Produce with highest levels of pesticides

I’ve already covered the best fruits and vegetables to buy that don’t have to have the organic label because they have the least amounts of herbicides and pesticides.

Today, I want to cover which fruits and vegetables are important to purchase with an organic label, because these are considered (and tested yearly) to have the highest levels of pesticides. Please note that this list of fruits and vegetables may change each year with testing.

These are the fruits and vegetables that are considered to have high levels of pesticides, so when possible, purchase the organically grown version.

1. Strawberries

2. Spinach

3. Kale, Collard Greens, Mustard Greens

4. Peaches

5. Pears

6. Nectarines

7. Apples

8. Grapes

9. Bell Peppers and Hot Peppers

10. Cherries

11. Blueberries

12. Green Beans

    These fruits and vegetables are healthier for you when you can avoid the pesticide laden form and either grow them yourself, so you know what is going in your garden, purchase them locally from a farmer who grows without using a ton of herbicides and pesticides, or purchase the organically grown version.

You can get a downloadable version of this list from the EWG.ORG website here.https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/full-list.php

You don't always have to buy organic - take this list with you to the grocery store and save money!

Buying organic and non-GMO foods are important when you are supporting your health and trying to avoid pesticides, herbicides and genetically modified products in your food.

But did you know that there are foods that are tested each year and found to hold the least amount of herbicides and pesticides and are not considered organic?

This tip can help you save money in your grocery budget and support your health!

Listed below are 15 fruits and vegetables that are considered “clean” by the Environmental Working Group:

1. Avocado

2. Sweet Corn*

3. Pineapple

4. Onions

5. Papaya*

6. Frozen Sweet Peas

7. Asparagus

8. Honey Dew Melon

9. Kiwi

10. Cabbage

11. Mushrooms

12. Mangoes

13. Sweet Potatoes

14. Watermelon

15. Carrots

    *Note: sweet corn, papaya, and summer squash tend to be GMO crops, so try to find non-GMO grown veggies in these varieties if you do not want genetically modified vegetables in your diet.

Be sure to take this list with you to the grocery store so you can save when you shop! You can also get a downloadable version of this from the EWG website https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/clean-fifteen.php .

Please tell me you aren't still drinking tap water...

You may drink your tap water every day and use it for cooking, but have you ever wondered if it is safe to drink?

Our tap water can be filled with chlorine, BPA, fluoride, glysophate and more. We know that the FDA regulates what is considered a “safe” amount of contamination in our water. But, just because the FDA deems it “safe”, it doesn’t mean it fits within the safety parameters that have been studied by scientists to determine health risks.

According to the Environmental Working Group, regulatory agencies tend to give water supplies a passing grade, but the EPA would consider their standards negligent.

As a Nutritional Therapist, I do recommend drinking filtered water to remove as many contaminants as possible that pose a risk to our health. Environmental Working Group has a fabulous website where you can check on your water quality to see which contaminates are in your local water supply.

Currently, in my local water supply, there are FOUR contaminants above the recommended level, with TEN contaminants found. You can click this link to look at your local water supply to see what contaminants are found https://www.ewg.org/tapwater/

EWG.ORG also lists what to look for in a water filter. You can find that information here https://www.ewg.org/tapwater/water-filter-guide.php .

I personally use a Berkey Filter https://www.berkeyfilters.com/ on my counter, and have purchased Clearly Filtered countertop filters for my children. Currently, there is a 15% off coupon on their website. https://www.clearlyfiltered.com/collections/filtered-pitcher

Water is a food that we depend on every day for drinking, cooking, cleaning and more. Just like the food we eat, it is important to know what is in our water and to be sure we are consuming water that will support our health and not contribute to its decline.

Tips to Replace Your Seed Oil Dressings

As you work to swap those industrial seed oils for more nutritious natural fats, I want to give you a couple tips on salad dressings.

Sometimes even the organic salad dressings will use an “organic” canola oil - which is still an inflammatory oil, even if it’s “organic”.

Here is a simple and easy salad dressing you can whip up at home in a matter of minutes and tastes amazing! I’ve even used this salad dressing as a marinade for meats before grilling them.

SIMPLE AND FRESH SALAD DRESSING

1/4 cup white wine vinegar

1/2 cup olive oil

1 teaspoon dijon mustard

1 teaspoon sea salt

1-2 freshly minced cloves of garlic

1 teaspoon tarragon or marjoram ( you can substitute your favorite herb)

Wisk all ingredients together. Let sit for about 10 minutes before serving so that the fresh garlic and herbs can distribute their flavors throughout the dressing.

You can swap out the acid in this dressing with any vinegar of your choice like red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar. The same goes for the oil: I sometimes use walnut oil (wonderful healthy fat to use) or avocado oil.

