It may surprise you to know that some of the most common foods in the Western diet cause an array of mild to severe allergic reactions. These reactions can be as obvious as a skin rash, or as obscure as muscle aches and pains, or an overproduction of mucus. In fact, many of us have food allergies we know nothing about, yet which affect us and our health every day.
As we age these allergies will start show up on our skin or within our bodies as autoimmune diseases. This means that the best thing we can do is avoid or severely lower our intake of these more irritating foods, and opt for better, fresher foods.
There are a variety of food allergies out there. Here are the top 5:
Milk. Cow’s milk and soy milk need to be included. Cow’s milk is a known allergen. Most children cannot even drink it before age 1, and after that, it causes an allergic reaction to which a child’s body must slowly build a tolerance against. Even into adulthood, the consumption of cow’s milk produces histamines, excess mucus, and can even cause hives.
Soy milk is not much better. The majority of soy eaten in the Western world today is a genetically modified plant that barely resembles the original soy bean. As a result, putting soy into your body is just about like eating plastic. Sure, it is protein-rich plastic, but plastic none-the-less.
Eggs. It is strange to think that something so common in the Western diet can actually be the source of allergies, but it is true that many people are either allergic to the egg white or the egg yolk. Egg white, in fact, is known for its ability to produce mucus, which in itself is an allergic reaction. Both the white and the yolk contain certain proteins that can trigger an immune reaction.
Wheat/Gluten. A wheat allergy refers to an allergy to wheat specifically. Although a wheat allergy is different from a gluten allergy, they are often used interchangeably. A gluten allergy, however is more serious. Someone with a wheat allergy can still eat rye, oats, barley, semolina, and spelt.
Someone with a gluten allergy, which is very common, is reacting to gluten, which is the glue that makes baking flours sticky, or adhesive. Before the introduction of yeast, all bread was leavened using the sourdough method, which broke down some of the gluten in grains. Today, the use of instant rising methods means more gluten is in the Western diet, and many of us are having a reaction to it.
Peanuts. Peanut allergies are incredibly common. Peanuts are actually legumes, not nuts, and they are often grown in conditions that allow a certain, undetectable fungus to form on them. It is this fungus, as well as some of the proteins in peanuts that cause an allergic reaction. For this reason, we don’t recommend that anyone, allergic or not, eat too many peanuts. There are many alternative nut butters available these days.
Corn. Corn is another food, like wheat, soy, eggs, and dairy, that is just everywhere. It is the basis of the sweet syrup you get in your latte, and the “natural flavor” that appears on your food labels. Corn is a filler product, just like soy, and it is used in almost all packaged and processed food in some form or another.
The corn we are eating today, however, is far different from the maize our native American predecessors grew and lived on. This is one of the most genetically modified, overgrown, petroleum-pumped crops in the world. What we eat today is merely the idea of corn, and not corn itself. Many people have trouble digesting it, and experience muscle aches, allergies, and skin problems because of it.
Even if you don’t have a known allergy to these five foods, we still recommend heavily moderating the amount of them you allow into your daily diet. You can even start a detox diet to increase the detoxification process from these harmful foods. As always, eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, try to go organic as often as possible, and avoid packaged processed foods, dairy, eggs, wheat, and sugar as much as possible.
One of your liver’s jobs is to filter toxins from your blood stream and pass them out of your body through your urine and bowel movements. In order to do this, the liver needs support. With a natural, healthy diet, your liver will easily get the help it needs, but if you haven’t been eating well, or if you have been exposed to certain environmental toxins like heavy metals, pesticides, herbicides, and preservatives, your liver can become bogged down and inefficient.
When this happens, your liver can no longer remove the same amount of toxins from your blood stream. These toxins remain in your body, build up over time, and cause all kinds of problems. To prevent the liver from becoming over-loaded, there are certain nutrients that you should incorporate into your diet.
The most important of these nutrients is vitamin C. Vitamin C is an antioxidant and an immune booster. It helps with general body cleansing, including detoxification of the liver, and it lessens some of the symptoms of a heavy detox, like headache and nausea. Vitamin C can also ward of illnesses and fatigue.
Another powerful liver support supplement is milk thistle. You can buy this in pill form or drink it in a liver support tea blend along with dandelion root, another important liver detoxifier. Milk thistle assists in liver cell regeneration. It is an antioxidant, and can help reverse damage from too much alcohol consumption or exposure to chemical or industrial pollutants. No, this doesn’t mean you can drink more often if you take milk thistle!
