1) It Negatively Impacts Your Hormones And Fertility

Both acute and chronic alcohol consumption decreases testosterone. This is believed to be because alcohol impedes testosterone synthesis in the testes, hypothalamus, and anterior pituitary gland. (1, 2, 3, 4) One study showed that 2 to 3 drinks a day decreased testosterone levels by 6.8% in men over 3 weeks. (5)

Alcohol also decreases male fertility. Around 19% of sperm in healthy men is morphologically defective. In chronic alcoholics this number rises to 75%. (6) Alcohol has also been linked with erectile dysfunction, shrinking of the testes, and inflammation of the prostate gland. (4)

Not only does alcohol decrease testosterone, but it increases estrogen too! This is mostly due to the phytoestrogens present in alcoholic drinks (highest in beer). (7) This imbalance of hormones can lead to a condition know as estrogen dominance which has many health consequences for both men and women, including:

• Increased risk of preterm delivery
• Genital malformations
• Reproductive disruption of embryo
• Autism
• Abnormal menstrual cycles
• Weight gain
• Decreased milk production
• Increased risk of miscarriage
• Decreased fertility (in men and women)
• Endometriosis
• Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)
• Decreased semen quality
• Sperm epimutations
• Cancer (particularly of the breasts, testes, prostate, uterus, and ovaries)
• Precocious puberty (a condition in which puberty begins at a very early age)

(8, 9, 10, 11)

2) It Often Leads To Weight Gain (Especially Around The Mid Section)

Alcohol can easily lead to weight gain, often manifesting as beer bellies and man boobs. This is mainly because of the phytoestrogens in alcohol, especially beer, that have an estrogenic affect in our bodies. (7, 12) Estrogen and body fat are related (that’s why women naturally have more body fat than men). Higher estrogen increases body fat and higher body fat increases estrogen. When either of these are out of balance it can be easy to fall into a vicious cycle of weight gain and high estrogen.

Higher body fat increases aromatase, the key enzyme responsible for synthesizing estrogen. One study found “that obesity increases aromatase activity, and converts testosterone to estrogen.” (1) A 2007 study of 1,667 men found “that each one-point increase in BMI was associated with a 2% decrease in testosterone.” (13)

Therefore by avoiding alcohol you can avoid getting caught in the cycle of increasing estrogen and increasing body fat.

Another reason alcohol can lead to weight gain is because it has empty Calories and is very Calorically dense. Empty Calories means you get very little if any nutrients with the Calories you’re consuming. This often leads to overeating because your body is still carving the nutrients it needs. Plus liquid Calories are really easy to overeat!

By Calorically dense, I mean 1g alcohol had 7 Calories (1g fat had 9 Calories and 1 g protein or carbs has only 4 Calories), thus alcohol generally contains a lot of Calories, especially if it’s a sugary mixed drink! All of these factors lead alcohol to easily push you into a Caloric surplus and gain weight!

3) It Negatively Impacts Athletic Progression And Performance

While exercising tipsy, drunk, or hungover would obviously impede performance, that’s not what I’m gonna focus on in this section. Rather I want to focus on how alcohol consumption impedes recovery and therefore decreases athletic progression and performance.

The main ways in which alcohol consumption decreases recovery are: it reduces sleep quality, muscle protein synthesis, hormone balance, hydration, and nutrition. (12, 14, 15, 16)

Sleep Quality-

A meta-anlaysis as well as many other studies have shown that alcohol consumption reduces the “latency to persistent sleep, suppresses REM sleep particularly in the first part of sleep, and increases SWS [Stage N3] in the first part of sleep. Alcohol reduces WASO [wake after sleep onset (an indicator of sleep continuity or sleep disruption)] in the first half of sleep but increases it in the latter part of the night in keeping with the metabolic elimination of alcohol.” (15)

The effect of alcohol on sleep appears to be both dose and frequency dependent. In other words the more you drink and the more often you drink, the worse quality of sleep you’ll get. (15)

Additionally, many people tend to stay up later when they’re out drinking and consequently get less sleep. Combine this with decreased sleep quality and you get a recipe for insufficient recovery!

Muscle Protein Synthesis-

Research shows that alcohol significantly decreases muscle protein synthesis, that is the repairing and building of muscle tissues, even when adequate protein is consumed. (12, 14)

Hormone Balance-

I already talked about how alcohol increases estrogen and decreases testosterone, but alcohol also increases cortisol (your main stress hormone). Cortisol stimulates muscle breakdown (therefore high levels can decrease your muscle mass) while testosterone is needed for muscle growth (so low levels prevent muscle growth). (12, 14)

Hydration-

Alcohol is a diuretic. “It causes your body to remove fluids from your blood through your renal system, which includes the kidneys, ureters, and bladder, at a much quicker rate than other liquids.” (17) Hydration is key for recovery therefore alcohol’s dehydrating effect can impede recovery.

Adequate hydration is necessary for protein synthesis (repairing and building muscle), proper digestion of food for optimal nutrient absorption (water is needed to make saliva which plays an important role in digestion), adequate blood volume (which decrease how hard the heart has to work and reduces fatigue), and fast heart rate recovery. (18)

Nutrition-

Alcohol has been shown to decrease the absorption of some nutrients, including vitamin B12, thiamin (B1) , and folate (B9). (12, 14) “Additionally, liver cells can become inefficient at activating vitamin D and the metabolism of alcohol can destroy vitamin B6.” (14)

On top of this alcohol is an empty Calorie drink, essentially void of nutrients. Therefore by getting Calories from alcohol instead of nutrient rich foods, you may become deficient in some nutrients.

Nutrients are key for every system in our body to function properly. They build tissues, cause muscle contractions and relaxation, send nerve signals, provide energy, and so much more. As you can imagine they are crucial for athletic performance!

Injury-

“Alcohol consumption also appears to have a causative effect in sports related injury, with an injury incidence of 54.8% in drinkers compared with 23.5% in nondrinkers (p < 0.005).” (16) This is most likely due to sub-optimal recovery.

4) It’s Taxing On Your Liver

After alcohol is consumed it’s absorbed into the bloodstream and goes straight to the liver. Since alcohol is toxic to the body it becomes the livers top priority to brake it down so it can be safely eliminated from the body. If you consume too much alcohol your liver struggles to perform it’s other functions and it has over 500 functions.

In the case of excessive alcohol consumption, your liver struggles to breakdown fat which can lead to fat accumulation in the liver (fatty liver disease). (19) “Fatty liver gradually develops in 90% of those who drink more than a 1/2 ounce (15 ml) of alcohol per day and is usually symptomless and fully reversible,” if alcohol is temporarily eliminated. (19)

However, if not treated and moderate to heavy drinking is continued, scar tissue can develop replacing healthy liver tissue and inflaming the liver. This can lead to serious conditions such as fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis, fibrosis, cirrhosis, and liver cancer. (19, 20, 21)

As you can see the harm to your liver is proportional to the amount of alcohol you consume. With minimal alcohol having a smaller effect and heavy drinking having severe consequences.

5) It Negatively Affects Our Gut Microbiome And Gut Health

Alcohol kills off some of the good bacteria in our gut, offsetting the balance between good and bad bacteria and giving the bad bacteria an opportunity to over power the good. This bacterial imbalance, known as dysbiosis, results in a less healthy gut microbiome and can cause many problems such as poor digestion; decreased immunity; overgrowth of bacteria, fungi, yeasts, and other pathogens; SIBO; weight gain; more serious diseases (both gut related and non gut related); and more. (12, 22, 23, 24)

Alcohol has also been shown to increase gut permeability, a condition known as leaky gut. In this condition gaps between the cells that make up your gut lining allow microorganisms toxins, parasites, and food particles to slip through your gut lining and enter your blood stream. (12, 22, 23, 24, 25)

These are categorized as foreign by your body and trigger an immune response in the body, which is inflammatory by nature. The immune system goes on high alert and destroys anything resembling these foreign objects. Unfortunately the protein structure of some foods (like lectins) is very similar to several body tissues including the thyroid, myelin sheath (coating of nerves), synovial tissue (connective tissue), and more. (24) Therefore your body accidentally attacks your own body. This is what an autoimmune disease is.

6) It Can Cause And Worsen Candida Overgrowth (Yeast Infections)

Like I said above alcohol can lead to gut dysbiosis which can lead to an overgrowth of unwanted things like yeasts, candida being one of the most common yeasts to overgrow. Candida can become a problem in our GI track, mouth, or genitals causing an itchy infection known as a yeast infection. (24)

Alcohol furthers this problem because candida feeds off of alcohol and sugar. While alcohol is obviously in alcoholic drinks, sugar is in most as well. Therefore if you have candida overgrowth it’s best to eliminate alcohol completely till it’s gone. You may introduce it later if you wish but if you’re prone to yeast infections, I highly recommend limiting it. (24)

7) It Atrophies Your Brain

Many studies have found moderate and heavy chronic drinking to have a negative effect on the brain. It’s been shown to decrease grey matter in the brain particularly in the frontal lobes and hippocampus, shrink the brain, and decrease cognitive function. (19, 26) In heavy chronic drinking we also see high incidences of Korsakoff’s syndrome, Alzheimer’s disease, and widespread brain atrophy. (19, 26)

While the exact mechanism is unclear, alcohol is believed to damage the brain because it’s broken down into acetaldehyde, a neurotoxic that causes reduced numbers and morphological changes in hippocampal neurons. Additionally “thiamine and folate deficiency, repeated head trauma, cerebrovascular events, liver damage, and repeated intoxication and withdrawal have also been implicated in more severe drinkers,” all of which negatively effect brain health. (26)

Concluding Thoughts

The severity of the consequences from alcohol is in direct proportion to the amount you drink. So occasionally having a drink is not going to lead to severe health problems, however many studies have strongly linked moderate – heavy drinking over long periods with many health consequences, including the 7 I discussed in this article.

While eliminating alcohol is ideal, I realize that’s not practical for everyone. My advice would be to limit alcohol, as much as you can. If you truly want to prioritize your health I wouldn’t go over 1-2 drinks a month, but it’s up to you to determine what’s right for you.

One final note: if you currently drink a lot and want to decrease your intake, you may want to take small steps to avoid withdraws.

Works Cited

1. “9 Testosterone Killers (They’re Hidden & Everywhere).” Carnivore Aurelius. 4 May 2020. https://carnivoreaurelius.com/testosterone-killers/

2. Kumagai, Hiroshi et al. “Increased physical activity has a greater effect than reduced energy intake on lifestyle modification-induced increases in testosterone.” Journal of clinical biochemistry and nutrition vol. 58,1 (2016): 84-9. doi:10.3164/jcbn.15-48

3. Yetman, Daniel. “How Alcohol Affects Testosterone.” Healthline. 4 September 2020. https://www.healthline.com/health/how-alcohol-affects-testosterone#effect-on-sperm

4. Emanuele, Mary Ann and Emanuele, Nicholas. “Alcohol and the Male Reproductive System.” National Institute On Alcohol Abuse And Alcoholism. Accesses 23 August 2021. https://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh25-4/282-287.htm

5. Sierksma, Aafje et al. “Effect of moderate alcohol consumption on plasma dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate, testosterone, and estradiol levels in middle-aged men and postmenopausal women: a diet-controlled intervention study.” Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research vol. 28,5 (2004): 780-5. doi:10.1097/01.alc.0000125356.70824.81

6. Price, Weston. “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.” California: Price-Pottenger Nutritional Foundation. 2014. Print. Pg 316

7. Gavaler, Judith. “Alcoholic Beverages as a Source of Estrogens.” Alcohol Health And Research World. Accessed 23 August 2021. https://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh22-3/220.pdf

8. Lauren. “Xenoestrogens.” Innate Functional Nutritionist. Accesses 23 August 2021. Instagram post.

9. Kubala, Jillian. “How Your Diet Can Affect Estrogen Levels.” Healthline. 30 November 2020. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/foods-to-lower-estrogen

10. “Xenoestrogens and their Harmful Effects.” Healthy Focus. Accesses 23 August 2021. https://healthyfocus.org/what-are-xenoestrogens/

11. Hayes TB, Khoury V, Narayan A, Nazir M, Park A, Brown T, Adame L, Chan E, Buchholz D, Stueve T, Gallipeau S. Atrazine induces complete feminization and chemical castration in male African clawed frogs (Xenopus laevis). Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 Mar 9;107(10):4612-7. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0909519107. Epub 2010 Mar 1. PMID: 20194757; PMCID: PMC2842049.

12. Christensen, Lindsay. “Alcohol and Health: 15 Effects of Excess Alcohol Intake and 4 Benefits of Moderate Drinking.” Chris Kressor. 15 May 2020. https://chriskresser.com/alcohol-and-health/

13. Travison TG, Araujo AB, Kupelian V, O’Donnell AB, McKinlay JB. The relative contributions of aging, health, and lifestyle factors to serum testosterone decline in men. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2007 Feb;92(2):549-55. doi: 10.1210/jc.2006-1859. Epub 2006 Dec 5. PMID: 17148559.

14. Siekaniec, Claire. “The Effects of Alcohol on Athletic Performance.” National Strength And Conditioning Association. June 2017. https://www.nsca.com/education/articles/nsca-coach/the-effects-of-alcohol-on-athletic-performance2/

15. Ebrahim, Irshaad O., et al. “Alcohol and Sleep I: Effects on Normal Sleep.” Alcoholism, Clinical and Experimental Research, vol. 37, no. 4, Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2013, pp. 539–49, doi:10.1111/acer.12006.

