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Heavy Metal Detox Diet

AHA Publisher — Mon, 13 Jun 2022 07:00:44 +0000

Michael Greger M.D. FACLM via Nutrition Facts – What dietary change can simultaneously help detoxify mercury, lead, and cadmium from the body? I’ve previously explored the issue of lead contamination in calcium supplements, such as bonemeal, but bone meal isn’t all that can be contaminated. “Substantial quantities of lead have been reported in some over-the-counter calcium supplement preparations,” and testing has revealed continued public health concern over bonemeal. Thankfully, bonemeal isn’t as popular these days, so most of us aren’t likely to get exposed directly to the lead in bonemeal anymore. We may, however, get exposed indirectly through the animals we eat, as I show at 0:31 in my video How to Lower Heavy Metals with Diet. In the United States, five billion pounds of meat and bonemeal are produced annually as slaughterhouse by-products. What do we do with these millions of tons every year? We feed it back to farm animals, particularly chickens. Now, most of the lead in the bonemeal passes right through the animals into their waste, but we take that waste—that cow, pig, and chicken feces—and feed it right back to the animals once again. So, you can see how the levels of contaminants might build up in their bodies. You may remember that I’ve talked before about what all this might mean for making something like chicken soup, but the original concern about these kinds of feeding practices, such as feeding cows to pigs, chickens, and even other cows, was about spreading prion diseases, like mad cow. This kind of recycling not only magnifies prions, however; it also magnifies other toxic substances, including lead. So, a more plant-based diet may be able to lower lead exposure, and an even more plant-based diet could theoretically lower exposure even more. What happens when you put it to the test? Should we really expect to find a benefit? As you can see at 1:42 in my video, even though lead is one of the toxins found in meat, half of our dietary exposure probably comes from plant foods. In fact, dietary modeling studies in Europe suggest that vegetarians would be exposed to about the same amount of lead compared to the general population, with the exception of those who eat a lot of wild game, which can have a thousand times more lead than most other foods, as you can see at 2:02 in my video. A vegetarian diet may even be higher in lead. It’s not what you eat, though; it’s what you absorb. As I’ve discussed previously, researchers found that the uptake of toxic heavy metals from “animal food sources” into human intestinal lining cells may be higher than from vegetable sources. This is why you can have a vegetarian with some of the lowest concentrations of lead and cadmium in their blood, despite having higher concentrations in their diet. As you can see at 2:41 in my video, there seems to be a tendency towards higher fecal elimination of lead following a change to a vegetarian diet. Researchers found that nine subjects, on average, tripled their elimination of lead, three were unaffected, and four saw their levels drop by about half. The study only lasted a few months, though, and the difference wasn’t statistically significant. So, what would happen in a year? Subjects made the shift to a diet “characterized by large amounts of raw vegetables, fruits, unrefined foods, and whole-meal products [whole grains] and the exclusion of meat, poultry, fish, and eggs” (though it did include fermented dairy, like a type of soured milk). They also cut back on processed foods and junk. Researchers took clippings of their hair before and after the dietary shift and got significant reductions in heavy metals, including cutting their lead level nearly in half. As you can see at 3:28 in my video, within three months of the dietary shift, the mercury, cadmium, and lead that had been oozing from their body into their hair went down and stayed down. How do we know the reduction in toxic heavy metal levels wasn’t just a coincidence? A few years after the study was over, after the participants had gone back to more of their regular diet, their mercury, cadmium, and lead levels shot back up to where they were before. Researchers found the same with a different group of subjects after two years on a vegetarian diet. The drop in mercury is easy to explain, as it’s presumably due to the drastic drop in fish consumption, and the drop in alcoholic beverages may have contributed to the drop in lead. There also could have been a cadmium-like effect, where the decrease in hair lead content could be due to the dietary shift that resulted in less absorption of lead into the body in the first place. I have a 16-part series on lead, starting with How the Lead Paint Industry Got Away with It. The series includes videos with specific food recommendations. For example, check out Best Food for Lead Poisoning: Garlic and Yellow Bell Peppers for Male Infertility and Lead Poisoning? KEY TAKEAWAYS Substantial quantities of lead have been found in some over-the-counter calcium supplements, and there is continued public health concerns over bonemeal. Although bonemeal is not as popular today, we may be getting exposed to lead indirectly through the animals we eat. Millions of tons of meat and bonemeal are produced each year in the United States as slaughterhouse by-products and may be fed back to farm animals, particularly chickens. Most of the lead in the bonemeal passes through them into their, but that cow, pig, and chicken feces may then be fed back once again to farm animals. In this way, levels of contaminants may build up in their bodies. These kinds of recycled feeding practices, such as feeding cows to pigs, chickens, and even other cows, facilitate the spread of prion diseases, like mad cow, but they also magnify other toxic substances, including lead. Lead is a toxin found in meat, but half of our dietary exposure likely comes from plant foods. (Notably, wild game can have a thousand times more lead than most other foods.) It’s not what we eat, though; it’s what we absorb, and researchers have found that the uptake of toxic heavy metals from “animal food sources” into our intestinal lining cells may be higher than from vegetable sources, explaining why vegetarians can have some of the lowest concentrations of lead and cadmium in their blood, despite having higher concentrations in their diet. After changing to a vegetarian diet, there seems to be a tendency towards higher fecal elimination of lead. Indeed, researchers took clippings of study participants’ hair before and after the dietary shift and found significant reductions in heavy metals, including cutting their lead level nearly in half and lowering the mercury and cadmium in their bodies. A few years after the study concluded and the subjects had gone back to more of their regular diet, their mercury, cadmium, and lead levels elevated back up. To read the original article click here.

