Detox your Body: Spring Detox

Spring is a great time of the year to give your body a break with a Detox.

Eat a low allergen diet filled with fruits and veggies (organics are best). Try my Top 10 for a 10 day easy Detox.

1. Put Down the Processed Foods:Read food labels, if you don't know what it is, don't eat it!
2. Eliminate Allergens:Remove foods from your diet that are both difficult to digest and common allergens: red meat, dairy, soy, corn, wheat and gluten containing grains.
3. Slow down on Sugar: Refined sugar decreases your liver's ability to detoxify toxins.
4. Bring on the Brassica: Brassica veggies include broccoli, cauliflower, kale, bok choy, High in Indole-3-carbinol, a phytochemical that promotes liver detoxification. Aim for 2 cups / day green vegetables including the brassica's.
5. Eat your Antioxidants: Aim for 1 Tbsp / day tomato paste and 1 - 2 cups / day dark berries. My favourites are Marrion Blackberries from Stahlbush Farms, and blueberries from Wilmot Orchards (We just finished the last of the ones we picked and froze last August)
6. Power on the Protein: Many of the biochemical detoxification pathways in the liver are protein dependent and will slow down with out adequate protein. Try a breakfast shake made with rice, pea or hemp protein powder blended with frozen berries and natural fruit juice. I really like Thorne's Mediclear Detox Shake, the base is a rice protein with added vitamins and nutrients to support detoxification.
7. Fill up on Fiber: Fiber keeps the bowels moving and traps fat soluble toxins that are being excreted with bile into the small intestine. Aim for 2 Tbsp / day of Psyllium or Rice Bran Fiber / day.
8. Take Time for Tea: Green tea contains anti oxidants, protective against all causes of cancer, helps rid the body of toxins. My favourite is Do Matcha. Aim for 2 - 4 cups / day
9. Just add Water: Flushes unwanted toxins, keeps your brain sharp! Aim for 1.5 to 2L / day.
10. Sweat it out: 30min of exercise a day will help to begin mobilizing fat soluble toxins. Aim for 15 to 30min a day during your 10 day detox.If you have access to a sauna this will enhance your body's ability to sweat! I really like Sauna-ray's Infra-red saunas.

Read More ways to Detox your Body:

Dry Skin Brushing

Contrast Showers

Castor Oil Packs

For even more ways to Detox Check out Dr. Crinnion's new Book "Clean, Green and Lean"

Detox Your Diet: Shop & Learn Grocery for Wellness

Shop & Learn
Grocery Shop for Wellness

Wednesday May 5^th
7pm-9pm

Dr. Raina & Dr. Hawco invite you to a guided supermarket tour.

 
Today`s grocery stores are filled with choices and sometimes this can be confusing. 

Get inspired to fill  your fridge, freezers and cupboards with the best quality food you can for you and your family. Helpful tips, a new grocery list and recipes will be described as you learn how to make the best food choices.

We will start with tea and snacks at the clinic. After a guided tour of Metro, on Victoric St. in Whitby, a draw for a gift basket will be held.

Location: Talk starts at 7pm at the Whitby Naturopathic Clinc, 1145 Brock St. S, Whitby, then to the Metro at 619 Victoria St. W., Whitby.

RSVP: info@whitbynaturopathy.ca
905.430.5605

Detox your Diet: Watch Food Inc

I found out from April at Durham Organics's that the documentary Food, Inc. was shown on CBC's The Passionate Eye and is available to watch for free in full length on their site.

This is a must-watch documentary that will give you (and definitely gave me) insights on where our food comes from, how it is processed and how we can make healthier, more ethical food choices for our families, our communities and the planet. 

Click below to watch the full version of

Food, Inc.

 I found the last few frames of Food, Inc. especially inspiring, I thought I would share them with you...

"You can vote to change (our food system). Three times a day.

Buy from companies that treat workers, animals, and the environment with respect.

When you go to the supermarket,

            Choose foods that are in season.

            Buy foods that are organic.

            Know what's in your fod.

            Read labels.

Know what you Buy.

The average meal travels 1500 miles from the farm to the supermarket.

            Buy foods that are grown locally.

            Shop at farmer's markets.

            Plant a garden. (even a small one)

Cook a meal with your family and eat together.

Everyone has a right to healthy food.

            Ask your school board to provide health school lunches.

If you say grace, ask for food that will keep us, and the planet healthy.

You can change the world with every bite."

Celebrate Earth Day with a Viewing of "Food Matters"

Tonight I'll be going to a viewing of "Food Matters", an Earth Day Event hosted by Durham Organics and Ninety Ninth Monkey

From Durham Organics and the Nintey Ninth Monkey: We would love if you would join us to celebrate Earth Day with a viewing of Food Matters.  It will change the way you look at food….guaranteed.  If you have any friends or  family please bring them as well.  This is a community event so anyone may attend. It is free to attend but we are asking for a nutritious non perishable food donation for the food bank. Get together and share a good laugh and make some new friends..

Hope to see you there!! If you're not in the area, check out http://www.foodmatters.tv/ to find out where you can see the movie!