16. O’Brien, C P, and F Lyons. “Alcohol and the athlete.” Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) vol. 29,5 (2000): 295-300. doi:10.2165/00007256-200029050-00001

17. Wheatherspoon, Deborah .”Does Alcohol Dehydrate You?” Healthline. 23 May 2019. https://www.healthline.com/health/does-alcohol-dehydrate-you

18. “4 Ways Post-Workout Dehydration Relief is Crucial to Recovery.” Drip Drop. Accessed 24 August 2021. https://www.dripdrop.com/blog/nutrition-and-exercise/4-ways-post-workout-hydration-is-crucial-to-recovery

19. Arnarson, Atli. “Alcohol and Health: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.” Healthline. 29 October 2018. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/alcohol-good-or-bad

20. Monico, Nicolle. “Effects of Alcohol.” 18 June 2021. American Addiction Centers. https://www.alcohol.org/effects/

21. Seladi-Schulman, Jill. “What Are the Warning Signs of Alcohol-Related Liver Damage?” Healthline. 28 August 2020. https://www.healthline.com/health/early-signs-of-liver-damage-from-alcohol

22. Bettermann, Eddy. “How Alcohol Affects the Gut Microbiome.” Dr Eddy MD. 8 February 2017. https://dreddymd.com/2017/02/08/how-alcohol-affects-the-gut-microbiome/

23. Jewel, Tim. “What Causes Dysbiosis and How Is It Treated?” Healthline. 1 February 2019. https://www.healthline.com/health/digestive-health/dysbiosis

24. Baker, Eric. “Is Alcohol Consumption Connected to Candida?” Yeastinfection.org. Accessed 25 August 2021. https://www.yeastinfection.org/is-alcohol-consumption-connected-to-candida/

25. Bucko, Alexandra. “Ill-Digestion, Leaky Gut, and Deteriorating Effects of Anti-nutrients.” 5 August 2019. https://www.throughhealthandback.com/blog/2019/8/5/ill-digestion-leaky-gut-and-deteriorating-effects-of-antinutrients

26. Topiwala, Anya et. al. “Moderate alcohol consumption as risk factor for adverse brain outcomes and cognitive decline: longitudinal cohort study.” the bmj. 6 June 2017. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.j2353

Stages Of Disease

While modern medicine is excellent in dealing with acute injuries and saves countless lives, it falls short in the treatment and prevention of chronic diseases. However a more holistic approach truly excels at this. Let’s take Ayurveda for example. Ayurveda is the traditional preventive medicine of India that has been around for over five thousand years.

Ayurveda focuses on balancing and nourishing the body and mind; removing ama (toxins); addressing the root causes of health issues; addressing how the elements, seasons, and nature affect us; and preventing disease. Ayurveda has a unique 6 stage model for disease development. This model helps us to recognize the early signs of disease, the root causes of disease, and thus prevent and cure disease. (1)

This contrasts greatly with modern medicine. In which disease is not typically classified until the 5th and 6th stage. (1) After which the root cause and lifestyle of the patient is not addressed and the patient walks away with drugs to treat their symptoms.

So what are these 6 stages?

Stage 1: Sanchaya (The Stage of Accumulation)

In this stage ama (mucus and toxins) accumulate in the digestive track. This usually happens as a result of a poor diet, weak digestion, suppressed emotions, toxin exposure, and an unhealthy lifestyle. This results in mild symptoms like bloating, acid reflux, loss of appetite, lethargy, etc. that typically go away with in a few hours to a day. (1)

An example of this would be eating a large heavy meal late at night and overeating. The next morning you have no appetite, a weak digestion, and a heavy bloated feeling. This is a sign that your body is out of balance.

Fasting until your hunger returns later that day and then eating a light healthy meal to support digestive health and also making an effort to avoid overeating and eating late in the future would help correct this imbalance and prevent disease.

However, the symptoms in this stage typically go away fairly quickly and many people return to the bad habits that caused this aggravation in the first place. Many also ignore their bodies cues, thus furthering ama accumulation and the progression of disease. In this case that’d be eating despite being full.

Stage 2: Prakopa (The Stage of Aggravation)

If the habits that cause the ama accumulation in stage 1 of disease are not corrected, the disease progresses to stage 2. In this stage “ama amasses to such a degree that it begins to get active or provoked in the site of its production in the GI track, leading to the third stage.” (1)

Stage 3: Prasara (The Stage of Migration)

Prasara means “to leave and spread.” (1) In this stage ama has accumulated so much that it can no longer be contained by the GI track. Ama then over flows into other tissues, where it’s lodged in and stored. The sticky nature of ama makes it difficult to remove. However cleansing can help to loosen and remove it. (1) The tissues ama is stored in often correlate with our Achilles’ heel (like I talked about in this instagram post).

Stage 4: Sthana Samshraya (The Stage of Disease Augmentation)

If our habits are still causing ama accumulation, the disease progresses to cause dysfunction and structural damage in the tissues that are overwhelmed with ama. This is the stage where the specific tissue and disease is chosen. (1)

Stage 5: Vyakta (The Stage of Symptom Manifestation)

Vyakta means “that which can be seen” and in this stage clear symptoms of a specific disease are first seen. (1) The disease process overwhelms the body’s ability to maintain immunity and healthy functioning. This is when modern medicine usually first classifies the disease based on symptoms.

Stage 6: Bheda (The Stage of Complications)

The final stage is the full and severe manifestation of disease. This stage has serious health consequences, since by this point the diseased tissue has undergone much damage, and thus this stage is much more difficult to treat. (1)

Root Causes Of Diseases

A disease or chronic illness isn’t something you just randomly wake up with one day. It’s a results of continuously ignoring signs and symptoms of imbalance which leads to a toxin build up in the tissues over time.

But what exactly does this look like?

This typically starts in the GI track. The gut is the gate keeper that decides what comes into the body (nutrients from food) and what exits the body (toxins, pathogens, dead cells, and waste). When the gut is over burdened with plant toxins, environmental toxins, too much food, unhealthy foods, and stress, its ability to function as gate keeper becomes compromised.

This can cause leaky gut, IBS, constipation, loss of appetite, bloating, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, nutritional deficiencies, and more. In leaky gut, gaps form between your epithelial cells that line your intestinal wall. This allows unwanted things (like toxins, large clumps of food, and pathogens) to travel into your blood stream and body.

This in turn causes autoimmune diseases, worsens digestive issues, increases inflammation, and allows toxins to travel to other tissues in your body. In excess these toxins can be stored in these tissues and cause disorders and diseases with time.

Another cause of tissue damage and disorder is nutrient deficiencies. Macronutrients (fat, carbs, and protein) and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) are key for every system in our body to function and for building and repairing all our tissues.

It should be noted that different macro- and micro-nutrients are needed for different functions and every single one is not needed for every system but rather some of each category are needed for each system and tissue.

Anyways when you do not get enough of a certain (or multiple) nutrients, you do not supply the body with the materials it needs to function properly. This can lead to the breakdown of less important tissues to acquire the nutrients for more important tissues.

For example, if you’re deficient in calcium, your body often breaks down bone to get the calcium needed for muscle contractions, or if you’re deficient in amino acids, your body often breaks down muscle to get the amino acids needed to repair tissues or make immunoproteins.

As you can see, if you don’t regularly supply your body with all the nutrients it needs, certain systems and tissues begin to weaken and decrease in function. Overtime this can have serious consequences such as osteoporosis, low fertility, loss of muscle mass, low hormonal levels, diseases, and more.

It should also be noted that a weak digestive system cannot fully break down food, and your body cannot absorb large chunks of food. Therefore nutrient deficiencies can also result from poor gut and digestive health.

To sum up this line of thinking, some of the root causes of disease are:

• Gut And Digestive Disorders
• Toxin Overload
• Nutrient Deficiency
• Not Listening To Your Body

How To Prevent Disease

1) Eat A Healthy Nutrient Rich Diet

Eat foods like high quality dairy, meat, organs, bone broth and marrow, eggs, seafood, and seasonal fruits and veggies. Avoid (or better yet eliminate) vegetable oils, refined sugar, artificial sweeteners, and processed foods. Reduce grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds. And when you do eat them, be sure to soak, sprout, ferment, or roast them first.

This will supply your body with the nutrients you need to rebuild tissues and support optimal function of all the systems in your body. It will also decrease the intake of toxins from unhealthy foods.

2) Detoxing and Cleansing

This will help eliminate stored toxins, reset your health, and cure any early manifestations of disease (such as a stage 3 or 4 disease). For more info on detoxing, check out my “In Depth Guide On How To Detox And Cleanse Your Body.”

3) Get Enough Sleep

About 8 hours a night is good for most people, but everyone’s a little different so experiment to find what’s right for you. Adequate sleep gives your body time to repair and rebuild damaged tissues.

4) Have A Bowel Movement Everyday

This is crucial for eliminating toxins. If you get backed up, toxins can get reabsorbed into your body.

5) Listen To Your Body

Your body is really smart and if you listen to your hunger cues, cravings, sleepy cues, and other signs your body gives you, you will better balance your health. This is assuming you are coming from a healthy place. When your body is out of balance you may start to crave things that aren’t good for you. So learn to distinguish the two.

6) De-stress

Stress has many negative health effects like decreasing hormone production, impeding digestive function, nutrient wasting, and worsening disease. Having a regular de-stressing routine (walks, baths, and reading are some great options) can do wonders for your health and reducing disease risk.

7) Address The Root Cause Of Your Symptoms

Headaches, bloating, fatigue, constipation, acne, rashes, stubborn fat, low fertility, PMS, low libido, etc. are not normal! If you have any of these symptoms try to find the root cause. It’s often something you’re eating, toxins you’re exposed to or storing, stress, a habit that’s not working for you, lack of sleep, damaged gut, or something else of this nature. I encourage you to do more research, tune into your body, and to experiment with dietary and habit changes till you resolve these symptoms.

* If you want help getting to the root of your health problems in order to prevent disease and optimize your current and future health, I can help you with that in my program: Ancestral Gut Healing! If you’re interested and want to know more, click here to set up a free discovery call with me!

Works Cited

1. Joshi, Sunil. Ayurveda and Panchakarma. Wisconsin: Lotus Press. 2009. Print.

Books are one of my favorite ways to learn about nutrition and health! In fact many books have taught me more than college nutrition classes!

Over the past few years I’ve read a good amount of nutrition and health books and today I want to share my favorites with you! This list is my top recommendations, in order.

I will continue to update this post and add more book recommendations as I read and discover more excellent nutrition books. I also post little book review/recommendations on my Instagram whenever I finish a good nutrition book so it you’re interested in that and more ancestral nutrition and health content, you can follow me there.

1) “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration” by Dr. Weston A Price

This is my all time favorite book! Dr. Price is truly an amazing man. A man who left the world a better place then it was before him. His timeless research set the fundamentals of what a healthy diet truly is. He complied all that he learned into the book “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration,” a true master piece that I highly recommend!

Dr. Price traveled the world studying 12 isolated peoples and 12 modernized peoples. He studies their diets and health. In his studies he discovered a pattern that remained true across all of these peoples. Each time a group of people incorporated modern foods such as sugar, white flour, refined grains, vegetable oils, jams, sweets, and canned foods into their diet, their health declined rapidly.

• They became more susceptible to diseases like tuberculosis
• Their teeth grew crooked
• Teeth infected by cavities raised from 0.01-5% to 35-95%
• Their face, nasal passages, and dental arches did not form properly (this led to mouth breathing)
• Women’s hips narrowed leading to more difficult births
• Fertility of both men and women decreased
• Mental retardation became more common
• Eyesight worsened
• Intelligence decreased
• Arthritis increased
• Cripples and physical deformities increased

Dr. Price theorized that a major cause of these health problems was the decrease in nutrient intake. The modern foods listed earlier lost a lot of vitamins, minerals, and activators in the refining and processing. And people were replacing traditional nutrient rich foods like organs, fish eggs, seafood, dairy, and plants grown in nutrient rich soils with these modern foods that lacked nutrients.

Dr. Price advocated for adopting similar dietary principals to these isolated people. In prioritizing nutrient rich whole foods he believed we could reverse physical degeneration and ensure optimal health of ourselves, our descendants, and the future of the human race.

2) “Deep Nutrition” by Dr. Cate Shanahan

This book changed my life and set me on the path of ancestral eating and living!

This book is split into 3 parts. In the first part, Dr. Shanahan discusses the positive aspects of our ancestors’ diets. She digs deep into how the foods they ate effected their bodies on a physiological level, how it impacted their DNA, their health, and their children’s beauty and health. She also gives recommendations on what to eat based on similarities between traditional healthy diets, like the Mediterranean and Okinawan Diets. She recommends eating organ meats, meat cooked on the bone, raw fresh foods (including vegetables, dairy, and meat), and sprouted and fermented foods.

The second part is all about the problems with the average modern diet. She gets very scientific when explaining the harmful effects of vegetable oils and sugar. This section contains one of, if not, the best descriptions of the harmful effect of vegetable oils that I’ve ever heard.

The third part serves as a helpful guide to make transitioning to healthy eating easier. It offers meal planing, a few recipes, grocery lists, strategies, and an extensive Q and A section.

Overall I found this book to be incredibly impactful and fascinating! I would highly recommend it for anyone interested in deep explanations on how and why to eat healthy.

3) Gut and Physiology Syndrome,” by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride

This book will change the entire way you look at disease, dysfunction, and illness in the body! In it you learn how poor gut health is a major root cause for a vast majority of health problems.

Be it an obvious gut issue like Crohn’s, constipation, heart burn, etc. or a less obvious one like skin issues, hormonal issues, mental disorders, dementia, autism, arthritis, addictions, thyroid issues, and lots more.

