The modern industrial approach to food production and processing is responsible for a ghastly range of chemicals and additives that are directly involved in producing weight gain, fat and obesity. Amongst the thousands of additives, we have bovine growth hormone and antibiotics injected into meat, poultry, and dairy products, flavor enhancers such as monosodium glutamate, artificial sweeteners such as NutraSweet (aspartame) and Splenda (sucralose). Our list also includes man-made sugars such as high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, dextrose, sucrose, fructose, highly refined white sugar, processed molasses, processed honey, maltodextrin, etc., plus the other 15,000 plus chemicals that are routinely added to virtually every product you buy, and that includes conventionally grown fruits and vegetables.
Toxins
Food Processing Or Food Poisoning Techniques?
Man-made trans-fats such as hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils also cause weight gain and obesity. Even standard food processing techniques such as pasteurization, which now applies to virtually every product in a bottle or carton, homogenization and irradiation all contribute to weight gain.
At the end of this disturbing list of toxins, poisons and health-damaging additives we have some refreshing and deeply reassuring news. Your revolutionary delicious epigenetic weight control system, addresses all of these issues safely and effectively and offers the fast lane out of the nightmare of processed food. Once you know you have the tools to make things better, you can breathe a sigh of relief and start to take action.
Poisons polluting the planet and everything that lives on it. You’ve probably heard a lot already about the increasing levels of toxicity in the environment. The fact is that our environment has become increasingly more toxic. Our exposure today is higher than at any point in human history.
We are exposed to more than 10,000 different forms of toxin and they are almost everywhere. They’re in the air we breathe, the water we drink and wash in, our daily cleaning materials, cosmetics and, of course, our precious food supplies. If you add the daily quota of toxic chemicals we consume in the form of artificial sweeteners, flavor enhancers such as MSG, pesticides, preservatives, caffeine, over-the-counter medications, alcohol, nicotine and damaged fats, the list of daily toxic consumption could give you nightmares. But beyond the discomfort of a nightmare, these toxins are harming your body. We should also include those naturally occurring toxins produced by the body as a result of normal, essential cellular functions.
The problem is that these pesky toxins can accumulate in the body and that’s when the damage occurs. It is the accumulation of these toxins that creates total havoc in the body. Yes, we can process and remove many harmful substances and neutralize their influence, but when we take on board more than we can handle, the body is effectively poisoned. As a result, excessive oxidative stress occurs, which in turn threatens our health by damaging our precious DNA. And as you now know, damaged DNA can lead to a long list of health problems.
Let’s get this uncomfortable subject sharply into focus. Entire populations are suffering the effects of toxicity: the problems show up as a combination of headaches, fatigue, joint pain, insomnia, mood changes, weakened immune system, or other chronic issues. This total toxic overload has been implicated in: cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic fatigue, weight loss resistance, allergies, skin conditions, asthma, mental illness, hypertension, gastritis, kidney disease and obesity. Not a happy list.
We know you like to have all the facts so let’s see how toxins can even influence human metabolism.
There are five important mechanisms that are harmed by toxins:
- hormone regulation
- neuro-regulatory mechanisms
- immuno-regulatory mechanisms
- mitochondrial function
- and oxidative stress.
Toxins alter thyroid hormone metabolism and receptor function, leading to a slowdown in metabolic rate. Slower metabolic activity means more fat retention. It isn’t difficult to see the connections between constant exposure to toxins and lots of nasty little health problems, unintended weight gain being one of the most obvious.
The Environmental Protection Agency in the U.S. Has monitored human exposure to toxic environmental chemicals since 1972.
That’s when they began the National Human Adipose Tissue Survey. This study measures the levels of various toxins in fat tissue extracted during autopsies and from surgical procedures. Five of what are recognized as the most toxic chemicals were found in 100% of all samples.
Toxic chemicals from industrial pollution dominated the samples, toxins that damage the liver, heart, lungs, and nervous system. Nine more chemicals were found in 91-98% of samples: benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene, DDE (a breakdown product of DDT, the pesticide banned in the US since 1972), three dioxins, and one furan. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were found in 83% of the population.
A Michigan study found DDT in over 70% of 4 years olds, probably received through breast milk. With the spread of the global economy, we may be eating food that was picked a few days before in Guatemala, Indonesia, Africa or Asia, where there are fewer restrictions on pesticides than there are in the United States or Europe.
I don’t want to put you off your lunch, but many of these chemicals are stored in fat tissue, making animal products a potentially concentrated source of contamination. One hundred percent of beef in the U.S. Is contaminated with DDT, as is 93% of processed cheese, hot dogs, bologna, turkey, and ice cream. Bon Appetit!
But just because there are plenty of reasons to get paranoid about our food, there are plenty of healthy, life-affirming, nourishing and tasty alternatives out there.
Obesity And Toxicity: What Is The Real Connection?
Effects Of Thyroid And Metabolic Rate
If you’ve ever attempted a weight loss program, you’ll probably recognize the familiar plateau phase where many people lose a few pounds but then find it really difficult to shed the rest.
What might be getting in the way of further weight loss and even interfering with the metabolic control system? A review paper, “Energy balance and pollution by organochlorines and polychlorinated biphenyls,” published in Obesity Reviews in 2003 describes the effects of toxins on metabolic rate and weight regulation.
The authors conclude that pesticides (organochlorines) and PCBs (from industrial pollution), which are normally stored in fat tissue, are released during the weight loss process and lower the metabolic rate. That will slow down the rate at which we can lose the pounds. How do the chemical toxins interfere with our metabolism?
People with a higher body mass index (BMI) have a larger volume of places to hold onto the toxins. They store more toxins because they have more fat. Those toxins interfere with many normal aspects of metabolism, including reducing thyroid hormone levels, and increasing excretion of thyroid hormones via the liver.
Toxins also compete with the thyroid hormones by blocking the thyroid receptors and competing for the thyroid transport proteins. We all know that toxins are bad news for the health, but clearly we need to have an effective strategy to deal with the effects of toxins leaking into the system as we launch our weight management system. The good news is that we’ve got a great strategy for handling this problem! And we’ll be getting to it very soon.