Tag Archives: phytoestrogen

Heavy Metal Detoxification

heavy metal toxins

Heavy Metal Detoxification

These are the secrets manufacturers keep!

heavy metal toxins
By TRAVIS WADE

Do you know what your allostatic load is? Don’t sweat it if it sounds Portuguese to you. Allostatic load is just a fancy way of saying all the stresses on the body combined. The three main stresses are mental stress, toxins, and microbiome.

We all know what mental stress is, and there are many ways to reduce it. The microbiome is the bacteria of the body. To put it simply, the more good bacteria you have, the less bad stuff you’ll have. Grow your good bacteria instead of killing them off with antibiotics. Antibiotics should only be used in case of an emergency.

The third factor of the allostatic load is toxins, which we are focusing on today. Heavy metal toxins, to be more specific.

The Heavy Metals

toxins

Heavy metals are just one more son of a kitchen health hazard we have to deal with. However, I do have some good news, (bad news as well). Because I can’t ask which you want first, I’ll start with the bad. The bad news is we are all exposed to heavy metal toxicity.

The good news is, if you choose to detoxify, you will have much more energy, a better ability to gain muscle, and a better ability to lose weight. This article will talk about specific heavy metals, how they ruin our lives, and what to do about them.

Mercury and Copper

Mercury is the number one heavy metal toxin that interferes with so many of our metabolic processes and causes so many health issues. I would love it if you had a look at this video from the University of Calgary, showing what minimal amounts of mercury does to our neurons.

Many people can’t gain muscle because mercury poisons the enzymes that transport amino acids into the enterocytes (absorptive cells of the small intestine). In other words, people are not effectively able to absorb proteins through the gut lining. The number one way people get mercury in their system is from dental fillings.

Copper will block nutrient receptor sites in the gut to prevent the absorption of nutrients in general. Many females and vegans are copper toxic, which also leads to adrenal fatigue. Beans are high in copper, and when there is a lack of minerals from meat to detoxify the copper, we get copper toxic.

Trivalent Toxic Metals

There’s a special group of metals that prevent us from having energy, which makes us not want to exercise. This group of metals are called trivalent toxic metals. They include aluminum, arsenic, tin, thallium, cesium, and antimony.

Trivalent toxic metals poison enzymes that transport nutrients into our mitochondria. Mitochondria make our energy (Adenosine Triphosphate or ATP). If your mitochondria doesn’t have the raw materials to make ATP, your metabolism will suffer, causing fatigue.

Aluminum is found in tap water, deodorant, flour, salts, and cheap cookware in restaurants because they are very disposable. We all have some level of aluminum toxicity. Tin is in tin cans and dental fillings.

The Thallium Story

The thallium story is a prevalent story that gets repeated with many harmful toxins such as trans-fats. Here’s the story…

Petroleum companies used to put lead in fuel, but people complained so much that the government felt the need to do something. So they took the lead out of fuel but not before they found a replacement. (Clear throat), enter thallium.

Nobody is complaining about thallium in gas because no one’s even heard of it. Thallium is just as bad, if not worse, than lead. Thallium binds to the body’s receptor sites for potassium, and it’s added to gasoline to prevent knocking in car engines.

Arsenic

Arsenic blocks our ability to lose weight and decreases our energy levels. It poisons an enzyme that transports triglycerides from fat cells, which makes it difficult to lose weight. Arsenic is found in water, pesticides, and conventional chickens because it’s in their antibiotics.

Most people that have trouble losing weight have arsenic toxicity, and if you have uranium toxicity, you can’t get rid of your arsenic. Uranium is another offender often found in water, and it interferes with blood sugar control.

Estrogenic Chemicals

xenoestrogen

Estrogenic chemicals are one of the biggest problems that interfere with our metabolic function. The more estrogen you have, the more fat you will retain. Xenoestrogens in our environment are the estrogens I’m worried about. Xenoestrogens are foreign estrogens and can be man-made or natural. The phytoestrogen found in soybeans is a natural xenoestrogen.

Some man-made estrogen mimetics are in BPA, PCBs, and the number one being phthalates. Phthalates are in everything; fragrances, cosmetics, detergent, personal care products, plastic softeners like your rubber ducky or shower curtain, nail polish, hair spray, plastic bags, microwaveable containers, safety gloves, printing ink, varnish, and paper coatings.