The main reasons that poor gut health causes all these issues is because it decreases nutrient absorption leading to deficiency, allows a river of toxicity to flow into your body through a leaky gut, and an imbalanced gut microbiome leads to overgrowth of pathogenic microbes.

If you want to heal your health problems and prevent disease as you age, the best place to start is with your gut! From there you can also focus on increasing the nutrient density of your diet, removing toxins from the body, and really learning to tune into your body’s signals.

These are the 4 biggest things you can do to support your health!

Another reason why I love this book so much is because Dr. Natasha takes a very ancestral and holistic approach to healing your gut and body. She states in the book that it’s your body that actually knows all the complexities of how to heal and it will ultimately do the work.

What we can do is support our bodies in this process through proper diet and lifestyle. She places a huge emphasis on listening to your body and what it tells you as well as living closer to the way our ancestors lived (eating an ancestral diet, spending time outside in the sun, walking barefoot, jumping in lakes and rivers, etc.).

The biggest thing I took away from this book, was the belief that we are truly capable of healing and recovering from practically every health problem out there! We just have to understand our body and work with it, not against it!

Dr. Natasha’s approach to healing and health (especially in regards to chronic illness) is far superior to mainstream modern medicine! Instead of treating a symptom with a pill that typically suppress an important function in your body, she advocates for treating it at the absolute root cause.

In short I highly highly recommend this book!

4) “Real Food For Pregnancy” by Lily Nichols

I highly highly recommend this book to all women who either want to get pregnant in the future or are currently pregnant! The earlier you start preparing for pregnancy the better, so even if you don’t plan on having kids for several years, it’s great to start learning now!

After all, building up your nutrient stores, eliminating toxins from your body and environment, balancing your hormones, and putting what you learn into practice all takes time. Never the less, no matter where you are in your health and conception journey, this book is an incredibly valuable resource!

Lily Nichols does an excellent job combining ancestral wisdom with a scientific approach to make solid dietary recommendations for pregnancy. She really lays out the information to help the reader make well informed decisions.

She covers:

• Flaws in mainstream pregnancy recommendations
• What nutrients are required to build a healthy baby
• The best foods to get these nutrients
• The challenges of a vegetarian diet
• Foods to avoid
• Meal plans and recipes
• Info about supplements and lab testing
• How to deal with common pregnancy complaints
• Benefits of exercise and how to modify for pregnancy
• The importance of avoiding toxins and specific advise on what to avoid and how to avoid them
• Stress and mental health
• A lot of helpful info on what to do after your baby is born
• The importance of spacing pregnancies

During pregnancy about 10% of your nutrient stores go to your baby! Therefore it’s extremely important that you eat a nutrient dense diet prior to conception, during pregnancy and breastfeeding, and take a minimum of 2 1/2 years between pregnancies to rebuild your nutrient stores again!

How well you nourish yourself directly affects the health of your children as well as your own health. Nutrients are literally what build your baby and deficiencies have been linked to many health problems such as organ malformations, low birth weight, impaired cognitive development, neural tube defects, and more!

In addition to this, you still need adequate nutrients for your own health. Nutrients are key for every system in our body to function! If you don’t get enough, you’ll likely see health problems like osteoporosis, hypothyroidism, low fertility, worsening of eyesight, and more down the road.

However, you can prevent all of this and ensure the best health possible for your children and yourself by eating a nutrient dense diet, living a healthy lifestyle, and limiting toxin exposure.

Real Food For Pregnancy gives you so much valuable info that allows you to take the health and well being of yourself and your family into your own hands! I cannot recommend this book enough!

5) “The Carnivore Code” by Dr. Paul Saladino

In this book Dr. Saladino does an excellent job of describing ancestral nutrition and health, the importance of high quality nose to tail animal foods, why red meat and saturated fat are not bad for us, and the science behind plant toxins and anti-nutrients.

You don’t have to be carnivore to enjoy and benefit from this book, while Dr. Paul Saladino focuses heavily on animal foods, he also talks about which plants are the least toxic and best to incorporate if you wish to. I especially enjoyed the attention he put on how things really work in the wild. He discussed:

• How animals were the main source of food for hunter gathers while plants were used as a secondary food source.
• How plants don’t want to be eaten! Therefore they produce toxins to deter animals from eating them.
• How our ancestors ate the whole animal. You wouldn’t just leave half your kill to rot when food is challenging to get, would you?
• How when you’re out in nature and look around at possible food sources this all makes sense.

Dr. Paul Saladino combines his ancestral prospective with a scientific perspective, discussing many studies and scientific lines of thinking that align with an ancestral view. I found this very interesting and informative.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it, especially if you’re interested in an animal-based diet, learning about anti-nutrients, learning about ancestral nutrition, or looking for dietary advise for healing autoimmune or gut problems.

6) “The Nourishing Traditions Book of Baby & Child Care.” By Sally Fallon Morell and Thomas S. Cowan, MD

This is a truly excellent book and amazing resource to have on hand. It covers seemingly everything about raising a healthy child from preconception to childhood.

Sally Fallon brings her incredible understanding of ancestral nutrition as well as her experience as a mother. While Thomas Cowan brings his incredible understanding of medicine along with his experience as both a father and physician.

In the book they cover:

• Nutrition for preconception, pregnancy, and breastfeeding
• How to have a healthy pregnancy and birth
• What to do after baby is born (they discuss the pros and cons of common medical practices)
• How to nourish your baby and what are the first foods you should introduce
• How to nourish and raise a growing child
• The importance of child spacing
• Common childhood illnesses and remedies (they go super in depth here)
• The GAPS diet
• Recipes
• Resources

The 3 biggest things that stood out to me in this book were:

1) Well nourished children are less prone to health problems, pickiness, and behavioral problems.

2) There’s a tendency for parenting advise to live in the extremes. It’s typically best to find more of a middle ground and to also see what works best for your child and situation specifically.

3) When you get sick, your symptoms are your bodies way of fixing a deeper imbalance/problem in your body. Suppressing the symptoms with modern medicines can worsen the imbalance and health problems over time. Instead it’s best to work with your body to help correct the imbalance.

If you’re looking for a solid resource for baby and child care (especially on nutrition, health, and naturally treating illness) then I highly highly recommend this book!

7) “The Fat Burn Fix” by Dr. Cate Shanahan

Dr. Shanahan nailed it again with this book! “The Fatburn Fix” describes how your metabolism is supposed to function vs how an unhealthy metabolism functions. Dr. Cate then gives you the tools to assess your own metabolism and make improvements to optimize your metabolism and lose weight (if you wish to).

Dr. Shanahan places a huge emphasis on metabolic flexibility (the ability to shift between carbs and fat for fuel) and how this is important for your overall health, maintenance of weight, and energy levels.

Most people’s diets are high in unhealthy foods like vegetable oils (sunflower, safflower, soy, canola, corn, and cottonseed oil), sugar, and refined carbohydrates. All of these foods inhibit your bodies ability to burn body fat and often set one down the path of hypoglycemia to insulin resistance to prediabetes and finally if it gets bad enough to diabetes.

This book focus on a low carb way of eating. It does not cut out all carbs but rather teaches you which ones can spike your blood sugar and cause you harm and which ones can contribute to a healthy diet.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in improving their metabolism, improving their energy levels, losing weight, starting a keto or low carb diet, treating hypoglycemia, or treating diabetes.

8) “Ayurveda and Panchakarma” by Sunil V. Joshi

Ayurveda is the traditional preventative medicine of India that is over 5,000 years old. Ayurveda looks at health from a very unique perspective that I believe is extremely beneficial! Ayurveda puts a strong emphasis on how nature, the cycles of nature, and the elements  influence our bodies and spirit.

It also focuses on maintaining balance, a strong agni (digestive fire), preventing the build up of ama (mucus and toxins), and thus preventing disease.

Panchakarma is the Ayurvedic method of cleansing. Panchakarma focuses on dislodging ama from the bodies tissues and removing it. There are many unique cleansing methods in Panchkarma such as using a tongue scraper, neti pot, taking herb infused ghee in the morning, and more.

I think this book did an excellent job digging deep into the topics of Ayurveda and Panchakarma. I learned a lot from it and I would highly recommend it! I will add that while I do agree with most of the principals of Ayurveda, I do not agree with the demonization of violence and eating meat.

I think both of these are very natural and not objectively bad. When I say violence can be good I mean it can be used to protect and feed your family, hunting after all is violent. There are also a few times where vegetable oils like sesame oil are recommended and most of you probably already know that I disagree with that recommendation. Instead I would replace this with quality olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, tallow, lard, butter, or ghee.

With that being said, this is still an excellent book that I would highly recommend!

9) “How To Heal Your Metabolism” by Kate Deering

In this book Kate Deering discusses how to optimize your metabolism; what are the best and worst fats, carbs, protein, and nutrient sources; how food quality makes a difference; and more. She gives a lot of excellent food choice suggestions that support metabolic health, adequate nutrient intake, gut health, athletic performance, energy levels, hormone balance, and overall health.

I personally really enjoyed the sections on which carbs are good for us and which should be avoided. She dug into some interesting science that I hadn’t heard of before in regards to fruit and fructose.

I will say that I didn’t 100% agree with everything in this book. For example I don’t think we need to eat right when we get up, right before bed, and for a total of about 6 meals a day, as suggested in this book. I see how that could work for some people, but I don’t find that ancestrally consistent and wouldn’t recommend that for most people.

I also disagree with the demonization of a low carb or keto diet. I do agree that some problems can arise in some people from long term keto, but I don’t think that’s a reason to disregard that way of eating as a whole.

Aside from that, I did really enjoy this book and thought it was full of lots of helpful information!

10) Brighid’s Healing By Gina McGarry

In this book, Gina seamlessly combines Celtic medicinal traditions, herbalism, Celtic mythology, and modern holistic health into a unique and beautiful approach to healing.

Her knowledge of Celtic traditions helps her pass on the wisdom of our ancestors and her knowledge of how the cycles and symbols of nature affect our bodies helps integrate a deep connection to nature and the divine into her approach.

She focuses this book on an Irish goddess of healing, Brighid, organizing a good portion of the book around the 4 elements (air, fire, water, and earth) all of which fall under Brighid’s domain. She also includes a helpful herbal index of 27 herbs and their uses.

If you’re looking for a comprehensive ancestral approach to herbalism and healing, then I highly recommend this book. Also if you’re of Irish decent, like me, and want to learn more about the traditions of your ancestors, it’s a great book for that as well!

11) “Taking Charge Of Your Fertility” By Toni Weschler

As it says on the cover, this book really is “the definitive guide to natural birth control, pregnancy achievement, and reproductive health!”

And I highly highly recommend it, especially to women who want to learn all the ins and outs of their menstrual cycle, fertility, and reproductive health!

This book teaches you to use the fertility awareness method (FAM) to naturally avoid pregnancy, achieve pregnancy, or simply maximize your own health.

FAM involves observing and charting 3 primary fertility signs: waking temperature, cervical fluid, and cervical position.

All 3 of these go through certain patterns in your cycle:

Waking temperatures are lower in your follicular phase (the 1st half of your cycle) and then rise after ovulation and remain high in your luteal phase. The rise is due to increased progesterone production from the corpus luteum.

Cervical fluid increases from dry to sticky to creamy to an egg white consistency as you approach ovulation and then is typically of egg white consistency on the day you ovulate. Cervical fluid keeps sperm alive for up to 5 days and thus its main purpose is to extend your fertile window (the amount of days you can get pregnant).

The cervix is firm, low, and closed for the majority of your cycle. However as you approach ovulation it becomes softer, higher, and opens. This is to help sperm travel to the egg easier.

And that just barely scratches the surface! There is so much more to it and Toni Weschler does an incredible job at very thoroughly explaining things. She also explains the vast variations that can occur in your cycle compared to both other women and your own previous cycles.

Overall this is a very comprehensive book that I highly recommend!

12) “Ina May’s Guide To Childbirth” and “Ina May’s Guide To Breastfeeding” By Ina May

Both of these are excellent books about natural childbirth and breastfeeding! They describe the amazing things that a women’s body can do given the right environment.

If you’re worried about the safety of a more natural home or birth center birth but are also hesitant about going to a hospital, these books will help you make decisions that you feel good about! While they obviously emphasize the amazing benefits of a natural home (or birth center) birth. They also describe when it’s a good idea to go to the hospital and when medical interventions are necessary.

On the flip side they also describe when medical interventions are unnecessary and harmful. So regardless of where you decide to give birth, these books will help you to understand the whole birth process, how you can best support that process, what potential complications to be aware of, and what side affects and risks are associated with interventions.

But most importantly of all, Ina May writes in a way that helps you restore faith in your bodies ability to give birth and breastfeed your baby. She emphasizes that birth doesn’t have to be very painful (it can even feel good!); that your body and hormones work together to make birth, breastfeeding, and bonding with your baby go smoothly; that fear and stress make birth way harder; that it’s important to feel relaxed and confident; and that a more primal approach to labor and birth including walking, moving, squatting, and making noise all help in the birthing process.

She shares tons of birth stories which convey how different each birth is. Her stories help to encourage women as well as increase their knowledge without creating unnecessary fear.

In the breastfeeding book, she emphasizes how the vast majority of women are able to successfully breastfeed their babies! They just need to understand how to help facilitate a good milk supply, have a good technique, and have the desire to breastfeed.

She also talks about how a natural birth increases breastfeeding success and she gives tons of practical breastfeeding tips!

Whether you’re planning to have a baby soon (or in the future) or you’re just curious about natural birth and breastfeeding, I highly highly recommend these books!

