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Food rules for reducing your exposure to toxic chemicals
Toxic chemicals enter our food supply from many sources, including environmental pollution, chemical inputs during farming, processing, packaging, and cooking. Figuring out how to avoid them can feel overwhelming. You may have heard about Professor Michael Pollan’s food rules.1 Though his rules are focused on health, following them can also get you most of the way…
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Saturated animal fats as dietary sources of toxic chemicals
Advice recommending the consumption of saturated fat, including from beef tallow, has been in the news lately.1,2 I won’t go into the health issues associated with eating this, as I’m not a medical doctor. My concern focuses more on beef and other animal fats as delivery devices for fat-soluble, toxic chemicals like dioxins, organochlorine pesticides, and…
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Garden to table – keeping toxic chemicals out
There’s nothing quite like harvesting fresh produce from your garden. In addition to having access to high quality fruits and veggies, there are other reasons to grow your own. Home gardening can be a hedge against rising grocery prices. And in the spirit of our ancestors who grew some of their own food during World…
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“Conventional” farming as a source of toxic chemicals to food
Conventional, a.k.a. chemically-intensive farming can be a source of toxic chemicals to our food. Pesticides, such as insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides, may be directly sprayed, leftover from a prior crop, or drift in from an adjacent field. Growth regulators and sprouting inhibitors may also be applied after harvest. Why be concerned about pesticides in your…
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Environmental sources of toxic chemicals in food
Because food is not grown in a vacuum (except on the Space Station), fruits, veggies, chickens, cattle, and fish are exposed to environmental contamination during their life spans. Even controlled or sheltered conditions, like a greenhouse, are likely not free of environmental contaminants present in the building or soil and brought in by irrigation water.…
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Monthly food hacks for fewer toxins in 2025
In addition to providing sustenance and enjoyment, the food we eat can be contaminated with hundreds of toxic chemicals, including pesticides, plastic components, and cancer-causing molecules formed during cooking. While you can’t avoid everything, there’s a lot you can do to reduce your exposure in the first place, in other words, to pre-detox. To figure out…
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Safe foraging
It’s blackberry season in my area, one of my favorite times of the year. There’s nothing like fresh-picked berries over store bought for flavor. In addition to what we grow in our yards, it’s nice to go collecting in the wild. However, there are a few guidelines to follow to make sure you avoid fruits,…
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“One word: plastics.” Health concerns and tips to reduce exposure in your diet.
In the nearly sixty years since that line was uttered by Dustin Hoffman in the movie The Graduate, plastics have spread far and wide across the surface of the earth. They, or their breakdown products, are present in samples collected from the deepest oceans, on mountain tops, in air and clouds, our homes, our food, and…
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Plant-based scones, anyone?
In my prior post, I listed resources that will help you include more plant-based food in your diet. In this post, I thought I’d share one of my favorite recipes – scones. Traditional scone recipes call for eggs, milk or cream, and butter. But both cattle and chickens, e.g. the sources of dairy and eggs,…
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Plant-based eating made easy: cookbooks and resources
As I mentioned in a prior post, animals accumulate fat-soluble chemicals such as PCBs, dioxins, and some pesticides at much higher levels than plants, up to millions of times higher. Because it can take years or decades to clear these chemicals from your body, it’s best to reduce your exposure to them in the first…
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Reducing toxins in food Rule #1. Choose a primarily plant-based diet.
Why is switching to a more plant-focused diet important? Because animals accumulate fat-soluble pollutants like dioxins, PCBs, and organic mercury compounds at much higher levels than plants. And it takes a long time to clear these chemicals from your body so it’s important to reduce your exposure to them in the first place. Bioaccumulation is a process…
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Ah, summer. Time to cook over a fire…
Summer is grilling season and a central part of many outdoor gatherings. However, cooking food, especially meat, over a hot grill creates smoke and other toxic substances. Similarly, cooking s’mores and other goodies over a campfire can also expose you to toxic smoke and char. Charred food contains polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are considered…
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Gardening part 3. From seed to harvest: avoiding pesticides in your garden
From seed to harvest: avoiding pesticides in your garden.
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Gardening part 2. Organic is not always “organic”
Once you’re sure the garden where you’ll be planting produce is as free of toxic chemicals as possible (see prior post), the next step is to make sure products you use in the garden are also free of added pesticides or other potentially harmful materials. First, I need to clarify what the term “organic” means…
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Gardening, part 1. Avoiding toxic chemicals in your garden.