If you prefer to purchase your salad dressings, one of my favorite brands is Primal Kitchen. They have delicious salad dressings as well as a wonderful avocado oil based mayonnaise. https://www.primalkitchen.com/

Swapping your industrial seed oils (canola, vegetable, corn, crisco) with quality ingredients (avocado, olive, ghee, real butter, lard) can help remove inflammation and improve your health.

If you need help with getting your diet back on track to improve your health, I can help! Just reply to this email and we can schedule a time to talk about my 12 Week Program and how I can tailor it to fit your unique needs.

My Favorite Workouts

There are a lot of great reasons to exercise and move your body. Moving your body helps improve mental health, blood pressure, bone density, muscle mass, and helps to reduce the risk of falls. But statistics show that less than half of the US population participate in the recommended amount of exercise!! Don't let that be YOU!!

Moving your body is a huge part of controlling weight and reducing insulin resistance, as well. Studies show that building muscle helps your body burn off excess glucose and increases your metabolic flexibility. When you work on building muscle, you are increasing bone density and muscle so that as you age, you don't start to lose it. https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2014/14_0007.htm

I wanted to share with you my current favorite workouts to both build muscle and to increase aerobic capacity. My workouts are about 75% muscle building with spin classes included. (Just FYI - if you are a current client and are working on Blood Sugar Regulation and your adrenals are shot, just keep focusing on non-cortisol inducing workouts!!)

All of these workouts can be found for FREE on Youtube. My current favorite strength workout program is by Caroline Girvan. She has about 2 years worth of strength training programs and anyone can do them. Just grab some hand weights and you are good to go!

My current favorite aerobic workout is a spin (cycle) workout by Kaleigh Cohen Spin, which can be found on Youtube, as well. She does a spinning class, and I just use my computer, headphones, and spin bike at home.

In the summertime, I prefer to be outside walking and doing other things, but until then, it is an indoor workout for me!

Don't let yourself fall into the statistics of being out of shape and unable to participate in life! You can do this!! Doing workouts can keep you fit so that you are able to do simple tasks like getting up and down, running after kids and grandkids and keeping illness at bay.

Sleep and Blood Sugar Dysregulation

Sleep is another important component to regulating blood sugar. Did you know that having a week of poor sleep can pop you into a pre-diabetic state?

We have all gone through stages disrupted sleep and feeling the results: we make poor food choices, feel cranky, have brain fog, and tend to crave more carbs, caffeine and sugar.

Loss of sleep interrupts our hunger/satiety hormones ghrehlin and leptin, which makes us crave more carbs and feel less full.

When you don't get enough sleep, it can increase your risk of blood sugar dysregulation, insulin resistance and diabetes. Did you know that just one week of disrupted sleep can bring on blood sugar dysregulation so strongly that it could pop you into a pre-diabetic stage?

It is important to make sleep a priority as you are dealing with blood sugar dysregulation.

Here are 5 tips to help you with better sleep:

1. Reduce or remove caffeine. It can take between 5-7 hours for the body to metabolize caffeine, so be sure you don't drink it before bed.

2. Use blue-blocking light reading glasses in the evening when using a computer or phone.

3. Take an epsom salt bath. This has magnesium in it, which can help you relax.

4. Drink organic teas that support relaxation and sleep in the evening.

5. Create a soothing and relaxing atmosphere in your bedroom with nice sheets and cooler temperatures.

Environmental Toxins and Blood Sugar Regulation

Not only does too many refined carbs, sugar and stress affect our blood sugar regulation, but environmental toxins, over time, can affect it as well.

We are exposed to many toxins on a daily basis thanks to industrial waste and industrial farming. These chemicals can be found in the air, water, and our food supply. The FDA may not catagorize some of these chemicals as harmful.

We must, however, take into consideration the multiple chemicals we are exposed to daily and the long-term total body burden.

There are factors that we have to take into consideration that compound the toxin load on our bodies:

Chemicals like pesticides, herbicides, drugs, solvents, metals, etc.

Infections, including parasites

Food-poisoning toxins and molds like aflatoxin, fusarium, etc.

Electromagnetic fields and radiation (EMF)

Alcohol consumption, smoking, etc.

Structural and mechanical imbalances, nasal or intestinal obstructions, etc.

Hormonal imbalances

Emotional trauma, stress, loneliness, etc.

The toxic load we put on our bodies can be enormous, especially when it compounds over time including our cleaning products, cosmetics, self-care products, laundry products and more.

These toxins, over time, can affect our gut health and lead to leaky gut, as well as problems with our liver. Our liver performs many functions including cleansing the blood from toxins and converting glucose to be stored, converting it from the stored form and back into a form that can be used as fuel. When our liver is overburdened it cannot perform these functions properly, leading to more health problems.