13) “Primal Endurance” By Mark Sisson And Brad Kearns

In this book Mark and Brad discuss some flaws in mainstream sports nutrition and propose a more primal approach to training. While they focus mainly on endurance sports, hence the title, I still found it very helpful as a weight lifter and think it can be a valuable asset to any athlete.

The most impactful part of this book for me was the strong emphasis on listening to your intuition and body. In doing so you meet your body where it’s at, going harder on days you feel more energized and recovered and taking your workouts a little easier on days where you’re tired and not optimally recovered.

In doing so you can perform, progress, and recover much better than going hard everyday on a dogmatic schedule.

Their intuitive style is blended with structure and a well thought out plan or approach to training, making it the best of both worlds.

A lot of attention is paid to optimizing recovery and living a more primal lifestyle, both of which can tremendously aid your performance and health. They dig into primal eating, circadian rhythm and sleep, getting outside, moving more, de-stressing, sprinting, weightlifting, yoga, training for endurance events, cold therapy, and so much more!

One really interesting concept they discussed was avoiding “active coach potato syndrome,” that is doing minimal activity outside of your structured workouts. This has many negative health consequences and is not consistent with a primal approach. Therefore they advocate for an overall active lifestyle that includes things like walking, playing, and yoga and does not involve sitting for hours on end.

One more prominent theme worth mentioning is nutrition! The benefits of a primal style diet for training are illustrated very well here and backed up by both science and many success stories from elite athletes. Including a couple who rowed in a 20 foot boat 2,400 miles from San Francisco to Hawaii in 45 days following a primal high fat diet!

If you’re worried about how you will perform on a low-moderate carb diet as apposed to the popular high carb diet, then I definitely recommend this book as it does an excellent job explaining the details of how adaptable our body is to different fuel sources and the many benefits that come from being able to use fat as a primary fuel source.

Overall this is a great book that I definitely recommend!

14) “Cooked” by Michael Pollan

This is an excellent book that explores the four elements as they relate to cooking. Fire is shown through BBQing whole pigs in the South, water is shown through braises, air is shown through the art of making sourdough bread, and earth is shown through fermentation.

He really focuses on traditional cooking methods and how they are healthier and tastier than quick modern methods. My favorite example from the book was a traditionally leavened sourdough bread that takes more than 24 hours to make vs. Wonder Bread which takes 2 hours to make.

He really digs into the details of how the grain variation and preparation makes a huge difference in how well people can tolerate bread and gluten.

Pollan also discusses the problems with specialization in our society and how because of it many people don’t know how to cook or don’t care to take the time too. This leads people to get take out and buy preprepared meals which have a negative impact on peoples’ health.

This book was very interesting and I highly recommended it, especially if you love cooking! There is also a Netflix special that goes with this book, also called “Cooked.” I really enjoyed that too! It complements the book well since both offer a lot of different info.

15) “What Doesn’t Kill Us” Scoot Carney

This is an excellent book for people interested in all aspects of ancestral health. It really digs into environmental hormesis. That is environmental stresses (like cold exposure and high altitude) that promote a positive adaptation that makes us stronger, healthier, and prepares our bodies for stronger stressors in the future.

Scott Carney discusses how our modern environment with heaters, air conditioners, GPS, and so on shelters us from environmental challenges and thus weakens us. As far as the GPS’s go he discusses how our reliance on them has decreased are sense of direction and ability to navigate on our own.

Carney then shows how we can regain the lost strength of our ancestors through environmental hormesis. He shares his own personal experience studying under Wim Hoff (the famous Ice Man), training for and competing in a Spartan and Tough Guy race, hiking to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro in an impressive 28 hours and 6 minutes, and more!

Carney also digs into the science of how cold exposure can make us more adapted to the cold by increasing our brown fat. Brown fat (the brown color is from an increase in mitochondria) burns up white fat for heat and thus keeps us warmer and burns more body fat! Cold exposure also improves cardiovascular circulation, lymphatic circulation, boosts metabolism, reduces inflammation, improves immune response, improves mental focus, and improves resilience.

He also digs into the details and benefits of the Wim Hoff Method! This is an excellent book if you want to learn more about how to improve your health with environmental hormesis and an ancestral lifestyle.

16) “The Stevia Deception” by Dr. Bruce Fife

The Stevia Deception by Dr Bruce Fife, is an excellent and informative book. It discusses the dangers of no calorie and low calorie sweaters like stevia, sweet and low, splenda, aspartame, sugar alcohols, sweeteners in diet sodas and more.

These sweeteners promote weight gain, insulin resistance, diabetes, are anti-ketogenic, can cause digestive issues, and are highly addictive (some studies suggest they are 11x more addictive than cocaine).

When consumed they activate sweet taste receptors which triggers insulin release in anticipation of incoming Calories/ glucose. Insulin puts your body in a fat storing mode and the lack of Calories/glucose accompanying these sweeteners often lead to an increase in appetite. Pair this with addiction and you have a recipe for overeating.

Consuming these sweeteners also changes your gut microbiome to decrease leptin (the hormone responsible for telling your body you’re full) and increase ghrelin (your hunger hormone). This increase in hunger and decrease in satiation also perpetuates overeating.

To learn more about the dangers of no calorie and low calories sweeteners, I highly recommend this book. It’s very sciency and discusses many credible studies. Personally I found it fascinating.

P.S. If you have any good nutrition or health book recommendations please put them in the comments (Scroll back up to the top to leave a comment)! I’m always looking for more books to read and I think other people would appreciate your recommendations as well!

Digestive and gut health issues have become more and more common over the last several decades.

As humanity shifts further away from an ancestral lifestyle and closer to a life of high stress, high toxin exposure, and unhealthy food it’s no surprise our digestive systems are suffering.

Our guts are being exposed to more chemicals, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, heavy metals, oxidized fats, and plant toxins than ever before. These substances cause a lot of damage to our gut lining and most of us aren’t giving our gut enough time to heal.

Chronic stress and busy lives keep us in the sympathetic (fight or flight) mode and don’t give us enough time in the parasympathetic (rest and digest) mode. The parasympathetic mode is necessary for proper digestion, nutrient absorption, and the repair of damaged tissues.

Therefore the typical modern lifestyle wreaks havoc on the gut and digestive system.

Some Signs Of An Unhealthy Digestion Include:

• Bloating
• Acid Reflux
• Indigestion
• Intestinal Cramps
• Constipation
• Diarrhea
• Gas
• Lack Of Hunger
• Skin Issues
• Decreased Immunity
• Unhealthy Food Cravings
• Fatigue
• Weight Loss
• Weight Gain
• Nutrient Deficiencies
• Body Odor
• Food Particles In The Stools

While A Healthy Digestion Looks Like:

• None Of The Symptoms Above
• Good Appetite (But not so strong that you get hangry or uncomfortable)
• Regular Eliminations That Aren’t Too Hard Or Soft (At least 1x everyday)
• Are In Tune With Your Hunger And Full Cues And Listen To Them
• Food Sits Light, But Is Satisfying
• Strong And Healthy Hair, Skin, And Nails

I know how frustrating digestive issues can be! My digestion is my Achilles’ heel of my health. I struggled with severe digestive issues (chronic constipation, daily bloating, lack of appetite, smelly gas, and painful intestinal cramps) for about 10 years and now I’ve finally gotten to a place where I’ve fully overcome these symptoms and healed my gut and digestive system!

These tips I’m about to share with you have made a huge difference (as in a here’s your life back kind of difference) for myself and countless others.

9 Tips For A Healthy Strong Digestion

1) Eat Easy To Digest Foods

Warm, well cooked, and soft foods are generally much easier to digest than cold, heavy, and tough foods. Animal foods like meat and eggs are also easier on the gut and digestive system. Therefore you want to eat more foods like this to aid your digestive health.

Some examples of easy to digest meals are:

• Meat And Veggie Soup (Like Tom Kha Gai)
• Ground Beef And Veggie Fried Rice
• Thai Duck Curry
• Ham And Veggie Frittata
• Chuck Roast

And some examples of hard to digest foods are:

• Cold Smoothie Bowl
• Sandwich
• Ice Cream
• Raw Veggies And Hummus

I’m not saying to never eat the later, but rather to make a majority of your food the former, easier to digest foods. Also try to only have the harder to digest foods when your digestion is strong.

2) Don’t Overdo The Plants

Plants (especially grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, and dark leafy greens) are high in plant toxins like lectins, oxalates, polyphenols, and phytates.

Plants just like animals don’t want to be eaten, but they can’t fight or run away, so they create toxins that are stored in the plant (in highest concentration in the seeds, then stems and leaves, and hardly any in the fruit or roots). This is why most plants in the wild are poisonous to us!

We can however tolerate some plant toxins, but in excess they cause severe digestive issues, leaky gut, autoimmune disease, kidney stones, nutrient deficiencies, hormone dysfunction, and more!

Therefore it’s important to limit consumption of grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, and dark leafy greens. And when we do consume these, it’s important to prepare them properly (soak, sprout, cook, roast, or ferment) to decrease the plant toxins and make these foods easier to digest.

It should also be noted that the high fiber content in most plants can also be hard on the gut and digestion (for more info about this check out my article on fiber and if you want to learn more about plant toxins you can check out this article).

3) Get Meal Timing Right

The main ideas here are to give your digestive system a rest and time to repair and to eat when your digestion is strongest (midday). To do this, I recommend waiting at least 3 hours between meals with no snacks or drinks with Calories between these meals. This way you can be sure you’ve fully digested the food from your previous meal and given your digestive system a little rest before eating more.

I also recommend that you don’t eat right when you get up or right before bed, for your digestion is typically weaker then and strongest in the middle of the day. There is no set time or rule for this, but I encourage you to mess around with this and figure out what works for you. For example I eat about 4 hours after getting up and stop eating about 3.5 – 4.5 hours before bed.

I find that if I eat really late, like an hour before bed, it will often sit like a rock in my stomach. And the next morning that rock will still be there. I know everybody is different, but I have found that eating late really doesn’t agree with my body or digestion.

Also, if you’d like to incorporate some intermittent fasting in, I think that can be very beneficial as well! And I think eating about 3-4 meals a day, around the same times each day typically works well for most people. By eating the same amount of meals around the same time each day, we can train our bodies to expect (and get hungry for) each meal and actually start preparing for digestion.

4) Eat Mindfully

I also find it helpful to slow down and enjoy my meals. To stop whatever it is that I am doing and focus on eating. To take a few deep breaths before eating, sit up straight for my meal, and to chew my food thoroughly. This brings my body into the parasympathetic or “rest and digest” mode. While in the parasympathetic mode, your body gives more blood to your digestive system in order to help digest your food.

I also find it helpful to continue to rest and sit up straight for at least 10 minutes after I eat. This allows my body to continue to focus on digesting instead of running around or what not. It also helps my food move through my digestive system quicker, as apposed to laying down, which prevents bloating and acid reflux.

Taking a little walk after this and de-stressing in general can be helpful as well.

5) Choose Drinks And Drink Timing Wisely

If drinking with your meal, you want to have something a little acidic like hot water with lemon, apple cider vinegar drink, or sparkling limeade; or something hot like tea, coffee, or bone broth (bone broth has extra gut healing properties due to its high collagen content too). Cold drinks are generally hard on the digestion and best avoided.

It’s also not great to drink plain water with your meal (or 30 minutes before or after your meal) because it can dilute your stomach acid, making it more difficult to digest your food. That’s why acidic drinks like the ones I mentioned above are preferred with meals. However plain water is great in between meals.

6) Listen To Your Body

Your body is really smart so really tune into what it’s telling you and follow it! This level of intuition takes practice, so be patient if you don’t get it right away.

Listen for hunger and full cues. These will help you to eat when you’re hungry and stop when you’re full. Really try to avoid eating when you’re not hungry or when you’re already full. Your body is telling you not to eat for a reason (often times that is you’ve already eaten enough, or you’re too stressed to eat right now). Ignoring your body could lead to weight gain, bloating, poor nutrient absorption, build up of ama (Ayurvedic term for mucus and toxins), and weakening of your digestion.

Another element of this is listening to your cravings. However this one is conditional because if you’re out of balance and aren’t in a healthy eating routine your cravings could easily be disordered. For example, if you eat a lot of sweets and you’re craving sugar, it doesn’t mean your body needs sugar, it means you’re addicted to sugar.

However, if you’re coming from a healthy place, your cravings can be very helpful. Your cravings will often align with the seasons, what your body needs (nutritionally), and what your digestion can handle.

7) Keep Things Moving

By this I mean have at least 1 bowel movement everyday! This is so important for our digestive system because it’s the very last part and if the colon gets backed up, everything upstream does too! Which in turn slows down digestion.

If you’re having trouble going daily, try to go around the same time every morning (ideally after breakfast). Pick a time when you can relax so not 10 minutes before you have to rush off to work. To train your body to go around then, sit on the toilet at that time for 10-15 mins everyday for 2 weeks, regardless of if you have to go or not. Eventually, it will start to become a habit.

Sitting in a squat like position where your knees are above your hips and your legs are wide, can also be very helpful since it aligns your intestines properly. Also reading or going on your phone can also help you to relax.

You can also try:

• Staying hydrated (getting plenty of water and minerals)
• Exercising and moving your body regularly
• Drinking coffee in the morning
• Taking a magnesium supplement at night
• Decreasing fiber intake (fiber adds bulk which sometimes makes stools too large and difficult to pass)
• Doing an enema (instructions here)

8) Avoid Toxins

Now a days we are exposed to so many toxins in our environment, food, tap water, cleaning and beauty products, plastic packaging, and more. These toxins can cause many health problems including damage to the gut and digestion.