Location

Westminster United Church(1850 Rossland Rd E.) 

Corner of Rossland/Garrard

 

Time: 7pm 

Tonight! Thursday April 22nd, 2010

Detox your House: Top 5 plants for cleaning your air

Dennis Wolverton at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has done studies over the past two decades to find out which plants could remove toxic chemicals from the air for use in space stations.

The plants that topped his list are:
  - Mass cane (dracaena massangeana)
  - Pot mum (Chrysanthemum morifolium)
  - Gerbera daisy (Gerbera jamesonii)
  - Warnecki (Dracaena deremensis “Warneckei”)
  - Ficus (Ficus benjamina)

These five plants were particularly effective at clearing the air of formaldehyde, benzene, and trichloroethylene. Common household sources of these toxins include new carpets, new furniture and mattresses, and press board furniture.

Mass cane (dracaena massangeana)

Pot mum (Chrysanthemum morifolium)

Gerbera daisy (Gerbera jamesonii)

Warnecki (Dracaena deremensis “Warneckei”)

Ficus (Ficus benjamina)

Dr. Crinnion ND,  an expert in environmental medicine and author of Clean, Green and Lean,  refers to these plants as "Nature's Air Purifiers" and recommends putting LOTS of them in your home or workplace. By using a variety of these plants and "making your home a jungle" you'll have dramatically improved the air quality of your home.

Other Plants that are effective at air purification:

  - English Ivy (Hederix helix)

  - Marginata (Dracaena marginata)

  - Mother-in-laws tongue (Sansevieria laurentii)

  - Peace Lily (Spathiphyllum Mauna Loa)

  - Banana (Musa oriana)

  - Bamboo palm (Chamaedorea seifrizii)

  - Heart Leaf philodendron (Philodendron oxycardium)

  - Green Spider Plant (Chlorophytum elatum)
  - Janet Craig (Dracaena deremensis)

Researcher Kamal Meattle, has also done work on air quality and show how three of these common household plants can drastically improve air quality.

Detox your Diet: Apple Slices with Cashew Vanilla dip

So Delicious I had to post my afternoon snack...

Fuji Apple Slices with cashew vanilla dip - Yum!

 
2 Tbsp cashew butter (Nuts to you butter)
1 tsp honey (I'm using Hugs 'n honey a local producer in Oshawa)
1/4 to 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (my favourite is Simply Organic Vanilla extract)
1 - 2 tsp hot water (helps to smooth mixture and make dipping easier)

Using a fork, mix all of the ingredients together in a small bowl.

Slice 1 to 2 large organic apples or pear and start dipping!

Detox your Body: Bisphenol, Phthalates and Reproductive Health

This afternoon I watched the CBC Documentary "The Disappearing Male".

I was deeply disturbed and troubled as it reinforced the amount of chemicals we are bombarded with on a daily basis. Among these thousands of chemicals (85% of which are untested on humans) are bisphenol-A and Phthalates. Although many products containing bisphenol-A have been pulled from from the shelves (baby bottles, water bottles) there are many more products that we use every days that contains this endocrine disrupting chemical including the lining in canned food and canned soft drinks. Health Canada Reports that Phthalates “are hazardous to reproduction and development". Phthalates are in soft plastics and cosmetics in everything from bugs sprays, children's glow sticks, dentures, clothing, automobiles (part of the odour of new cars) and polyvinyl chloride products, the plastic often used in building materials such as pipes.

Health Canada is proposing regulations to prevent the use of six phthalates (DEHP, DINP, DBP, BBP, DNOP and DIDP) in soft vinyl children's toys and child-care articles. Which will bring Canada's regulation closer to that of the European Union. This past week however, the Globe and Mail reported that:

Health Canada's proposed regulation doesn't go far enough because exposures to chemicals that disrupt hormones are most dangerous during fetal development. Pregnant women were not covered by Health Canada's proposed measurers. The federal agency was not immediately able to respond to questions on why it didn't include restrictions on products used by adults.

What can you do?

The Environmental Defense has a campaign to ban bisphenol A in drink cans please go to their site to send an email to your MP and to learn more!

Watch entire documentary Now!



Watch Homo Toxicus Now!

From the Documentary:

Factsheet: Male Infertility

• There are more than 20 heavily industrialized nations where the birth of baby boys has declined every year for the past 30 years - amounting to 3 million fewer baby boys.
• The number of boys born with penis abnormalities and genital defects has increased by 200% in the past two decades.
• Boys have a higher incidence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, learning disabilities, Tourett's syndrome, cerebral palsy and dyslexia.
• Boys are four times as likely to be autistic.
• The average sperm count of a North American college student today is less than half of what it was 50 years ago.
• The quality of sperm is declining. Eighty-five per cent of the sperm produced by a healthy male is DNA-damaged.
• Damaged sperm have been linked to a 300% increase in testicular cancer - a form of cancer that affects young men in their 20s and 30s.
• The chemical industry has developed more than 90,000 man-made chemicals in the last sixty years. Eighty-five percent of them have never undergone testing for their impact on the human body.