What if You Could Change Your Life?
Previously, we talked about an Inflammation Free diet and Intermittent Fasting and how this diet and eating plan could have incredible benefits for your length (lifespan) and quality of life (healthspan). In this article, we are going to talk about toxins accumulated in your body and how all of this comes together.
This is the last in a three-part series including Intermittent Fasting, Inflammation Free Diet, and Detoxification.
Detox Diets and Programs
Most people are aware that we accumulate toxins in our bodies and probably need to get them out at some point. But that is where our knowledge often ends. We don’t understand the ways toxins find their way into our system nor the mechanisms by which they are removed.
Certainly, most have heard of heavy metal poisoning, most commonly occurring for those with a diet rich in predatory fish. However, even some protein powders have concerning levels of mercury. Additionally, our environmental exposure can be a source of toxins. Offering a solution, all sorts of cleanse diets exist and have been in fashion for some time now, most notably, perhaps is a dubious juice-only-cleanse.
Bottom line – We need to be aware of toxins we might have exposure to through what we eat and our environment. We also need to understand how detoxification works. Furthermore, we need to understand how weight loss triggers the release of those accumulated toxins back into our bodies and what we can do to eliminate exposure and accumulation while enabling detoxification.
Toxins
Environmental persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are a particular concern. This is a type of toxicant that accumulates in body fat. Your fat can protect the rest of your body from acute harmful effects such as metabolic and hormonal disruption in the short term.
Your body can accumulate toxins and other toxicants, notably heavy metals such as mercury, and liposoluble chemicals such as POPs. Over time, however, your fat releases POPs back into your system, causing low-level chronic exposure that is associated with metabolic diseases.
It remains to be studied whether POP redistribution results in adverse effects in humans, but some data is suggestive. For example, in people whose weight loss was induced by gastric bypass surgery, higher levels of POPs in the blood were associated with lesser health improvements from weight loss. Weight loss caused by regular dieting also leads to an accelerated release of POPs from fat cells into your system, with the increase in serum POPs being proportional to the weight loss.
The loss of fat appears to accelerate the release of POPs from fat cells into your system, and more POPs in the blood correlates with less improvement in health biomarkers. However, there is still little research on the role of POPs in obesity and weight-loss interventions.
A side note on POPs and loss of fat
Few studies on obesity and fat loss consider the role of POPs, yet POPs might help explain why everyone’s weight loss doesn’t improve their health equally — in some people, the increased toxic load from POPs offsets the benefits of carrying around less fat (counterintuitive, right?) More precisely, an inefficient excretion of the POPs released when dieting may reduce health improvements, as well as increase the risk of weight regain (body’s response to protect itself).
Detoxing done right
Your body has a built-in detoxification system: your lungs and other organs work around the clock to remove harmful substances. Your liver, for instance, transforms noxious chemicals into benign substances that are excreted in the urine (via the kidneys) or feces (via the gallbladder).
There are three practical and interrelated tactics for a detoxification program which work best all together:
1. Decrease your exposure known toxins
It is wise to reduce your exposure to airborne pollutants such as smoke, smog, and chemical fumes. You don’t always get to choose where you live (e.g., rural areas tend to have less air pollution than urban areas), but you can at least reduce pollution accumulation in your home through proper air conditioning and ventilation. If you live in a smoggy area, you could wear a face mask; however, how much it will filter will depend on its design, including how well it fits on your face.
Pesticide residues in food are a valid concern too, though it should be noted that the Pesticide Data Program (PDP) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has consistently found that the vast majority of the food on the market contain either no detectable residues or residues below the tolerable limits set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
While the USDA does not currently test for residues of pesticides commonly used on organic foods, it does test for residues of pesticides not approved, and some approved for limited application. Unsurprisingly, organic produce (e.g., fruit) less often have synthetic pesticide residue than conventional produce does.
