening chemicals' is Paula Baillie-Hamitton, MD, a UK expert in environmental health and human metabolism. Baille-Hamitton has published an extensive study of the numerous synthetic chemicals currently pervading our environment. The conclusion she drew was nothing short of remarkable.

'What I discovered was that these chemicals appear to be making us fat... Time and again, when I learned about a different group of pesticides or environmental pollutants, I would soon discover that they too could cause weight gain.'

Baillie-Hamilton explains that there are effectively two kinds of man made chemicals in the environment that are making us fat. There's the man made chemicals and substances that are used by farmers to add to their animal feeds purely to speed up the growth of their livestock and to modify and increase the animals metabolism. Then there's the medicines, pesticides, solvents, heavy metals, man made materials, fire retardants and quite literally thousands of other chemicals, materials and substances that are released into our environment every day.

This group of solvents, pesticides and other man made materials weren't specifically created for use in the food chain, the effect they appear to be having is that of making us fat.

By disrupting the natural weight regulation built into our metabolism, this second group of chemicals makes it harder for us to know when we're hungry, when we need to keep eating, and how much we need to move to use up the calories we've taken in.

There is further evidence for linking the plethora of synthetic chemicals in our environment to the emerging obesity epidemic. Between 1930 and 2000, the number of synthetic chemicals in use skyrocketed - and so did the number of overweight adults in both the United States and Britain. Here are just two of many animal studies suggesting that chemicals are disrupting our metabolism and helping make us fat.

In one experiment, mice were exposed to dieldrin, an insecticide used from the 1950s to protect cotton, corn and citrus crops; to exterminate mosquitoes; and to preserve wood. Although dieldrin has been banned for nearly all uses in Britain since 1981 and in the United States since 1985, it is still present in our environment in high levels, particularly in America because it also exists as the result of the breakdown of another insecticide, aldrin, which was used in the United Stares for termite control until 1987.

You might think that a poison designed to kill bugs wouldn't affect a mouse's weight one way or the other. But in fact, the dieldrin-treated mice more than doubled their total body fat.

In a similar study, animals were treated with hexachlorobenzene (HCB), a substance used in making rubber, dyes and wood preservatives, as well as for treating fungus in wheat. The HCB-dosed animals gained significantly more weight than their untreated counterparts, even though they were fed 50 per cent less food than the HCB-free animals.

Given the effects of the fattening pesticides, pollutants and other toxins in our environment, why aren't we all obese? According to Baillie-Hamilton, genetics, individual eating habits, variations in our exposure to chemicals and age all play a role in our actual weight, as does getting the proper nutrients and regular exercise. It's encouraging to know that even under the assault of fattening chemicals, there's still plenty we can do to keep our weight down.

But, Baiilie-Hamilton points out, the problem underlying our obesity epidemic is that most people's natural ability to regulate their weight is being disrupted. Both the constant assault of toxic chemicals and a lack of the nutrients we need is making us fat.

I would add that those of us who support our liver and colon have an enormous advantage in the weight-loss battle, because these organs are crucial in the effort to rid our bodies of fattening chemicals. That's why detox and cleansing are at the heart of a healthy detox diet.

Following a detox diet is becoming more and more important every day, simply due to the level of toxins and man made chemicals that are being released into our environment every day. Discover how a healthy liver detox can boost your health and even help you lose weight.

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