I have to tell you about the frogs! Frogs are considered an indicator species because they live on land and water. Frogs are sensitive to any changes in our environment or ecosystem. With three thousand new toxins created every year, there are so many xenoestrogens that we barely get any male frogs anymore. They are becoming female frogs. I know, it’s sad.

Minerals

minerals

Minerals and metals occupy the same binding sites in the body. When we are deficient in certain minerals, we accumulate more heavy metals. For instance, if you don’t eat grass-finished red meat, you will likely be deficient in zinc. Zinc is used in the body to repair connective tissue like your skin. If there is an absence of zinc, your body uses cadmium, which causes cancer. When cadmium steals the receptor sites to repair arteries, it makes the arteries very brittle and hard, contributing to atherosclerosis and heart disease.

Heavy metals replacing minerals happens in many other instances where you have a deficiency in a mineral. That’s why grass-finished meat, bone broth, and juicing vegetables are important.

By detoxifying and re-mineralizing the body, the cellular metabolism will work better, making it easier to lose weight and control blood sugar. Mineral deficiencies and heavy metals reduce your ability to regulate blood sugar, which leads to type 2 diabetes.

How To Test For Toxins

hair analysis

There are three different tests for toxins. The first one is a hair mineral analysis to customize a detox for someone. The next is a urine test for more metals, and the fecal test will test for even more. These latter tests are needed because some metals don’t show up in the hair, like thallium.

There are many options to get a hair mineral analysis, but the one I used was Wendy Myers’. I had to cut off a lock of my hair and mail it in for analysis. They use hair because a blood test will only tell you what’s in your blood at that time. Hair will tell you what’s been in your system over the past three months.

Unfortunately, we accumulate chemicals a lot faster than we can detoxify them. Medical school teaches doctors that we have detoxifying organs, and they work fine, and we are detoxifying all the time. Every year three thousand new toxins are being created. Our organs can’t keep up.

How to Detox

detox diet

Start heavy metal detoxification by having a nutrient-rich diet filled with grass-finished meat, raw egg yolks, bone broth, and juicing vegetables.  Secondly, use BioSil (silica), six drops a day in orange juice or pineapple juice; any citric acid juice helps it absorb better. BioSil (silica) will displace the aluminum, arsenic, tin, and thallium from the bones and the brain and other hard to reach areas to be detoxed. You can use up to 10 drops a day, but that may increase fatigue.

Also, you need a binder that’s going to bind to all these metals. I use citrus pectin such as PectaSol-C 5g a day and activated charcoal. That will absorb the metals mobilized by the BioSil and other metals as well. Do not take these two together. They will bind together and go right through you. I take Biosil first thing in the morning and then PectaSol-C a few hours later. It takes about two years to remove these heavy metals.

An Infrared sauna is one of the best ways to detox the hundreds of toxins in our bodies and kill off infections by raising body temperature. Experts recommend using one every day for 30 minutes for 2-3 years, then at least 2-3 times a week after that to keep the heavy metal toxins low.

Some other supplements that can help detoxify from heavy metals are cilantro extract, N-acetylcysteine, glutathione, sodium R-lipoic acid, curcumin, and garlic. Alkalinisation can help as well. For more information, you can check out Wendy Myers at https://liveto110.com/

I wish you lots of health, love and happiness!

Travis Wade

The only holistic personal trainer in Edmonton.

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What’s With Beans?

beans

What’s with Beans?

This article is about the little known controversy around beans.

beans

By Travis Wade

Vegans- “Eat them.”

 Paleos- “No way!”

Timothy Ferris, author of “The 4-Hour Body“- “Eat them.”

Dr. Mark Hyman- “Don’t eat them.”

Every article I’ve read says something different about beans. Who’s right? Well, that depends on what you want to accomplish with your diet.

Vegans Love Beans

beans

Vegans will tell you they choose beans because they’re high in protein, fibre, and carbohydrates. Plus, they contain nutrients such as iron, folate, magnesium, potassium, and, to a lesser degree, phosphorus, zinc, copper, manganese, and vitamins B1, B3, B5, and B6. However, it’s a little misleading to claim nutrients as an advantage because the processing required to make beans edible removes many of them.