Trials in adults and children have shown that switching from conventional to organic produce can reduce biomarkers of organophosphate-class pesticides, which are used in traditional commercial agriculture and may be harmful, in as little as a week (that is significant). Fortunately, in the US, this class of pesticide has consistently dropped from use in favor of less acutely toxic ones since 2000.
When pesticide residues were found, they were similarly low in organic and conventional produce. However, there is some evidence that even very low doses of pesticides might still elicit physiological effects. These effects, be they beneficial, neutral, or harmful, and be they from organic or conventional pesticides, are not well studied. So, what is a consumer to do?
The practical solution is quite simple: rinsing, peeling when possible, and cooking can reduce the amount of pesticide left on your produce, whether that produce is organic or not. Surprisingly, organic products are not unilaterally safer than conventional ones: a 2018 test of protein powders revealed that organic ones had about half the amount of BPA (an industrial chemical) but twice the amount of heavy metals.
2. By improving your liver’s ability to metabolize toxicants
Current evidence suggests that some compounds in plant foods can enhance your liver’s detoxification process and antioxidant activity. Sulforaphane is an example of these compounds; it found in broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables, as was shown in humans as well as in rats.
Of the many supplements marketed for liver health, four are supported by substantial evidence from human studies: milk thistle, NAC, SAMe, and TUDCA.
3. By enhancing your body’s ability to excrete toxicants
Fiber, particularly soluble and/or fermentable, can enhance detoxification both directly and indirectly.
- Directly by binding bile and its associated toxins, thus facilitating their excretion.
- Indirectly, by feeding the bacteria in your digestive tract, some of which create short-chain fatty acids and other metabolites that act on the liver and kidneys to increase their ability to excrete toxicants.
Sweating may help excrete heavy metals, but sauna studies are scarce and rely mostly on subjective assessments, such as questionnaires about quality of life, rather than on objective measures of toxicant burden or excretion.
The idea that a juice-only-cleanse can trigger your system to shift from digestion and toward the excretion of toxicants is one of those catchy ideas that lack scientific backing. If you want your organs to do their best at ridding you of toxicants, then you should not deprive them of the nutrients they need to function. That means that what you need is a daily diet rich in varied fruits and vegetables rather than the occasional juice-only-cleanse.
Toxicants, notably heavy metals and liposoluble chemicals, can accumulate in your body. Avoid them whenever possible. You can support your inborn detoxification system by eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables (preferably organic ones, which have less known harmful pesticide residue) and possibly by sweating. Some supplements, such as NAC, can also help.
Conclusion
Our bodies accumulate toxins through our diet and environmental exposure. Some of these toxins may be excreted through various mechanisms, and some may be pushed aside and stored in our bodily fat.
As we lose weight, those toxins are released from our body fat and back into our system; possibly actually reducing our overall health. Our body may react to this by putting weight back on to provide a safety cushion allowing these toxins to be pushed aside and back out of our system.
How do we deal with this? There are three essential areas of action:
- Decrease your exposure to toxins in your food (be selective, wash, and peel) and environment (may even mean wearing a mask).
- Enhance your liver’s ability to metabolize toxicants by adding cruciferous vegetables to your diet and possibly supplements.
- Assist your body’s ability to excrete toxicants by consuming fiber, particularly soluble and/or fermentable.
So, if you are practicing Intermittent Fasting as a method weight loss, you need to be cognizant that a rapid loss of body fat could have the unintended consequence of releasing accumulated toxins back into your body. You will need to consider how you are going to help your body excrete these toxins.
Likewise, if you are using a diet plan/lifestyle such as Veganism, Keto, Whole 30, or the Mediterranean diet for weight loss, belief system, or health reasons, you also need to consider how you are going to help your body excrete these toxins.
In the end, you need to understand how toxins are getting into your body, manage that, and how they can get out of your body, enhance that, and be particularly aware if you are changing your lifestyle in a way that may be toxins, your body, and your health.