Therefore it’s important to avoid toxins as well as cleanse from them. And here’s some tips on how to do that:

• Get a quality water filter (more info here)
• Buy organic
• Avoid plastic packaging, tupperwares, and water bottles as much as possible
• Detox and cleanse from time to time (In Depth Guide On How To Detox And Cleanse here)
• Get or make clean beauty and cleaning products

9) Exercise

I love exercising and training my body for so many reasons, but one of those reasons is that it improves my digestion. Moving my body always seems to make everything flow and function better. It helps me eliminate regularly, it boosts my metabolism, and stimulates my appetite. Altogether improving my digestion.

P.S. If you’re tired of dealing with gut and digestive issues like bloating, constipation, feeling backed up and heavy in your abdomen, acid reflux, and/or other symptoms, and you want a step by step process on how to finally overcome these symptoms and reclaim your vitality and health, then click here to schedule a free 15 minute call with me to see how I can help!

(Picture of Berkey Water Filter, Picture From Follow Your Detour)

This is a question I didn’t really give much thought to until recently. It’s easy to go over to your sink, fill up your glass with tap water, and happily sip away when you don’t know what’s in your water. Ignorance is bliss after all.

However once you learn what’s actually in your tap water and the potential harmful effects, you’ll likely be itching to get your hands on a water filter as soon as possible!

What’s In Your Water?

Exactly what’s in your water will vary based on where you live. You can find out exactly what’s in your water here. But here are some common contaminates in tap water:

• Heavy Metals (Like Lead, Arsenic, Cadmium, Chromium-6, Aluminum, Iron, And Mercury)
• Fluoride
• Pharmaceutical Drugs
• Glyphosate And Other Pesticides And Herbicides
• Chlorine And Trihalomethanes
• Parasites
• Nitrates and Nitrites
• And More!

How Do These Affect Your Health?

Heavy Metals:

“There are 35 metals that are of concern for us because of residential or occupational exposure, out of which 23 are heavy metals: antimony, arsenic, bismuth, cadmium, cerium, chromium, cobalt, copper, gallium, gold, iron, lead, manganese, mercury, nickel, platinum, silver, tellurium, thallium, tin, uranium, vanadium, and zinc.” (1)

You may recognize some of these (such as copper, iron, manganese, and zinc) as important minerals for our overall health. While they are in small amounts, too large of an intake of these is still toxic and dangerous.

Heavy metals are common in tap water. They make their way into the water supply via “…soil erosion, natural weathering of the earth’s crust, mining, industrial effluents, urban runoff, sewage discharge, insect or disease control agents applied to crops, and many other [ways].” (1)

Heavy metals have been linked to a plethora of health consequences that I will discuss below. In this discussion I will focus on 7 of the most common heavy metals in tap water.

Lead:

Lead often finds its way into drinking water through corrosion of the pipes that carry it (many pipes are made with some lead). Lead is considered a carcinogen by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), meaning it causes cancer. (1, 2, 3) “Children are more at risk than adults when it comes to the dangers of ingesting lead. Children will absorb 30-75% of the lead they ingest while adults will absorb only 11%.” (3)

Excessive exposure to lead (aka lead poisoning) has been linked to:

• Abdominal Pain
• Developmental Delay
• Having Trouble Learning
• Lower IQ (A 10 g/dL Increase In Blood Levels Of Lead Correlates To A Loss Of 2 IQ Points)
• Fatigue
• Weight Loss
• Irritability
• Hearing Loss
• High Blood Pressure
• Joint Pain
• Memory Issues
• Reduced Sperm Count
• Miscarriage
• Slow Fetus Growth
• Mental Retardation
• Birth Defects
• Autism
• Premature Birth And Low Birth Weight.
• Death
• Loss Of Appetite
• Headache
• Hypertension
• Renal Dysfunction
• Sleeplessness
• Arthritis
• Hallucinations
• Vertigo
• Psychosis
• Allergies
• Dyslexia
• Hyperactivity
• Paralysis
• Muscular Weakness
• Brain Damage
• Kidney Damage
• Bone Marrow Damage
• Red Blood Cell Damage
• Nerve Damage

(1, 3, 4)

Cascade Of Effects Of Lead In The Body:

Arsenic:

Arsenic is a heavy metal that can get into drinking water by leaching from natural deposits, wood preservatives, pesticides, industrial deposits, petroleum production, semiconductor manufacture, and coal power plants. (1, 6, 7) Arsenic has been linked with many severe health consequences, such as:

• Cancer Of The Skin, Bladder, Lung, Kidney, Nasal Passages, Liver, and Prostate
• Irreversible Changes In The Vital Organs
• Nausea And Vomiting,
• Reduced Production of Red And White Blood Cells (More Specifically Erythrocytes And Leukocytes)
• Abnormal Heart Beat
• Pricking Sensation In Hands And Legs
• Damage To Blood Vessels
• Skin Lesions (Pigmentation And Keratosis)
• Neurological Problems
• Pulmonary Disease
• Hormonal Problems
• Peripheral Vascular Disease
• Hypertension
• Cardiovascular Disease
• Diabetes
• Immunological issues
• Death
• Cognitive Development Issues For Adolescents

(1, 6, 7)

Cadmium:

Cadmium can enter the water supply from corrosion of galvanized pipes, erosion of natural deposits, discharge from metal refineries, and runoff from waste batteries and paints. (8) This heavy metal is particularly harmful to your bones and kidneys, but has many other health consequences as well. These include:

• Cancer (Cadmium And Its Compounds Are Classified As Group 1 Carcinogens For Humans By The International Agency For Research On Cancer)
• Premature Birth And Reduced Birth Weights
• Kidney Disease, Damage, Stones, And Failure (Cadmium Is Highly Toxic To The Kidney And It Accumulates In The Proximal Tubular Cells In Higher Concentrations)
• Bone Weakness And Osteoporosis
• Shock
• Lung Damage (Experimental Analysis In Animals Has Shown That 50% Of Cadmium Gets Absorbed In The Lungs)
• Nausea And Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Muscle Cramp
• Stomach Irritation
• Sensory Disturbances
• Convulsions
• Liver Damage
• Blood Damage
• Zinc Deficiency
• Hypercalciuria (Elevated Calcium In The Urine)
• Anemia (Cadmium Interacts With Iron In A Way That Decreases Hemoglobin And Hematocrit Concentration)

(1, 8, 9)

Chromium-6 (AKA Hexavalent Chromium):

Chromium-6 is one of the main types of the element chromium. It comes from “… burning of oil and coal, petroleum from ferro cromate refractory material, pigment oxidants, catalyst, chromium steel, fertilizers, oil well drilling and metal plating tanneries.” (1) It’s also released through sewage and fertilizers. It’s been linked with:

• Ulcers
• DNA Damage (Formation Of DNA Adducts, Chromosomal Aberrations, Sister Chromatid Exchanges, Alterations In Replication And Transcription Of DNA)
• Cancer
• Asthma
• Respiratory Illnesses
• Kidney Damage
• Liver Damage
• Reproductive Problems
• Developmental Harm

(1, 10, 11)

Aluminum:

Aluminum leaches from rocks and soil into the water supply and aluminum salts are added to the water supply as coagulants to remove turbidity (cloudiness or muddiness). (12, 13) However, many health consequences have been associated with aluminum intake, including:

• Alzheimer’s Disease
• Neurotoxicity Effects Such As Neuronal Atrophy In The Locus Coeruleus, Substantia Nigra, And Striatum
• Decreased Bone Density
• Disturbed Intercellular Communication, Cellular Growth And Secretory Functions
• Nausea
• Mouth And Skin Ulcers
• Rashes
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Arthritic Pain
• Dermatitis
• Brain Damage (For People With Kidney Disease Since They Are Unable To Efficiently Remove Aluminum)

(1, 12)

Iron

Although iron is an important nutrient for our overall health, too much can be harmful. And despite popular belief true iron deficiency is quite rare. Iron overload (excess iron) is actually much more common.

We have a very sophisticated iron recycling system called the Reticuloendothelial System, which can recycle 24 mg or more of iron per day. On top of that woman absorb 3x as much iron as men to make up for iron loss during menstruation. And pregnant women absorb 9x as much iron to help support the growing baby. (14) Therefore we don’t actually need very much iron and it can be easy to overdo.

If your blood work reveals low ferritin or low hemoglobin, it’s much more likely that you have a Vitamin C, retinol (the animal form of Vitamin A), or copper deficiency, than an iron deficiency. All of the previous mentioned nutrients are required for iron absorption and function and deficiency in these are much more common.

Too much iron in water can easily lead to iron overload and a host of health problems. One reason for this is that pathogens, viruses, bacteria, fungi, parasites, and mycotoxins all love iron (they need to feed off it to survive). Therefore iron in water often brings these unwanted things with it and excess iron in your body helps feed them. (15, 16) Too much iron can also lead to:

• Gastro Intestinal Bleeding And Ulcers
• Heart, Liver, Cellular, DNA, And Brain Damage
• Autoimmune Diseases
• Chronic Diseases
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Cancer
• Calcium, Vitamin E, Copper, And Magnesium Deficiency
• Shocks
• Hypotension
• Lethargy
• Tachycardia
• Hepatic Necrosis
• Metabolic Acidosis
• Death
• Excess Pathogens, Viruses, Bacteria, Fungi, Parasites, And Mycotoxins In the Body
• Development Of Strictures
• Oxidation And Damage Of Tissues

(1, 14, 16, 17)

Mercury:

Mercury is a neurotoxin and it’s considered the most toxic heavy metal in the environment. Mercury can enter the water supply through municipal wastewater discharges, erosion of natural deposits, discharge from refineries and factories, landfill runoff, cropland runoff, mining, and incineration. (1, 2)

“It’s estimated that 8 to 10% of American women have mercury levels that would induce neurological disorders in any child they gave birth to. Rabbits when exposed to 28.8 mg/m³ mercury vapor for 1 to 13 weeks have shown vague pathological changes, marked cellular degeneration and brain necrosis.” (1) Mercury has also been shown to cause:

• Kidney, Brain, Nerve, And Muscle Damage
• Microtubule Destruction
• Mitochondrial Damage
• Lipid Peroxidation
• Accumulation Of Neurotoxic Molecules Such As Serotonin, Aspartate, And Glutamate
• Damage The Developing Fetus
• Bronchitis
• Asthma
• Temporary Respiratory Problems
• Damage To The Tertiary And Quaternary Protein Structure
• “Intervenes With The Process Of Transcription And Translation Resulting In The Disappearance Of Ribosomes And Eradication Of Endoplasmic Reticulum And The Activity Of Natural Killer Cells” (1)
• Interferes With Intracellular Calcium Homeostasis
• Shyness
• Tremors
• Memory Problems
• Irritability
• Changes In Vision Or Hearing
• Lung Damage
• Hair Loss
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Nausea
• Skin Rashes
• Increased Heart Rate Or Blood Pressure
• Depression
• Fatigue
• Headache

(1, 2)

Non-Heavy Metal Contaminants:

Fluoride:

Fluoride has been touted as a cavity preventing, teeth strengthening miracle since the early 1900s, and has been added to a vast majority of the water supply since the 1940s.

But is fluoride really good for your teeth and health?

No! I know you might be shocked to hear this (I was), but fluoride doesn’t prevent tooth decay. In fact there has never been a double blind study to prove that it does!

Fluoride does however delay tooth decay which has led a number of studies to wrongfully conclude that fluoride decreases cavities in young children. By the way these studies count teeth that haven’t even erupted as no decay teeth.

However when you follow these same children into adolescence, cavities increase with increased fluoride exposure.

Not only does fluoride cause cavities, studies show it also contributes to:

• Lower IQ
• ADHD
• A Calcified Pineal Gland
• Dental Fluorosis
• Skeletal Fluorosis
• Alzheimer’s Disease
• Difficulty Sleeping
• Early Onset Of Puberty In Women
• Joints Locking
• Hypothyroidism
• In Extreme Cases Can Cause Death
• Cancer
• Genetic Damage
• Damage To The Blood, Bone, Brain, Heart, Kidneys, Liver, Lungs, Thyroid, And Reproductive System.
• Hardening Of Arteries
• Black Tarry Stools
• Vomit (Sometimes Bloody)
• Stomach Cramps Or Pain
• Tremors
• Constipation
• Loss Of Appetite
• Skin Rashes
• Sores In The Mouth And On The Lips
• Weight Loss
• Accelerated Aging
• Immune System Dysfunction
• Gut Inflammation

(18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)

If you want to learn more about fluoride, then check out my article: The Truth About Fluoride.

Pharmaceutical Drugs:

Pharmaceutical drugs enter our water supply from the waste of pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities, from people flushing drugs down the toilet, from sewage (our bodies don’t absorb all of the drugs we take, therefore some come out in the feces), from runoff from animal farms and agriculture, and more. (25, 26) The flow of pharmaceuticals in our environment can be seen in the picture above.

Pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities are one of the biggest contributors. One study showed that 2 waste water treatment plants that received waste water from pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities had 10 to 1,000 times higher concentrations of pharmaceuticals than 24 waste water treatment plants that did not receive pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities waste. (25)

You would think pharmaceutical would be removed in water treatment plants, however a majority of them don’t have the proper measures to remove them. (25, 26)

Some of the pharmaceuticals in our water include hormones, other endocrine disrupting compounds, antimicrobials, antibiotics, antidepressants, ibuprofen, oxycodone, acetaminophen, caffeine, cotinine, diphenhydramine, carbamazepine, benztropine, hydrocortisone, prednisone, and much more. (25, 27, 28)

Although many organizations dismiss the potential health consequence due to the low levels of pharmaceuticals, other’s argue that these low levels are still dangerous because pharmaceuticals are designed to act in human bodies and to be effective in small dosages. (29)

“And while drugs are tested to be safe for humans, the time frame is usually over a matter of months, not a lifetime. Pharmaceuticals also can produce side effects and interact with other drugs at normal medical doses,” says zoologist John Sumpter at Brunel University in London, who has studied trace hormones, heart medicine and other drugs. (29)

Some evidence also shows that aquatic wildlife can be negatively affected by prolonged exposure pharmaceuticals in the water. This includes the “feminization of male fish [they’re creating egg yolk proteins, which usually only females can do] and masculinization of female fish, delayed sexual development in fish, delayed metamorphosis in frogs and embryo mortality.” (27, 29)

Glyphosate And Other Pesticides And Herbicides:

Glyphosate is the active component in Roundup and it’s the most common herbicide in the world. “Billions of pounds have been applied globally since the 70s. In the US, though we’re only 4% of the world’s population, we use 20% of the world’s supply annually.” (30)

Glyphosate and other pesticides and herbicides get into our water supply via runoff from agriculture. Glyphosate causes a host of health problems, one of the most interesting being it’s negative effects on gut health.

The higher levels of glyphosate in your gut, the more zonulin you release. Zonulin is a protein your body makes that opens the tight junctions between the cells that line your intestines and opens the blood brain barrier. Thus high levels of zonulin lead to leaky gut, autoimmunity, rheumatoid arthritis, decreased immunity, and more! (31)

Other health consequences of glyphosate include:

• Alzheimer’s Disease
• Autism
• ADHD
• Immune Dysfunction
• Joint And Bone Diseases
• Infertility
• Endocrine Disruption
• Anxiety
• SIBO (Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth)
• Constipation
• Slow Gut Motility
• Breast Cancer
• Celiac Disease
• Liver Disease
• Obesity
• Autoimmune Diseases
• Damages Our Gut Microbiome
• Kidney Disease
• Thyroid Cancer
• Parkinson’s Disease
• Lymphoma

(30, 31, 32, 33)

Chlorine And Trihalomethanes:

Chlorine is used to keep our water clean by disinfecting it and killing germs. It does a great job at this however this chemical also has many negative health effects. And according to the EPA, most U.S. water sources contain 300-600 times the amount of chlorine that’s safe to ingest. (34)

The main problem with chlorine is that it combines with naturally occurring chemicals in the water and creates byproducts called trihalomethanes (THMs for short). (34, 35, 36, 37) THMs are a group of four chemicals: chloroform, bromodichloromethane, dibromochloromethane, and bromoform, that are known to cause severe health problems. (37)

“According to a report from the U.S. Council of Environmental Quality, the cancer risk for people who drink chlorinated water is up to 93% higher than for those whose water does not contain chlorine.” (34)

And “In the small town of Roseto, Pennsylvania, after changing from drinking mountain spring water to drinking chlorinated tap water, the population went from having no heart attacks to having heart attacks, with no changes to their diets.” (34)

Chlorine and trihalomethanes have also been shown to increase:

• Bladder Cancer
• Gastrointestinal And Colorectal Cancer
• Breast Cancer
• Reproductive Issues
• Immune Dysfunction
• Heart Attacks
• Gut Problems
• Miscarriage And Damage To Developing Fetus
• Heart, Lung, Kidney, Liver, And Central Nervous System Damage
• Inflammation

(34, 35, 36, 37)

Parasites:

Parasites aren’t just from third world countries, feces, and raw or under cooked meat. Parasites are also in fruits and veggies, the air, tap water, soil, and more. They are far more common than people realize, in fact it’s estimated that around 70% of people have them! (32, 38, 39, 40)

There are 1000s of different types of parasites, some are microscopic and some are larger. Most are tiny or microscopic when they enter your body, but after feeding on your food for a while they grow larger. Common parasites in tap water include cryptosporidium, giardia cysts, toxoplasma gondii, helminth nematodes, and entamoeba histolytica. (38, 41)

Symptoms of Parasite Infections Include:

• Fatigue
• Weight gain
• Weight loss
• Acne
• Reassuring yeast or fungal infections
• Teeth grinding (especially at night)
• Sweet cravings
• Bloating
• Constipation/diarrhea
• Headaches
• Nausea
• Itchy anus/genitals
• Insomnia
• Anemia
• Nutritional deficiencies
• Poor tolerance to stress or illness
• Depression/anxiety

(32, 39, 40)

To learn more about parasites and how to cleanse your body of the them, check out the “About Parasites And Parasite Cleansing” section of my “In Depth Guide On How To Detox And Cleanse Your Body” article.

Nitrates and Nitrites:

The main problem with nitrates and nitrites is that they can react with amino acids which creates nitrosamine which is a known carcinogen and harmful compound. (42) Nitrates and Nitrites get into the water supply via agricultural runoff (nitrates are used in the most common fertilizers), animal waste, septic tank waste, and erosion of natural deposits. (42, 43)

One of the most serious side effects of excess nitrate and nitrite intake is Methemoglobinemia, aka blue baby syndrome. Methemoglobinemia is a temporary blood disorder in infants less than 6 months old that causes their digestive system to allow for excess conversion of nitrates to nitrites.

“The nitrite absorbs through the stomach and reacts with hemoglobin to form methemoglobin, which does not have the oxygen carrying capacity of hemoglobin. Thus, the oxygen deficiency in the infant’s blood results in the “blue baby” syndrome. When the nitrate-contaminating source is removed, the effects are reversible,” however if not removed, there is a chance the infant could die. (42, 43)

Nitrates and nitrites have also been shown to increase:

• Cancer
• Thyroid Disease
• Iodine Deficiency
• Colon Cancer
• Central Nervous Disorders (In Extreme Cases)
• Neural Tube Defect
• Intrauterine Growth Retardation
• Cardiac And Central Nervous System Defects In Unborn Children
• Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)
• Miscarriage

(42, 43, 44, 45)

A Good Water Filter Is A Good Investment!

To sum this up, I highly recommend you get a good quality water filter! Berkey, Aquasana, and CuZn have some great water filters.

I know these can seem expensive, but they really pay off in the long run! Cheaper filters like Brita filters and other cheaper pitcher filters really don’t cut it. They don’t remove enough of the toxins and when you factor in the cost of replacement filters every 2 or so months, they really add up price wise in the long run.

The brands I mentioned above are definitely and upfront investment of about $150-$350. However the filter only needs to be replaced every 4-8 years (depending on the brand and how much you use it, also the Berkey fluoride filters have to be replaced annually). These filters are much higher quality (they filter out a lot more toxins) and in the long run they’re often cheaper than a Brita filter. (This video explains the breakdown of how a Berkey water filter is cheaper than a Brita very well).

I personally think the price is really worth it when it comes to quality water filters. They are such an important tool for protecting us from toxins and preventing chronic diseases and health problems.

I hope this article helped you learn about some of the potential consequences of the toxins in our water supply so that you can make informed decisions that help you optimize your and your families health!

Works Cited

1. Jaishankar, Monisha et al. “Toxicity, mechanism and health effects of some heavy metals.” Interdisciplinary toxicology vol. 7,2 (2014): 60-72. doi:10.2478/intox-2014-0009

2. Patel, Payal. “Top 10 Contaminants Found In Tap Water.” Aquasana. Accessed 8 July 2021. https://www.aquasana.com/info/top-10-contaminants-found-in-tap-water-pd.html

3. “Lead Fact Sheet.” Water Quality Association. Accessed 7 July 2021. https://www.wqa.org/Portals/0/Technical/Technical%20Fact%20Sheets/2016_Lead.pdf

4. “Do Berkey Filters Remove Lead?” Berkey Filters. Accessed 7 July 2021. https://www.berkeyfilters.com/pages/do-berkey-water-filters-remove-lead

6. “Do Berkey Filters Remove Arsenic?” Berkey Filters. Accessed 7 July 2021. https://www.berkeyfilters.com/pages/do-berkey-water-filters-remove-arsenic

7. “Arsenic Fact Sheet.” Water Quality Association. Accessed 7 July 2021. https://www.wqa.org/Portals/0/Technical/Technical%20Fact%20Sheets/2014_Arsenic.pdf

8. “Cadmium Fact Sheet.” Water Quality Association. Accessed 7 July 2021. https://www.wqa.org/Portals/0/Technical/Technical%20Fact%20Sheets/2015_Cadmium.pdf

9. Grisanti, Ronald. “Osteoporosis: The Toxic Metal Effect.” Functional Medicine University. Accessed 7 July 2021. https://www.functionalmedicineuniversity.com/public/904.cfm

10. “Do Berkey Filters Remove Chronium 6?” Berkey Filters. Accessed 7 July 2021. https://www.berkeyfilters.com/pages/do-berkey-water-filters-remove-chromium-6

11. Deamer, Kacey. “Chromium-6 in Tap Water: Why the ‘Erin Brockovich’ Chemical Is Dangerous.” Live Science. 22 September 2016. https://www.livescience.com/56210-what-is-chromium-6-in-tap-water.html

12. Srinivasan, PT; Viraraghavan, T; and Subramanian, KS. “Aluminium in drinking water: An overview.” SSWM. January 1999. https://sswm.info/sites/default/files/reference_attachments/SRINIVASAN%201999%20Aluminium%20in%20Drinking%20Water%20-%20An%20Overview.pdf

13. Malik, Q.H. “Performance of alum and assorted coagulants in turbidity removal of muddy water.” Appl Water Sci 8, 40 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13201-018-0662-5

14. “The Reticuloendothelial System can recycle 24 mg of iron per day.” Innate Nutrition. Accessed 8 July 2021. https://www.innate-nutrition.com/blog/why-anemia-is-much-more-complicated-than-a-lack-of-iron

15. “5 Harmful Effects of High Levels of Iron in Water.” PB Water Softening. 4 May, 2017. https://www.pbwatersoftening.com/5-harmful-effects-high-levels-iron-water/

16. “Pathogens require iron to flourish.” Innate Nutrition. Accessed 8 July 2021. https://www.innate-nutrition.com/blog/pathogens-require-iron-to-flourish

17. “Ferritin may not be the most accurate way to measure iron status.” Innate Nutrition. Accessed 8 July 2021. https://www.innate-nutrition.com/blog/how-to-increase-iron-levels-naturally

18. Schuld, Andreas. “Fluoride: Worse than We Thought.” The Weston A. Price Foundation. 14 April 2004. https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/environmental-toxins/fluoride-worse-than-we-thought/

19. “Aging the Bone: The Degenerative Effects of Skeletal Fluorosis.” SCRI Group. Accessed 29 jUNE 2021. https://www.scrigroup.com/limba/engleza/100/Aging-the-Bone-The-Degenerativ43711.php

20. Griffin, Cole. “The Problem With Fluoride.” The Weston A. Price Foundation. 6 May 2019. https://www.westonaprice.org/podcast/186-the-problem-with-fluoride/

21. Shattuck, Anita. “Fluoridation: The Fraud of the Century.” The Weston A. Price Foundation. 15 May 2004. https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/environmental-toxins/fluoridation-the-fraud-of-the-century/

22. Connett, Paul. “Water Fluoridation.” The Weston A. Price Foundation. 25 April, 2019. https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/environmental-toxins/water-fluoridation/

23. Aggeborn, Linuz and Öhman, Mattias. “The Effects of Fluoride in Drinking Water.” The University Of Chicago Press Journals. Accessed 29 June 2021. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/711915

24. Krol, Casey. “Fluoride’s Effect On The Pineal Gland?” Truth About Fluoride. 17 June 2021. https://truthaboutfluoride.com/fluorides-effect-on-the-pineal-gland/

25. “Pharmaceuticals in Water.” USGS. Accessed 8 July 2021. https://www.usgs.gov/special-topic/water-science-school/science/pharmaceuticals-water?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects

26. “Do Berkey Filters Remove Pharmaceuticals?” Berkey Filters. Accessed 7 July 2021. https://www.berkeyfilters.com/pages/does-berkey-filter-pharmaceuticals

27. Coker, Steven. “Pharmaceuticals in drinking water.” Water Tech Online. 26 September 2014. https://www.watertechonline.com/wastewater/article/15546273/pharmaceuticals-in-drinking-water

28. Kenemore, Lawernce. “EPA Report on Pharmaceuticals in Your Drinking Water.” Stat Med Disposal. 13 December 2016. https://statmeddisposal.net/epa-report-pharmaceuticals-drinking-water/

29. “Probe: Pharmaceuticals In Drinking Water.” CBS News. 10 March 2008. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/probe-pharmaceuticals-in-drinking-water/

30. Hyman, Mark. “The Harmful Effects of Weedkiller (Glyphosate) On Our Health And Our Future.” Dr. Hyman.Accessed 7 July 2021. https://drhyman.com/blog/2021/06/30/podcast-ep177/

31. Schoenfeldrd, Laura. “Is Glyphosate Behind Your Gut Symptoms?” Laura Schoenfeldrd. Accessed 7 July 2021.https://lauraschoenfeldrd.com/glyphosate-gut-health-symptoms/

32. Katja. Savory Lotus. Accessed 10 June 2021. https://www.instagram.com/savorylotus/

33. Mercola, Joseph. “MIT Scientist: How Glyphosate Destroys Your Health.” The Defender. 30 June 2021. https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/stephanie-seneff-toxic-legacy-glyphosate-destroying-our-health/

34. Robbins, Ocean. “There’s Chlorine in Water and You Probably Drink it Every Day — But Is It Harmful?” Food Revolution. 10 August 2017. https://foodrevolution.org/blog/chlorine-water-harmful/

35.”Does the Berkey Remove Chlorine?” Berkey Filters. Accessed 7 July 2021. https://www.berkeyfilters.com/pages/can-berkey-filters-remove-chlorine

36. “Chloramine Fact Sheet.” Water Quality Association. Accessed 7 July 2021. https://www.wqa.org/Portals/0/Technical/Technical%20Fact%20Sheets/2014_Chloramine.pdf

37. “Trihalomethanes.” Well Owner. Accessed 7 July 2021. https://wellowner.org/resources/water-quality/contaminants/trihalomethanes

38. “Giardia: Drinking Water Fact Sheet.” EPA. September 2000. https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-10/documents/giardia-factsheet.pdf

39. Mary. Healing Cave Lady. Accessed 10 June 2021. https://www.instagram.com/healingcavelady/

40. Johnson, Sarah. Nutrionfortheppl. Accessed 10 June 2021. https://www.instagram.com/nutritionfortheppl/

41. “Parasites in Drinking Water and How to Remove Them.” Berkey Filters. Accessed 8 July 2021. https://theberkey.com/blogs/water-filter/parasites-in-drinking-water-and-how-to-remove-them

42. “Does Berkey Remove Nitrates? What About Nitrites?” Berkey Filters. Accessed 8 July 2021. https://www.berkeyfilters.com/pages/does-berkey-filter-nitrates-nitrites

43. “Nitrate/Nitrite Fact Sheet.” Water Quality Association. Accessed 7 July 2021. https://www.wqa.org/Portals/0/Technical/Technical%20Fact%20Sheets/2014_NitrateNitrite.pdf

44. Yang, Sarah. “Health Effects of Nitrate in Drinking Water.” 26 February 2020. https://dnr.wi.gov/topic/nonpoint/documents/nr151ntps/20200227/DHS_Health_Effects_of_Nitrate_in_Drinking_Water.pdf

45. “Nitrates and Nitrites.” EPA. Accessed 8 July 2021. https://archive.epa.gov/teach/web/pdf/nitrates_summary.pdf

The vegan diet has been used to prey on peoples’ desire to be and to be seen as compassionate and caring.