The Paleo Beans Debate

beans

Generally, paleo peeps don’t even agree with each other on what to eat. Today’s paleo experts believe we must study ancient teeth to discover what cave dwellers ate to learn what’s in a paleo diet. Some will say that beans are included, while others will say they are not. Incidentally, the tooth study determined that troglodytes from the Paleolithic Era indeed ate beans. So, if you’re on a paleo diet, your people say beans are ok.

Timothy Ferris Loves Beans

beans

Timothy Ferris, the author of “The 4-Hour Body, swears by beans. He claims they’re the magic ingredient for weight loss. The high carbohydrate/fibre/protein and low glycemic index of beans make them a “slow-carb” and thereby attractive to the weight loss community. Ferris claims that in his study, adding beans to a diet and not changing anything else substantially improved weight loss. Does it work? It actually does!

The glycemic index of beans is very low keeping us feeling satiated a long time. The high fibre and high protein will do the same. When we stay feeling full longer we eat less causing weight loss.

According to experts, the glycemic index depends on how the beans are prepared. The more you soak the beans and cook them, the higher the glycemic index. Mom’s baked beans with bacon and brown sugar were delicious, but they are among the highest glycemic index foods. In other words, they make you fat.

Dr. Mark Hyman on Beans

Dr. Mark Hyman

The photo was taken from https://drhyman.com

Dr. Mark Hyman is the reason I’m writing this article. He isn’t a fan of beans, but I hadn’t read much on why he didn’t like them. However, the more digging and reading I did, the more I agreed with Dr. Hyman. Mm-hmm…it turns out these little suckers can be pretty toxic and cause all kinds of mischief in your body.

Plants cannot run or fight, so one of the ways they defend themselves is to produce toxins or poisons. Phytic-acid or phytate is one such poison. It binds with specific minerals and prevents their absorption into the body. Phytate is more of a concern to vegetarians as meat-eaters tend to get more minerals from animal products. Furthermore, beans don’t taste great anyway; they are considered the least addictive food on the planet.

Copper Toxicity from Beans

beans

Another problem vegetarians face is copper toxicity. This is because many beans are very high in copper. Copper is a necessary nutrient in minimal amounts, but too much from beans, combined with too little zinc from lack of red meat, can lead to copper toxicity.

In theory, anyone with a high copper diet can end up with copper toxicity, not just vegetarians. If you have copper poisoning, you’re likely to hate red meat because it stimulates the thyroid and adrenal glands, releasing the stored copper. Consequently, this induces copper toxicity symptoms, including headaches, emotional instability, fatigue, insomnia, depression, skin rashes, brain fog, learning disorders, and premenstrual syndrome. Fortunately, once copper toxicity is overcome with enough small doses of red meat, the symptoms go away.

Lectin in Beans

stomach ache

Ever heard of lectin? This is important, my friends, it causes all kinds of problems. Lectin contributes to what is known as Leaky Gut Syndrome. Some doctors still say Leaky Gut Syndrome is nonexistent, but it’s getting more difficult to deny its harmful effects.

Lectin binds to human body cells and kills them. When this happens to the lining of the gut, the gut becomes much more permeable. Lectin can then leak through the intestine and link to cells in the bloodstream and kill those cells. We’re talking system-wide inflammation. While lectin is present in all plants, it is grains, GMOs, pasteurized dairy, beans, nuts, and seeds that have a very high content. 

Genetically Modified Organisms

GMOs are genetically modified organisms. One of the ways the food industry has changed foods is by increasing their “natural” toxins to keep bugs away. In other words, they made them extremely high in lectin.

My friends planted organic potatoes and non-organic potatoes on their farm in large amounts. The bugs didn’t touch the GMO potatoes and ate the organic ones completely. Now, if bugs won’t eat it, you shouldn’t either! There’s an absurd amount of problems with GMOs, but I’ll stop there for now.

Almost all soybeans and soy products are GMOs, along with corn, grains, and sugar. If you’re eating packaged foods, you’re eating corn, soy, grains, and frightfully modified sugars. Sugar synergistically magnifies all the inflammation and harmful bacteria/yeast in your gut. Not to mention the preservatives and other toxins in packaged foods.