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Sunflower Seeds May Aggravate Acne

AHA Publisher — Mon, 02 May 2022 07:00:11 +0000

Michael Greger M.D. FACLM via Nutrition Facts – Should we be concerned about the pimples, cadmium, and “colonic crunch” associated with the consumption of sunflower seeds? A recent observational study on acne reported a “statistically significant relationship” between “acne severity and dietary factors such as chocolate, dairy products such as milk, [and] sunflower seed consumption….” I’ve produced videos on acne and chocolate and dairy, but I was surprised by the sunflower seeds, the topic of my video Do Sunflower Seeds Cause Acne?. When I think about sunflower seeds, I just think of a good, whole-food source of nutrition that’s been found to lower cholesterol levels as much almonds, which is pretty good. But did you know there are right and wrong ways to eat them? If you eat a pound of unshelled sunflower seeds—that is, eat them with the shell still on—you can end up corked with “a fist-sized mass of shredded sunflower seed shells.” How could a doctor diagnose something like that? By the “‘colonic crunch’ sign,” of course. Sounds like breakfast cereal served in hell, but, rather, it’s the “palpation of a large crunchy rectal mass.” You can see a photo of one at 1:10 in my video. Indeed, if you eat sunflower seeds with the shells still on, you can end up with a “sharp, thorny mass,” which is why the so-called sunflower seed syndrome has been described as “a prickly proctological problem.” It’s been lamented that “people who consume health foods occasionally fall into the trap of believing ‘if some is good, more is better.’” In this case, it’s not the amount that’s the problem, but how they’re being eaten: with the shells still on. “Perhaps this is why the syndrome is uncommon unless the patients are children or adults who are either impaired or have no experience with eating sunflower seeds.” Most cases involve younger, “preadolescent children,” aged 5 to 11, but researchers described the case of a “psychologically sound” 13-year-old girl and “stressed the importance of the role of the parents guiding their children, whatever the age group, about the potential problems associated with the ingestion of unshelled seeds.” Does that mean you can eat as many sunflower seeds as you want as long as they’ve been shelled? No—you can overdo even shelled seeds. Simply because of the nature of sunflowers, they’re good at drawing the naturally occurring heavy metal cadmium out of the ground. So, even if they’re grown in uncontaminated soils, sunflower seeds (or kernels) end up with higher cadmium levels than most foods. However, people who consume large amounts of sunflower seeds don’t seem to suffer any untoward effects or even end up with detectably higher cadmium levels. What constitutes a “large” amount? In this study, it was defined as more than an ounce a week, which is like a handful, about 150 seeds. The World Health Organization recommends staying below about 490 micrograms of dietary cadmium a week. If you ate a handful of shelled sunflower seeds a day, you’d be well below that, but we may get as much as 36 micrograms a day from the rest of our diet, so I think one handful a day is a reasonable safe upper limit. Okay, but will sunflower seeds give us acne? You don’t know, until you put it to the test, which researchers did because, after all, “consuming sunflower seeds is a very enjoyable way of participating in a clinical trial….” Fifty young adults were randomized to eat sunflower seeds—or not—for a week. As you can see at 3:23 in my video, the acne severity index stayed about the same in the control group, but got worse in the sunflower group. This translated into about three extra pimples in the sunflower seed group versus only about one extra pimple in the control group. The researchers concluded that “sunflower seed intake appears to aggravate acne vulgaris; however, further evidence is needed to ban sunflower seed intake in patients with acne.” KEY TAKEAWAYS Sunflower seeds, a good, whole-food source of nutrition, lower cholesterol levels as much as almonds. They should be eaten shelled, as consuming their shells can cause problems, including “a fist-sized mass of shredded sunflower seed shells.” Because of the nature of sunflowers, their seeds are good at drawing cadmium, a naturally occurring heavy metal, out of the ground. So, even if grown in uncontaminated soil, the kernels have higher levels of cadmium than most other foods. The World Health Organization recommends eating less than about 490 micrograms of dietary cadmium a week; eating a handful of shelled sunflower seeds a day is reasonably safe. Researchers reported a “statistically significant relationship” between acne severity and chocolate, dairy products, and sunflower seed consumption. When put to the test, the acne of study participants in the sunflower group worsened compared to those in the control group, leading the researchers to conclude that intake of sunflower seeds appears to aggravate acne vulgaris. However, more evidence is needed to ban patients with acne from eating sunflower seeds. To read the original article click here.