Caffeoylquinic acids and betaine are two other nutrients that support your liver. You can get these from food sources, such as artichokes, which contain caffeoylquinic acids, and beets which contain betaine. Betaine, like milk thistle, helps the liver regenerate cells, and caffeoylquinic acids increase the flow of bile and help protect the liver.
Healthy, clean sources of protein are also important for your liver function, and required for detox. The best sources of liver-detoxing proteins are beans, nuts, seeds and quinoa. Although small amounts of fish are okay, it is best to avoid meat for a while if you are on a liver support program.
Instead of meats, stick with beans, grains, nuts and seeds, and eat plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables. Broccoli, Brussells sprouts, and other members of the brassica family are great foods that help support and multiply the liver’s detoxification enzymes. Other fruits and vegetables which are great food sources of vitamin C and contain glutathione, are important for liver detoxification. Eat plenty of garlic and onion, two vegetables that help remove environmental toxins and heavy metals from your blood and liver.
Your liver supports you and keeps you healthy. As you age, you will need it more and more to fight off free radicles and keep you young and energetic. So treat it well and give it the nutrients and support it needs. You will notice that you feel and look better when your liver is functioning optimally.
Calcium is a mineral that is available from many sources, but, if you are like most people, you probably think of dairy products when you think of calcium. You probably also think of strengthening your bones and protecting against osteoporosis, or other bone degeneration. Most people have a basic knowledge of the mineral calcium that centers around dairy products and bone health and most of that knowledge comes from television commercials via dairy marketing.
But calcium does more than just give you strong bones, and there are plenty of sources, besides dairy, that give good doses of this much needed, important mineral.
One thing calcium can do, besides build stronger bones, is help fight weight gain from fat. When calcium isn’t present in the body in high enough amounts, your body thinks it is starving and begins to store nutrients. Getting enough calcium lets your body know it is okay to stop storing fat and start breaking it down.
Having enough calcium in your body is also important for the health of your heart. The same hormone, calcitrol, that gets released when the body goes into starvation mode from too little calcium, causes blood pressure to increase by restricting artery walls. When there is enough calcium in the body in conjunction with the correct amount of magnesium, all of your muscles, including the heart, are able to contract and relax normally.
For women, an added benefit of getting plenty of calcium in the diet is fewer premenstrual symptoms. The stress hormones that are released when the body is deficient in calcium, added to the similar hormones released in the premenstrual state, can increase cramps, mood swings, breast tenderness, and other symptoms. Women who suffer from PMS can get relief within two months by taking 600 mg of calcium twice daily. However, supplementation is not always the best answer. Fresh, whole foods are what your body is craving.
When it comes to cleansing and cancer prevention, especially colon cleansing and preventing colon cancer and polyps, getting enough calcium can be crucial. Scientists believe that, on its way out through the colon, unabsorbed calcium binds with and helps eliminate cancer promoters, or carcinogens. In this way, unabsorbed calcium passing through your system helps eliminate toxins and cleanse the colon.
And really, when it comes to getting enough calcium, dairy is not the way to go. Dairy foods may contain a high level of calcium, but that calcium is not readily available for your body to absorb. It’s just intelligent, albeit misleading, marketing. You can get plenty of calcium from dark leafy greens like kale and spinach, bok choy, quinoa, and from broccoli. A handful of sesame seeds provides your body with a surprising amount of calcium.
One tablespoon of blackstrap molasses gives your body calcium plus a load of other minerals. You can also get calcium from navy beans and dried figs.
Supplement forms of calcium are okay in an emergency, but they are not ideal. If you take a supplement, take less than 2500 mg a day to avoid kidney stones, and opt for calcium citrate, which is better absorbed, and take it in small doses all throughout the day. No matter what, you want your calcium to come mostly from food sources. Long-term supplementation is something that has not been adequately researched, so we do not know the effects it can have on the body. However, two recent clinical trials performed at the University of Auckland, combining 11 studies and 12,00 women – found calcium supplements to increased the rate of heart attacks in women by 31% compared to those who received a placebo.
Your body recognizes food and knows exactly what to do with the nutrients that come from whole foods – so get yourself on a holistic cleansing program and start eating your greens!
Vitamin K is a special vitamin that aids in blood clotting, bone density, and the absorption of calcium. It is found in much of the same green leafy vegetables that contain calcium. Vitamin K is also manufactured in your gut by friendly bacteria.