Processing Beans

chilli beans

Fortunately, you can neutralize the phytate and lectin in beans by soaking them in water, sprouting them or fermenting them. You can also boil them at 100 degrees Celsius for at least 10 minutes. However, soaking and boiling them will also remove nutrients in the beans and increase their glycemic index.

Inasmuch, if you cook your beans at too low a temperature, they can be more dangerous. For instance, shockingly, people die every year from lectin poisoning when slow cooking chilli. That’s because kidney beans are among the foods highest in lectin, and slow cooking does not reach temperatures high enough to reduce the lectin.

Didn’t think beans were so bad? Studies show that beans have been linked to IBS, Crohn’s disease, arthritis, multiple sclerosis, peptic ulcers, allergies, and type 2 diabetes.

Phytoestrogen in Beans

soy beans

Another unusual defence mechanism employed by plants is to cause infertility in predators. Phytoestrogen is not estrogen, but it mimics estrogen and causes a hormone imbalance that can generate impotence in many male predators. High estrogen levels are not suitable for men or women for various reasons. One reason is low thyroid, which kills metabolism. Regrettably, soybeans are high in phytoestrogen.  

FODMAPs

beans

FODMAP is an acronym for Fermentable Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides, Monosaccharides And Polyols. These carbohydrates are hard to digest and turn into fermentable sugars that cause numerous issues in the GI tract. For some, it’s much worse than for others. Unfortunately, a lot of beans are a source of FODMAPs. When something gets fermented, a by-product is always some type of gas. Pardon me; my friend’s an A-hole.

Table 2

FODMAPs4,11

High FODMAP foodsLow FODMAP foods
Asparagus, artichokes, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, garlic, leek, onion, sugar snap peasAlfalfa, bean sprouts, green beans, bell peppers, bok choy, carrots, celery, cucumber, eggplant, kale, lettuce, radish, spinach, squash, tomato, turnip, zucchini
Apples, blackberries, pears, mango, watermelon, nectarines, peaches, plums, dried fruitsBanana, blueberry, cantaloupe, honeydew, grapes, kiwi, orange, pineapple, raspberry, strawberry
Milk (cow, goat, sheep), yoghurt, soft cheese, cream, custard, ice creamLactose-free milk, lactose-free yogurts, hard cheese
Legumes/pulsesMeats, fish, chicken, eggs, tofu, tempeh
Rye, wheat breads, wheat-based cereals, wheat pastaGluten-free bread and pasta, sourdough spelt bread, oats, rice, quinoa
Cashews, pistachiosAlmonds, hazelnuts, pumpkin seeds walnut, macadamia, peanut, pecan, pine nut
Sauce, jam, salsa or salad dressing with high fructose corn syrup, honey, agave, carob powder, artificial sweeteners (mannitol, sorbitol, xylitol)Jelly, marmalade, butter, nut butters, mustard, mayonnaise, olives, cocoa powder, vinegar, soy sauce, cooking oils

Table taken from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4944381/

Aflatoxins and Beans

peanuts

Peanuts are a type of bean – they’re not actually a nut. Peanuts carry all the toxins other beans have, and also, they have aflatoxin, a metabolite of mould. Aflatoxin is the most potent carcinogen known to man. It’s another toxin your body has to deal with and fight off. Who needs more inflammation? The lectin in peanuts and peanut oil is potent, and roasting them does not neutralize the toxicity.

Soy Beans

tofu

If I haven’t turned you off of soy yet, then let me revisit this. I mentioned that soy is high in phytoestrogen, but it also contains a trypsin inhibitor. Trypsin is an enzyme that breaks down protein. A trypsin inhibitor prevents trypsin from breaking down protein to be absorbed

Soy protein and soy milk are two things that should never be considered food. In fact, I cringe when I hear the process of how the stuff is made. I hope that’s enough to beat all the great marketing in favour of soy.

The Good Beans

bean sprouts

Green beans are rich in folate, fibre, and many other vitamins and minerals. They also have much less of the toxins mentioned above, and they are low FODMAP. Green beans are a slow-carb, which means a low glycemic index and an excellent carb for weight loss.

Green peas are very rich in vitamins and minerals along with phytonutrients that help prevent many diseases, including heart disease and cancer. They are also a slow-carb.

If you are going to choose any other bean, then non-GMO sprouted beans are the best.

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