After all “if you truly love animals, care about the environment, and care about your health, you’ll go vegan,” or at least that’s what many will have you believe.

Unfortunately each one of these claims is based on lies.

You can love animals and eat them too, just like plants! You can even stand against factory farms and animal cruelty and still eat meat.

In fact most vegan diets kill more animals than meat heavy diets because of the great amount of land that is cleared to grow crops. In this process many ecosystems are destroyed and bugs and small animals are killed.

Meat makes up only a few percent of greenhouse gas emissions and regenerative farms actually decrease green house gasses, replenish the soil, treat animals well, and provide the most nutrient dense meat!

And a vegan diet is very low in bioavailable nutrients and completely void of some essential nutrients. It’s also very difficult on the digestion and linked with many health problems.

Not a single culture has ever been vegan and survived in human history, because animal products are essential to our overall health, as noted by Dr. Weston Price in his book, “Nutrition And Physical Degeneration.”

So if a vegan diet doesn’t help animals, the planet, or your health, why is it pushed?

For starters I think many vegans still believe their diet helps animals, the planet, and their health. And I think that’s why they encourage others to try it. I think a lot of them are very kind hearted and have a good intent.

However that is on a much smaller scale and doesn’t account for the more plant-based USDA eating recommendations, Harvards new close to vegan eating recommendations, Joe Biden’s recommendation to cut red meat by 90%, and many other prominent government organizations, mainstream news, and mainstream science organizations pushing a vegan (or near vegan) diet.

So why is this?

I don’t know for certain, but I believe it’s for the same reasons corrupt powerful people do anything, for more power and money.

Throughout civilization, the elite class has feasted on quality meats and animal products, while the peasants and slaves were fed grains. This isn’t a coincidence!

Animal products are far more nutrients dense and build strong and smart people. While grains are cheap and plentiful and kept the peasants and slaves alive and working, but not thriving! This kept them weak enough (in body and mind) to prevent an uprising.

There’s a big correlation between what we eat and how we act. Herbivores are typically prey, they’re often more fearful, and very herd minded. Think sheep, cows, rabbits, deer, etc.

However carnivores and omnivores are predators and tend to be confident, self reliant, intelligent, and fierce. Think lions, wolves, sharks, eagles, etc.

I believe humans take on the corresponding characteristics and mindsets of predators or prey based on how they eat, at least to some extent.

Therefore pushing a vegan (or near vegan) diet, can help make the masses easier to control (more prey like, fearful, and herd minded), and therefore make the elite more powerful.

There’s also a profit to be made off veganism, as with any trend. Many food, clothing, and beauty product companies see large surges in sales after launching vegan products. KFC, Burger King, Greggs (the UK’s largest bakery chain), and many other companies have all done this.

Since plant based diets lack essential nutrients, supplement companies can swoop in with many products marketed towards vegans.

Also since vegan diets can lead to many health problems like digestive issues, decreased bone density, decreased fertility, and more; pharmaceutical companies can make quite a bit off this as well buy selling pills to “treat” these symptoms.

Keep in mind these are just my theories it’s hard to say for certain why veganism is pushed. Let me know if you have any other theories in the comments! I’m really curious to hear what you guys think.

I’ve been talking a lot about toxins lately, and today I want to focus on the toxins in foods and how to avoid them. Toxins in foods include additives, preservatives, herbicides, pesticides, micro-plastics, endocrine dysruptors (like xenoestrogens), heavy metals, chemicals from the water supply, and more.

Over time exposure to these toxins can cause cancer, chronic diseases, hormone issues, fertility issues, skin problems, digestive problems, leaky gut, autoimmune diseases, immune dysfunction, ADHD, autism, and more! (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)

So how can you avoid toxins in your food?

1) Buy Foods Closest To Their Natural State

Buy whole foods like grass fed steak, raw whole milk (that hasn’t been homogenized), and seasonal fresh fruits and veggies. Avoid prepackaged and processed foods for these often have additives, preservatives, sugar, vegetable oils, and other toxins.

2) Buy Organic

Unfortunately pesticides and herbicides are now widely used. In fact billions of pounds of the most common herbicide: Round Up (aka glyphosate) have been applied globally since the 70s. (7) Therefore it’s really important to buy as much food organic as you can. If you can’t buy all organic, prioritize fruits and veggies with very thin skins and ones known to be treated with lots of pesticides like strawberries, spinach, kale, nectarines, apples, grapes, cherries, peaches, pears, peppers, celery, and tomatoes. These are also known as the “dirty dozen.” It’s really important to get organic coffee as well, for coffee is the most pesticide ridden crop in the world! (8, 9)

3) Buy Local

Getting to know your farmer and going to farmers markets goes hand and hand with this one. Small local farms typically have much higher quality produce with more nutrients and less toxins! Also the organic certification process is very expensive and time consuming so many stands at the farmers market are technically organic even though they don’t have a sign saying certified organic. Sometimes they’ll say pesticide free or you can ask them.

4) Buy Food That’s Not In Plastic As Much As Possible

This one is very hard, I know! But try to avoid plastic packaging as much as possible because the micro plastics and endocrine disrupting chemicals can leach into your food. Also bringing your own reusable produce bags is helpful for this! Plus it’s good for the environment!

5) Grow, Hunt, And Forage Your Own Food

While I know this doesn’t work for everyone, it’s truly one of the best ways to optimize your food quality and minimize toxins. Even a few pots for some herbs and veggies or weekend fishing trips are a great start!

6) Get Fish Lower On The Food Chain

Unfortunately heavy metals have really polluted a lot of water sources and these are prone to storage in fish. When big fish eat smaller fish they also get their heavy metals. So it’s best to eat smaller fish and fish from the best sources you can.

7) Use Glass, Ceramic, And Stainless Steal Tupperwares And Bees Wax Cloths For Food Storage

This will help you avoid plastic and the micro-plastics and endocrine disruptors that come along with plastic. If you do use some plastic, please avoid putting hot food in plastic, because the plastic chemicals are more likely to leach into your food when it’s hot. Also I recommend using stainless steal or glass water bottles as well.

8) Get A Water Filter

Our tap water is filled with so many toxins like fluoride, pharmaceutical drugs, heavy metals, and more. Therefore a quality water filter is one of the best investments you can make for your health and one of the best ways to decrease your toxin exposure. A good shower filter is a nice bonus too! If you want to learn more about what’s in tap water and why you should probably get a water filter, check out this post!

Works Cited

1. “Do Berkey Filters Remove Lead?” Berkey Filters. Accessed 7 July 2021. https://www.berkeyfilters.com/pages/do-berkey-water-filters-remove-lead

2. Jaishankar, Monisha et al. “Toxicity, mechanism and health effects of some heavy metals.” Interdisciplinary toxicology vol. 7,2 (2014): 60-72. doi:10.2478/intox-2014-0009

3. “Lead Fact Sheet.” Water Quality Association. Accessed 7 July 2021. https://www.wqa.org/Portals/0/Technical/Technical%20Fact%20Sheets/2016_Lead.pdf

4. Schoenfeldrd, Laura. “Is Glyphosate Behind Your Gut Symptoms?” Laura Schoenfeldrd. Accessed 7 July 2021.https://lauraschoenfeldrd.com/glyphosate-gut-health-symptoms/

5. Katja. Savory Lotus. Accessed 10 June 2021. https://www.instagram.com/savorylotus/

6. Mercola, Joseph. “MIT Scientist: How Glyphosate Destroys Your Health.” The Defender. 30 June 2021. https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/stephanie-seneff-toxic-legacy-glyphosate-destroying-our-health/

7. Hyman, Mark. “The Harmful Effects of Weedkiller (Glyphosate) On Our Health And Our Future.” Dr. Hyman. Accessed 7 July 2021. https://drhyman.com/blog/2021/06/30/podcast-ep177/

8. “Is Coffee Good For You? | The Pros and Cons of COFFEE!” YouTube, uploaded by Health Coach Kait, 18 February 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HigBQEV5mqg

9. Corrine. “Coffee & Pesticides: What’s in Your Coffee Can Hurt Your Health.” Tox Free Family. Accessed 15 June 2020. https://toxfreefamily.com/pesticide-free-organic-coffee/

(Picture from Holistic Dental Institute)

For decades fluoride has been praised for its abilities to strengthen teeth and prevent cavities. It’s even been added to a majority of drinking water since the 1940s in efforts to improve peoples’ dental health.

However when you start digging into the research something about this narrative doesn’t quite add up. That something is actually many things. For starters “…fluoride is a waste product that is so toxic it is not allowed to be dumped in our landfills, and yet somehow it is routinely added to our water supply.” (1)

The types of fluoride added to our water over 90% of the time are silicofluorides. These silicofluorides are 85x more toxic than the naturally occurring calcium fluoride. (2) Silicofluorides are a toxic waste product from the phosphate fertilizer industry. (2, 3, 4, 5)

Rather than pay $1.40 per gallon (or more depending on how much cadmium, lead, uranium and arsenic are also present) to neutralize and properly dispose of silicofluorides, phosphate fertilizer companies sell non-neutralized toxic silicofluorides to the government to add directly into the public drinking water. (2, 5)

In other words, your tax dollars are going towards poisoning your own drinking water, because greedy phosphate fertilizer companies don’t want to pay to properly dispose of the chemicals they are releasing.

What Is Fluoride?

I’ve told you that silicofluorides are a toxic waste product of the phosphate fertilizer industry, but what about fluoride as a larger group, what’s that?

“Fluoride is the anion (negatively charged ion) of the halogen element fluorine.” (6) Fluorine is a pale yellow, highly toxic, and corrosive gas that is rarely ever found in nature due to its instability. Fluorine (like all halogens) is missing 1 electron in it’s valence shell, this is what makes it so unstable. (6, 7, 8, 9)

To gain stability, halogens must acquire another electron. When fluorine does, it becomes fluoride (F⁻). The negative charge of fluoride leads it to bind with positive charged elements in nature like calcium ions (Ca²⁺) to make calcium fluoride (CaF₂). (7, 8, 9) Silicofluorides contain silicon, fluoride, and sometimes another element (like sodium).

Many pro-fluoride organizations claim that nature thought of adding fluoride to water first. In this statement they are referring to calcium fluoride which is found in some water in nature. However the fluoride in our water, silicofluorides, are quite different. (9) Studies show that calcium fluoride doesn’t dissolve easily in water and less than 2% of it gets absorbed by animals and most of that is excreted in the urine. On the other hand silicofluorides dissolve much easier in water and a greater amount is absorbed. (9) This is one reason why silicofluorides are 85x more toxic than calcium fluoride. (2)

However even calcium fluoride is not benign. Studies show that animals given calcium fluoride developed mottled teeth, aka dental fluorosis. In dental fluorosis, fluoride causes calcification of the enamel which gives a white chalky appearance at first, which gradually turns brown, as seen in the picture below. (9, 10)

A few more notes about fluoride:

• It’s a cumulative toxins meaning it accumulate in the body (9)
• The FDA classifies fluoride as a prescription drug (2, 11)
• The National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academies classifies fluoride as an endocrine (hormone) disruptor stating that “fluorides have the ability to interfere with functions of the brain.” (3)
• The US Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) lists fluorides “among the top 20 of 275 substances that pose the most significant threat to human health.” (9)
• In Australia’s National Pollutant Inventory (NPI) “fluoride compounds were ranked 27th out of the 208 ranks.” (9)

Now that you know what fluoride is and some of the concerns about it, lets look at some specific negative health consequences of fluoride.