If you are seeing signs of blood sugar dysregulation the good news is that it can be reversed! If you would like to explore how this would look inside my 12 Week Program, just send me an email so we can discuss how it can work for you.

Are you still eating seed oils?

Seed oils like canola, vegetable, corn, crisco, and margarine are all highly inflammable oils and should be avoided. Yet, we still see these oils being touted as “heart healthy” and used in everything from frying to salad dressings and ingredients in foods we eat every day.

Historically, our ancestors got fats from animals, dairy, fish, and a few plants like coconuts (depending on where they lived). There was very little heart disease, cancer and diabetes, unlike now.

Seed oils didn’t really become a thing until the Industrial Revolution, when byproducts like cottonseed, started being manufactured to use up the waste.

These industrial vegetable seed oils have to be processed with high heat and chemical solvents in order to produce any oil at all. Most of these oils are rancid by the time they get to the grocery stores, but have been deodorized to mask the smell.

Here is a wonderful podcast from Wise Traditions that talks about these industrial seed oils and how they harm our health. These industrial seed oils can “lead to a host of health conditions from obesity, to cancer, to diabetes, to premature aging.” Weston Price Podcast Episode 406. https://www.westonaprice.org/podcast/avoid-seed-oils/#gsc.tab=0

Changing the oils you use at home can be a quick and simple way to support healthy habits and improve you and your family’s health! Swap those inflammatory oils with avocado oil, olive oil, coconut oil, real butter, whole fat dairy, ghee, lard (from grass-fed animals) and even tallow.

Like Sally Fallon Morell says, get your fats right - if you don’t do anything else! Go back to eating real, natural fats that we find in nature! You will see improvements in the health of your family and yourself.

Stress and Blood Sugar Regulation

Not only can eating too many refined carbs, sugar and caffeine cause blood sugar dysregulation, but stress affects our ability to regulate our blood sugar levels as well.

Stress can come in many forms: too much caffeine, working out too hard for too long, and our normal daily stresses that we have with relationships, meeting deadlines and much more. We live in an advanced society with many conveniences, but are incredibly stressed on a daily basis.

When we are stressed, our bodies are in the "fight or flight" mode. Our bodies cannot tell the difference between a bear chasing us or running late to work. It just knows that we are stressed and kicks in the adrenal glands. The hormones cortisol and adrenalin, get released in order to make/release glucose for quick fuel. When stressed, our bodies are working in the sympathetic mode, which also down regulates digestion. Our bodies do not work at optimal levels when in the sympathetic state.

Living a stressful lifestyle can have a devastating effect on our health. Over time it can lead to blood sugar dysregulation, insulin resistance, pre-diabetes, and diabetes type 2.

If you are having symptoms of insulin resistance or blood sugar dysregulation, the good news is that it can be reversed! I can help - you can reach out to me via email to schedule a call so that we talk about your concerns and goals.to find out how my 12 Week Program works.

Are You Stressed? Then you probably need to add these minerals....

Stress not only affects our gut health, sleep and blood sugar balance, but it is also expensive when it comes to using up specific minerals in the body.

Did you know that when you are stressed, it causes your body to use up certain minerals more quickly than others?

Zinc, magnesium, and calcium are used by the nervous system and can get depleted when you are under prolonged stress. These minerals are also used for many other essential body processes.

Zinc is essential to produce stomach acid, process cholesterol, protein and fats, and is needed for a healthy immune system.

Magnesium is needed for many processes such as relaxing muscles, protein and carbohydrate metabolism, and our DNA production and function.

Calcium is used for many things, such as bone building, muscle contraction, regulating our heartbeat, and blood coagulation.

As you can see, these minerals are used for many important body functions as well as other functions not listed here.

When we are stressed, out bodies pull more of these minerals to use to support our nervous system. If you have been stressed for a prolonged period, you are probably going to be deficient in these areas.

It is impossible to get enough of the vitamin and minerals we need from our daily food intake, due to things like the consumption of too much processed food and depletion of mineral levels in soil. Yet, eating foods rich in these minerals can help rebuild our stores.

Foods that are rich in zinc are oysters, beef, and pumpkin seeds. You can find magnesium in foods like avocados, dark cacao powder (add to protein shake), and wild caught salmon. Calcium can be found in dark, leafy vegetables and dairy products.

If you find it hard to eat a variety of foods that contain these nutrients, you can also take a quality mineral supplement that can restore the mineral levels in your body.

I am please to say that I can now offer my clients a way to test vitamin and mineral levels through hair samples. This is a fantastic way to know exactly which vitamins and minerals in which you are deficient.

Of course, the best way to keep your body healthy is to eat a whole, food nutrient dense diet with a variety of meats, vegetables and fats. It is not always convenient to do this nor do we always have the resources to do this well. That is when supplements come in handy and can help restore your body and health.