Detox Emergency: 11 Signs Your Body is Toxic and What to Do About It

You eat right, you exercise, you get out and play with the kids or go on rock-climbing dates instead of dinner-and-movie dates.

But you just can’t seem to lose the extra few pounds you’ve been carrying around.

Before you spiral down into despair, consider this: you may not be to blame for those extra pounds at all. It could be that the one factor causing your body to hang on to that extra weight is something you probably never think of on a daily basis.

Img: dno1967b on flickr; used under cc by 2.0

What’s making you fat could be chemicals—the chemicals introduced to your body on a daily basis as well as chemicals that affected you before you were even born.

Labeled “obesogens”, these chemicals—found in foods, packaging and the environment—are thought by some to change our body in a way that makes us more likely to pack on pounds.

Here are some signs that your body may be burdened down with toxins:

• Allergies
• Chronic headaches/migraines
• Chronic skin conditions
• Digestive problems
• Diabetes
• Difficulty sleeping
• Depression/poor mood
• Low energy
• Liver dysfunction
• Overweight
• Sore muscles or stiff joints

Scientists aren’t all in agreement about the effects of chemicals on our bodies. An article on the Runners World website gives three most common current views on chemicals and how they may be affecting the way we metabolize (read: store or burn) fat.

Are Chemicals Making Us Fat? A multiple choice question.

According to Runners World, “Obesogens are fairly new, and controversial, and three varying perspectives on their role in weight gain are offered in the June issue of Obesity.”

Here are the three major views on chemicals and obesity:

1. Chemicals we’re exposed to before we’re born and while we’re very young, including chemicals found in plastic food containers, affect impulse control and create a “perfect storm” for fat.

2. Testing showing a correlation between chemicals and obesity, done in high doses on animals, don’t translate to human experience. Poor diet is the main source of obesogens.

3. It’s too soon to judge. Let’s keep researching.

In the spirit of further research, the article reports:

“OBELIX, a large European study, includes both animal studies using doses of chemicals that reflect human exposure and research that investigates the effects of exposure to obesogens before birth and during breastfeeding.”

So expect to see more breaking news about obesogens and the war on fat.

If your body shows signs of chemical toxicity, it may be time to detox. Go GREEN to flush out the problem. High fibre fruits and vegetables and in particular anything GREEN are the safest and most effective things to focus on in your diet from now on:

• Green, leafy vegetables
  

  Img by La.Catholique on flickr; used under cc by 2.

• Broccoli
• Wheat Grass juice or powder
• Fruit
• Citrus
• Beans
• Green Tea
• Nuts and seeds
• Omega-rich foods like avocado and Hemp seed oil