As a defense against cancer, bone loss, and osteoporosis, vitamin K is extremely important to your body. It is so important in fact, that given a proper diet and therefore allowed to maintain a healthy pH balance, your body will create the conditions for vitamin K to be manufactured and absorbed in the stomach. This doesn’t mean, of course, that you don’t need additional vitamin K from food sources. It simply means that it is very important to make sure that your body can support the right kind of bacteria.
The bacteria, or gut flora, we are talking about occur naturally in a healthy body. These beneficial bacteria keep the gut and colon free from undigested food debris, built up fecal matter, parasites, and fungi. These friendly organisms help your body break down and digest plant matter and absorb nutrients from plant foods. Without them, you will not be able to absorb and process half as many nutrients, and it will be difficult to maintain a healthy digestive system and regular bowel movements.
If the diet is unhealthy, however, the body’s pH can quickly turn acidic. The acidic body cannot support friendly bacteria, and these die off, making more room for parasites, fungi, and the build up of rotting food and fecal matter. One the vitamins lost will be vitamin K, which aids in the absorption of calcium, and works to keep the body healthy and balanced.
Without these friendly bacteria, manufacturing vitamin K in the gut becomes impossible and absorbing it from food or a supplement is very difficult. That is why getting enough vitamin K is important to your gut health, and your gut health is important to getting enough vitamin K.
And it is this way with all nutrients. If your diet is poor and filled with toxic foods, your body will be unhealthy. When the body is unhealthy, it has a more difficult time processing and breaking down essential nutrients. This is why, although we are not against supplements, at the Total Wellness Cleanse, we try to encourage you to change your diet and your lifestyle so that you can be one hundred percent healthy.
Otherwise, taking vitamins and minerals as supplements to a poor diet isn’t going to work. Your body must be balanced, and the only way to do that is to address and conquer your eating habits. Then you will be able to make and absorb all the vitamin K and other nutrients that your body needs for the rest of your life if you get your body into balance now.
The B vitamins form a vitamin complex, which is made up of several different nutrients. Each of these, from Thiamine, or B-1, to Folic acid, or B-12, serves its own function within the body. Together, the B-complex which consists of Thiamin, Riboflavin, Pyridoxine, Cobalamin, Niacin, Pantothemic Acid, Folic Acid, Biotin and Paba, makes up a group of essential nutrients that aid cell growth, fight aging, depression and fatigue, and keep the mind and body healthy.
Without B vitamins, red blood cell growth, the function of the heart and nervous system, and even food digestion would not be possible. Thiamine, for instance, aids in the digestion of carbohydrates while Riboflavin helps the body metabolize carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. Paba aids in the production of folic acid, and folic acid metabolizes amino acids which is necessary for growth and reproduction of all body cells.
Each of these vitamins directly effect mood as well. When a person becomes deficient in folic acid, stress and restlessness may set in. If he or she is missing B-6 or B-2, Pyridoxine or Riboflavin, he or she may feel nervous or sluggish. A deficiency in any one of the remaining B vitamins will cause moderate to severe depression. Premature aging, cancer, and eczema are also the results of vitamin B deficiencies.
During a body detox diet, the B vitamins should be considered your best friends. They are antioxidants, and one, Niacin, can literally flush toxins out through your skin only a few minutes after it is ingested. When it comes to healing and rebuilding tissue, the B vitamins are absolutely essential.
Metabolism, bowel movements, and cell renewal become easier and healthier when your body is given sufficient B vitamins. A deficiency in Thiamine is very common since it is easily cooked out of vegetables, and this deficiency can cause constipation. When the body is healthy and has enough of the vitamins it needs, constipation is not a problem.
The hardest thing about the B vitamins, is getting enough of them from appropriate sources. All the vitamins that make up the B-complex can be found in vegan sources except one, vitamin B12, which can be found only in meat, dairy, or egg sources or as a supplement. For the rest of them, the list includes grains, like flax, broccoli, kale, and other leafy greens. Nuts and seeds, especially almonds, are also great sources of B complex vitamins. Mushrooms, potatoes, lentils, and beans, too, fall among foods that boast B vitamins. And if you are among those who love your Vegemite and Marmite, they have plenty of B vitamins as well! Chicken, salmon, tuna fish, and beef are excellent non-vegetarian sources.