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Toxic Heavy Metal Found in Food and Tobacco Products Being Linked to Higher Risk of Death from Viral Respiratory Illnesses

AHA Publisher — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 08:00:48 +0000

Sara Middleton via NaturalHealth365 – If you know any cigarette smokers in your life, there is no better time than now to encourage them to quit. Why? Because even though there have yet to be specific studies looking at the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on people who smoke, plenty of prior research on other viral diseases suggests that smokers are probably at an increased risk of COVID complications and premature death. This makes intuitive sense, of course; smoking damages your lungs and increases systemic inflammation. But, what many people might not realize is that increased heavy metal exposure is one of the significant smoking risks, too – and unfortunately, even nonsmokers may be risk of it, too. COVID Warning: Toxic Heavy Metal Found in Food and Tobacco Products Being Linked to a Higher Risk of Death from Viral Respiratory Illnesses Cadmium is a naturally occurring metal. And, yes, it’s found in high concentrations within tobacco products as well as other common goods such as, batteries and fertilizer. Because of its widespread presence in the environment, cadmium can easily seep into soil and water via pollution – and therefore leech into plants and animals we eat. Unfortunately, long-term chronic exposure to cadmium increases the risk of health problems including kidney, bone and (notably) lung disease, according to the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OHSA). Recently, a team of researchers from the University of Michigan School of Public Health published the results of their study in Environmental Health Perspectives. They wanted to clarify if and how heavy metal exposure could contribute to severe COVID illness. The researchers had to look to earlier research to support their hypothesis, given the current lack of peer-reviewed studies on heavy metals and COVID-19. To do this, they assessed health data of 16,000 people who took part in the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 1988-1994 or 1999-2006. Specifically, the researchers looked at cadmium levels in both smokers and nonsmokers from this large sample. After adjusting for factors like age, sex, race, weight, cholesterol, and blood pressure readings, the researchers determined: People with 80 percent higher levels of cadmium than all others were 15 percent more likely to die of the flu or pneumonia compared to people in the bottom 20 percent of cadmium levels Even in nonsmokers, those with the highest levels of cadmium exposure were 27 percent more likely to die of viral infections compared to people with lower levels of the metal Overall, their analysis confirms earlier research showing that exposure to cadmium – whether through food or cigarettes – increases the risk of serious illness or death from the flu and pneumonia. Their research supports the idea that this heavy metal could also be contributing to current pandemic deaths, and that by reducing heavy metal exposure for all people (whether they smokers or not) is an important public health measure. Action Step: Here Are Some of the Foods Most Likely to Absorb Heavy Metals, According to Research Other than not smoking, you might be able to reduce your risk of cadmium exposure by avoiding certain foods known to contain high levels of it. These foods include: Animal organs such as liver and kidneys Soybeans Cereals Rice Leafy veggies including spinach and lettuce Other veggies including carrots, radishes, and zucchini Of course, you don’t have to swear off veggies forever. Other plants, such as cabbage and broccoli, generally have lower levels cadmium yet very high levels of protective antioxidants – so consider working these into your weekly diet more often. The key here is to have a variety of healthy, organic plant-based foods to reduce your overall risk of exposure to heavy metals. Being well-hydrated with clean water (daily) and occasionally doing an effective detoxification program – throughout the year – is not a bad idea either. When it comes to animal-based foods, eat only the highest quality possible from grass-fed or pasture-raised sources. Naturally, there are always pros and cons to every food choice … but, making the effort to eat (and live) better is certainly worth it. Sources for this article include: Studyfinds.org, NIH.gov, NIH.gov, NIH.gov, OHSA.gov, Tandfonline.com, Sciencemag.org To read the original article click here. For more articles from NaturalHealth365 click here.

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