Category: toxic chemicals
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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 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…
Dr. Laurel Standley 