Whether it’s an acre of greenery or a collection of pots on your balcony or windowsill, having a garden can provide you with your own slice of nature. And growing your own food is a pleasure that even access to a great Farmer’s Market can’t beat. A ripe strawberry or tomato freshly harvested and still…
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Resources for Finding Less Contaminated Food
The amount of information online about toxic chemicals in food can be overwhelming. However, there are resources that make it easier for you navigate finding safer food. There are apps you can download to your phone, as well as guides you can take with you shopping. I’d recommend trying each of them to see which…
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A Day in the Life, Toxins for Breakfast
We are exposed to toxic chemicals in our food and beverages from many, everyday sources. Most of these exposures occur at low levels but can accumulate over time and increase your risk for diseases like cancer, cardiovascular disease, reproductive impairment, and neurological disease. Taking small steps to lower your overall exposure can help you reduce…
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Why Gas Stoves are in “Hot” Water
Ordinarily I write about how toxic chemicals get into your food. How you cook also matters— your greatest potential exposure to toxic fumes occurs when cooking on a gas stove…
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Quick Tips for Reducing Exposure to Toxic Chemicals in Your Diet
I just heard from someone that waiting a couple of years for advice while I write this book would be difficult for them since they’d be worried about what they were being exposed to in the meantime. I truly understand that concern so I decided to post my bottom line advice here while I work…
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Avoiding Toxic Chemicals in Our Diet
I am currently writing a book about where toxic chemicals in our diet come from and how you can reduce your exposure to them. Join me over the next couple of years as I blog about this subject.
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Water Filter Longevity and Peak Gunk
I know these are tough financial times for many people and you might be looking for areas where you can cut back on costs. There is one item you shouldn’t ignore – water filters. Using a filter past its expiration date can be dangerous for your health. All the toxic gunk that’s been adsorbing to…
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The Perils of Poisons and Pesticides
The recent poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexi Navalny1 brings to mind the parallel histories of neurotoxic chemicals used in chemical warfare and as insecticides on crops. Just before World War II, German scientists tasked with developing insecticides to protect crops wound up creating a chemical so toxic that it was repurposed and weaponized for…
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Acidic Water Versus Your Teeth…
Inspired by a friend’s question about the damage carbonated waters might do to teeth, which can be demineralized by acidic solutions, I did a Sunday-morning experiment to test the acidity (low pH) of various sources of water, including (from left to right): a mineral water (Perrier), two seltzer waters (LeCroix & Arrowhead), lemon water, and…
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Nice Cream on a Sunny, Spring Day
Earlier this month, I posted about how processed foods can become contaminated by things like plasticizers from packaging and other sources. Not only are those chemicals bad for your health, a new study (1) shows that participants who ate the heavily processed diet gained weight, whereas those given un- or minimally-processed foods actually lost weight.…
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Recipe Hacks to Reduce Phthalates
With plastics, and the chemicals associated with them, so prevalent in our world, it’s not surprising that much of our food is contaminated by plasticizers (see previous post). So what do you do to reduce these chemicals in your diet? The best approach is to eliminate all processed food. But that’s not always possible. A…
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“One word: plastics.”
Oh, that prophetic line from the movie The Graduate. There’ve been a lot of stories lately about plastic in our environment, thanks to the hundreds of millions of tons produced globally each year.1 Because it’s so convenient, plastic is a tough habit to break. So why bother? Plastics and their additives cause problems at all…
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Got Organic: Cereal & Beer?
When you’re looking to avoid pesticides in your diet, it’s important to go beyond organic produce. A good place to start is grains, such as cereal, bread, pasta, etc. These crops are also treated with pesticides, especially grains engineered (GMOs) to be resistant to herbicides like glyphosate, which is now considered a probable carcinogen to…
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A Toxic-free New Year
Join me in 2019 for tips on creating a cleaner diet, free of many of the toxic chemicals that come from the use of pesticides, processing, packaging, and environmental contamination. There are numerous sources of problematic chemicals in our diets and many ways that they find their way into our food and water. It can…
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Vegan or Seagan? How To Choose Foods with the Most Nutrients and Least Toxins
There are many reasons to follow a vegan, or the newest trend, “seagan” diet, which includes fish. Many studies have shown significantly lower rates of cancer and heart disease in vegans and pescatarians (vegetarians who eat fish) than in people eating a meat-based diet. And for vegans, it is a choice to avoid harm to…
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What’s that in my food?
Participating in #OctoberUnprocessed this year gives me another opportunity to take a closer look at what’s really in the food I eat. Thousands of ingredients are added to foods for sale in the U.S. and can include chemicals that act as preservatives, change texture or appearance, or add flavor. These must be listed on ingredient…
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Join me for the #OctoberUnprocessed Challenge! Starting tomorrow and for the entire month of October, I’ll be choosing to eat minimally processed, whole foods . And I will be posting at DocLaurel (Facebook) and @Laurel_Standley (Twitter) on ways that eating a less processed diet can reduce your exposure to toxic chemicals. This is the 7th…
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Balcony Farm Girl
Growing your own food is a pleasure that even access to a great Farmer’s Market can’t beat. Plucking a ripe strawberry or tomato still warm from the sun offers the best flavor and burst of nutrients. It’s a wonderful venture for those of us seeking to increase organic, unpackaged food in our diets and the…
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Facebook posts
Hi Folks, I finally created a Facebook page called Doc Laurel (www.facebook.com/DocLaurel) that I’m doing most of my posting about toxins and reducing your exposure. Please join me on that platform for more frequent postings. I’ll still post here when I need to go into more detail. Wishing you good health, Laurel
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2030: The Incredible Sustainable City
Imagine arriving in your city’s downtown core on a quiet electric train, whisked along tracks through residential and urban city blocks. You glance toward the mountains in the distance, visible through a sky free of smog. As the train pulls into the station, you step out and inhale the clean air. Electric buses and trams…
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Your Input on Book on Toxins in Food & Water
Dear Toxins Blog followers: I am writing a book on the presence and source of toxins in our food and drinking water, whether they come through environmental contamination, are added as ingredients, or leach from packaging/cooking materials. One major chapter of the book will focus on how choosing different diets likely affects your exposure to toxins…
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So, How Safe is That Stuff I’m Putting on My Face?
A friend just asked me about the safety of ingredients in a product that claims to enhance eyelashes (http://www.dermstore.com/lp/2268). Even though I’m a chemist, I still find it difficult to interpret product labels for safety of ingredients and can imagine how frustrating this is for people who simply want to know about the safety of…
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Join #OctoberUnprocessed!
During the month of October, I’ll be tweeting (@Laurel_Standley) on the benefits of an unprocessed diet on reducing exposures to toxic chemicals. This was inspired by Andrew Wilder’s annual event called October Unprocessed (follow @eatingrules). I highly recommend visiting his site (https://eatingrules.com/october-unprocessed-2014/) and signing up for the month as a way to reconnect to ‘real’ food and good…
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Bring on the Milk Fat and Lose Weight?
I recently read about studies that show a counterintuitive relationship between consuming higher fat dairy products and reduced body weight (e.g. http://n.pr/1kBi0fZ). I read this with concern because animal fats, such as those in high fat dairy products, are a key source of fat-soluble toxins to our bodies (see http://bit.ly/1hywXix) and it can take many…
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Water water everywhere but what is safe to drink?
Having access to safe drinking water is an essential part of good health. The quality of the water that we drink reflects its journey by picking up many substances as it passes through streams, aquifers, and the atmosphere. Many of these substances, such as minerals, are beneficial to our health. But water also picks up…
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Heart- and Cancer-smart Diets Tend to be Lower in Toxins
The Mediterranean Diet has been in the news lately for reducing the risk of heart disease and the need for pharmacological or surgical interventions.1 As a long-time fan of Dr. Dean Ornish’s work documenting the benefits of diet and lifestyle changes on reversing heart disease and cancer,2 I was struck by the fact that many…
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Environmental Toxins and Pets: Suggestions for Reducing Their Exposure
Over the last couple of decades we have learned much about the wide range of toxic chemicals that people are exposed to at home and elsewhere. These exposures are associated with illnesses such as cancer, heart disease, and disruption of reproductive and other hormonal systems. Our companion animals are also exposed to many of these…
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The Twelve NonToxic Days of Christmas
Wishing you a safe and joyous holiday season with those you love. Day 1. A real holiday tree (organic if you can find it) and its organic soil sop up carbon from the atmosphere (http://bit.ly/127ztlt) and reduce exposure to plasticizers from fake trees. Day 2. Looking for great ideas for nontoxic presents? Check out www.GoodGuide.org…
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Salmonella in Caged Eggs vs. Dioxins in Free-range… Two Ends of the Egg Dilemma
What a scary year for news on the egg front. First, widespread Salmonella contamination was found in eggs from a factory farm supplying stores nationwide. And now we hear of dioxins detected in free-range eggs from a study by Taiwanese researchers. What is someone to do – spend thousands of dollars analyzing their every food…
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Avoiding the Fumes: A Green but Unhealthy Commute
About five years ago I spoke to a woman who was concerned about the risks of her boyfriend’s bicycle commute to work in one of the most progressive cities in the country – Portland, OR. I loved that we lived in a city that promoted green commuting by installing bike lanes and mapping out preferred…
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“What’s in the Beef?” Are Organic Beef and Dairy Products Free of Environmental Contaminants?
I was recently asked whether organic beef would be a good choice to avoid exposure to toxic chemicals. It was an excellent question because our consumption of products from animals high on the food chain is one of the key ways we are exposed to fat-soluble contaminants such as dioxins, organochlorine (OC) pesticides, and polychlorinated…
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Stay tuned for blogs on reducing personal exposure to household and environmental toxics
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Dr. Laurel Standley 