Health Consequences Of Fluoride:

1) Decreases Intelligence

Fluoride is a neurotoxin that has been shown to cross the blood brain barrier, decrease mental function, and decrease IQ. (1, 3, 9, 12) There is an “overwhelming weight of evidence that fluoride is neurotoxic. These include one hundred thirty human brain studies; two hundred forty-one animal brain studies; thirty-three cellular brain studies; and thirty review studies.” (3)

As far as IQ goes, as of 2019, there were 60 studies on IQ and fluoride, 53 of which showed a lowered IQ in children in communities with high fluoride exposure compared to communities with lower fluoride exposure. The average decrease in IQ was 7 IQ points. (3)

“It should be noted that a shift downward of five IQ points in a large population would halve the number of very bright children (IQ greater than one hundred thirty) and increase by over 50 percent the number of mentally handicapped (IQ lower than seventy). Such a downward shift would have both huge economic and social consequences for a country like the USA.” (3)

A decrease in IQ in children has also been correlated with an increased fluoride consumption of the mother during pregnancy. This was found in two separate studies one in Canada and one in Mexico. (12) In the Canadian study “An increase of 1 milligram of fluoride was associated with a decrease of almost 4 IQ points, where the overall association was driven by boys.” (12)

The Mexico study looked at 299 mother-offspring pairs and found a strong correlation between “fluoride exposure to the pregnant women (as measured in their urine) and lowered IQ in their offspring at age four and again at six to twelve years of age. Subsequently, in 2018, a study reported that the lowering of IQ in the same cohort also occurred in an earlier age range (one to three years).” (3)

Fluoride has also been linked with ADHD. “A 2015 study found a relationship between the prevalence of ADHD in the U.S. and fluoridation status by state; the higher the percentage of the state fluoridated, the greater the prevalence of ADHD.” (3)

In another study, rats exposed to fluoride in water were found to store fluoride in their brain tissue indicating that fluoride can pass the blood brain barrier. And high concentrations in the brain induced behavior changes. (12)

2) Calcifies The Pineal Gland

Fluoride has also been found to accumulate in the pineal gland resulting in the formation of phosphate crystals, aka calcification. (13) The pineal gland is a tiny gland in your brain responsible for the production of melatonin, maintaining the circadian rhythm, regulating the onset of puberty in females, and protecting the body from cell damage caused by free radicals. (13)

Once the pineal gland is calcified it becomes under active and struggles to maintain its normal functions. (13) This can lead to:

• Trouble sleeping
• Early puberty onset for women
• Breast cancer
• Increased oxidative stress
• Alzheimer’s Disease

(13)

“Even the first published fluoridation safety experiment based in Newburg, New York, supported the early puberty claims. As the authors uncovered, girls living in a fluoridated community reached puberty five months earlier than girls living in a non-fluoridated community.” (13)

The pineal gland is also called the third eye and associated with our connection to the divine in many cultures. A blocked third eye (aka a calcified pineal gland) is said to lead to confusion, uncertainty, cynicism, pessimism, and a spiritual disconnect. (14) Where as an open third eye is associated with telepathy, clairvoyance, lucid dreaming, astral projection, and a greater spiritual connection. (13)

Due to the mass fluoridation of water, most people over the age of 18 now have a calcified pineal gland. (13)

3) Increases Cavities

Despite fluoride’s mass claims to improve dental health and prevent cavities, it doesn’t do either of these. In fact some studies show it may actually make both worse!

“The largest study of tooth decay in America (by the National Institute of Dental Research in 1987) proved that there was no significant difference in the decay rates of 39,000 fluoridated, partially fluoridated and non-fluoridated children, ages 5 to 17, surveyed in 84 cities. The media has never disclosed these facts. The study cost us, the taxpayers, $3,670,000. Surely, we are entitled to hear the results.” (2)

Fluoride doesn’t prevent tooth decay, it delays it by provoking a genetic malfunction that causes teeth to erupt later than normal. Therefore in many studies the statistics are very skewed as teeth that have not yet erupted are counted as no decay. (2)

In one study, “… they claimed that the fluoridated Newburgh children age 6 had 100 percent less tooth decay; by age 7, 100 percent less; by age 8, 67 percent less; age 9, 50 percent less; and by age 10, 40 percent less. Obviously, the only reduction that really counted was the 40 percent by age 10, but the Public Health Service totaled the five reductions shown, then divided by 5 to obtain what they called ‘an over-all reduction of 70 percent.’ Had the Health Department continued their survey beyond age 10, they would have found that the percentage of reduction continued down hill to 30, 20, 0, and eventually the children drinking fluoridated water had more cavities–not less. The rate of decay is identical, once the children’s teeth erupt. In other words, this ’65 percent less dental decay’ is just a statistical illusion. It never happened!” (2)

Another interesting case is that of children from the African country of Uganda. These children have less tooth decay than American children. This is thought to be for 2 main reasons. One, most Ugandan children do not use fluoride tooth paste or have fluoridated water. And two they do not eat sugar and processed and refined junk foods like many Americans do. (15)

To dig more into the fluoride aspect, we can compare Ugandan children who live in high fluoride and low fluoride districts. “No teeth were lost due to caries (cavities) in the low fluoride district but 6 of 135 (4%) in the high-fluoride district,” report authors Rwenyonyi, et al. Ugandan children, aged 10 to 14, with similar socioeconomic backgrounds and diets, who lived their entire lives in either low fluoride (0.5 mg fluoride per liter) or high fluoride water districts (2.5 mg fluoride per liter), were examined for tooth decay by the same dentist, with results verified. ‘Surprisingly, there was a significantly higher caries prevalence and DMFT (decayed, missing, filled teeth) score in the high-fluoride district than in the low-fluoride district,’ the authors write.” (15)

Since these children had similar diets and lifestyle it leads me to believe that the fluoride played a major role in the cavity rates.

Further evidence supports this theory. For example, when looking at a different African population, we see the same results. “Children drinking 3.0 mg/L water fluoride have more cavities than children drinking .19 and .48 mg/L fluoride. In contrast, only 65% of fluoride-saturated American 10-year-olds are cavity-free and a, mere, 35% of 14-year-olds are cavity-free.” (15)

Another example can be seen in Europe. “Ireland, 73% fluoridated since the 1960’s, has a higher tooth decay rate than five other European countries that don’t fluoridate the water, according to the June 30, 2001, Irish Independent.” (15)

And another example can be seen in the “world’s largest study on dental caries, which looked at 400,000 students, [and] revealed that decay increased 27 percent with a 1ppm fluoride increase in drinking water. In Japan, fluoridation caused decay increases of 7 percent in 22,000 students, while in the US a decay increase of 43 percent occurred in 29,000 students when 1ppm fluoride was added to drinking water.” (9)

4) Increases Dental Fluorosis

I talked briefly about dental fluorosis in the “what is fluoride” section. To reiterate, dental fluorosis (aka mottled teeth) occurs when fluoride causes calcification of the enamel which gives a white chalky appearance at first, which gradually turns brown. (10, 23)

While many dismiss this as “just a cosmetic defect,” it actually predisposes tooth decay. Dr. Weston Price DDS further explained that excess fluoride in the water “even a small fraction of this concentration, when present in drinking water, greatly disturbs normal tooth and bone development, producing the unsightly disfigurement of brown stains and mottled enamel.” (8)

Dr. Price also stated that fluoride “… may ruin teeth of grazing animals, by making them so brittle that they break off.” (8)

It has long been known that fluoride is detrimental to dental health. “In 1944, the Journal of the American Dental Association reported: ‘With 1.6 to 4 ppm fluoride in the water, 50 percent or more past age 24 have false teeth because of fluoride damage to their own.’” (9)

The origins of fluorinating water came about from a dentist named H. Trendley Dean. In 1939 Dean examined the water from 345 communities in Texas. He found that high concentrations of fluoride in water correlated with high incidences of dental fluorosis. And he found that communities having about 1 ppm fluoride in the water supply had less incidences of dental fluorosis, by less he still meant 10% of the people. (9)

Based on that, Dean decided that 1 ppm fluoride in the water supply must be the perfect amount and many cities began adding 1 ppm fluoride to their water supply. However Dean’s report had left out some key facts. For instance, his report used data from the 21 cities that supported his claim, while leaving out the 272 other cities that did not show the same correlation! (9)

Later “in court cases Dean was forced to admit under oath that his data were invalid. In 1957 he had to admit at AMA hearings that even waters containing a mere 0.1ppm (0.1 mg/l) could cause dental fluorosis, the first visible sign of fluoride overdose. Moreover, there is not one single double-blind study to indicate that fluoridation is effective in reducing cavities.” (9)

Unfortunately this info has not reached much of the public and the lie that fluoride is good for your dental health has only snowballed. Meanwhile, “Currently up to 80 percent of US children suffer from some degree of dental fluorosis, while in Canada the figure is up to 71 percent. A prevalence of 80.9 percent was reported in children 12-14 years old in Augusta, Georgia, the highest prevalence yet reported in an ‘optimally’ fluoridated community in the United States. Moderate-to-severe fluorosis was found in 14 percent of the children.” (9)

5) Increases Skeletal Fluorosis

Skeletal Fluorosis is very similar to dental fluorosis. It’s also caused by fluoride calcification but in the bones instead of teeth. Skeletal Fluorosis is “a serious bone disorder resembling osteopetrosis and characterized by extreme density and hardness and abnormal fragility of the bones.” (7)

Skeletal Fluorosis can also cause joint pain and stiffness, bony outgrowths, bone fractures, and dyspnea, (difficulty in breathing because of the rigidity of the thoracic cage). (6)

“In more advanced cases of fluoride exposure, bones become held together by masses of new bone laid down in the joint socket, ligaments, and tendons. This results in the locking up of joints and permanent inability of victims to move or flex their joints. Vertebrae become fused at many places. This results in the characteristic ‘hunch back’ symptom of skeletal fluorosis,” as seen in the pictures above and below. (16)

(Pictures from SCRI Group)

Fluoride is a cumulative toxin meaning it accumulates in the bones overtime. This accumulation can alter the resorption (break down of weak parts of the bone so they can be rebuilt stronger) and the accretion (rebuilding) of bone tissue as well as the homeostasis of bone mineral metabolism. (17)

“Fluoride has [also] been shown to interfere with collagen formation in osteoblasts and chondroblasts. If, as pointed out, increased production of imperfect collagen or collagen-like protein results in mineralization of tissues which should not be mineralized, and vice versa.” (16) This leads to the previously mentioned side effects.

Research by Dr. Jolly and her team shows that as little as 0.7 ppm fluoride in drinking water led to bone deformities and Skeletal Fluorosis in India, with the occurrence and severity increasing with increasing levels of fluoride in the drinking water. (16)

“In the United States, Dr. George Waldbott also diagnosed some of the early symptoms [of Skeletal Fluorosis]… including arthritis and joint pains, as being due to the consumption of water fluoridated at 1 part per million.” (16)

More incidences of fluoride (this time airborne) causing arthritic symptoms can be found in Switzerland, Germany, Britain, United States, Canada, and North Africa. In one incident, “they had found in a brick manufacturing area about 50 miles outside of London where they reported that over 90% of the population was suffering from arthritis induced by air-borne fluoride.” (16)

6) Other Health Consequences:

Fluoride consumption has also been linked to:

• Hypothyroidism (3, 9)
• Death (12)
• Cancer (2)
• Genetic Damage (2)
• Damage To The Blood, Bone, Brain, Heart, Kidneys, Liver, Lungs, Thyroid, And Reproductive System. (1, 3)
• Hardening Of Arteries (16)
• Black Tarry Stools (9)
• Vomit (Sometimes Bloody) (9)
• Stomach Cramps Or Pain (9)
• Tremors (9)
• Constipation (9)
• Loss Of Appetite (9)
• Skin Rashes (9)
• Sores In The Mouth And On The Lips (9)
• Weight Loss (9)
• Accelerated Aging (9)
• Immune System Dysfunction (9)
• Gut Inflammation (9)

What You Can Do

The best thing you can do is to get a good quality water filter that removes fluoride. I chose to buy the Berky with the added fluoride filters, but any high quality water filter will do as long as it’s tested to remove fluoride. Remember to also avoid fluoride in products like tooth paste and mouth washes. Making your own toothpaste is a great option. I’ve been doing this for over 6 years and you can find my favorite toothpaste recipe here!

And if you want to learn more about what’s in tap water and why you should probably get a water filter, check out this post!

Works Cited

1. Griffin, Cole. “The Problem With Fluoride.” The Weston A. Price Foundation. 6 May 2019. https://www.westonaprice.org/podcast/186-the-problem-with-fluoride/

2. Shattuck, Anita. “Fluoridation: The Fraud of the Century.” The Weston A. Price Foundation. 15 May 2004. https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/environmental-toxins/fluoridation-the-fraud-of-the-century/

3. Connett, Paul. “Water Fluoridation.” The Weston A. Price Foundation. 25 April, 2019. https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/environmental-toxins/water-fluoridation/

4. “Where Does the Fluoride Added to Water Come from?” Fluoride Alert. 8 January 2012. http://fluoridealert.org/faq/where-does-the-fluoride-that-is-added-to-water-come-from/

5. Connett, Michael. “The Phosphate Fertilizer Industry: An Environmental Overview.” Fluoride Alert. May 2003. http://fluoridealert.org/articles/phosphate01/

6. “Does Berkey Remove Fluoride?” Berky Filters. Accessed 29 June 2021. https://www.berkeyfilters.com/pages/do-berkey-filters-remove-fluoride

7.”Fluoride Fact Sheet.” Water Quality Association. Accessed 29 June 2021. https://www.wqa.org/Portals/0/Technical/Technical%20Fact%20Sheets/2014_Fluoride.pdf

8. Price, Weston. “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.” California: Price-Pottenger Nutritional Foundation. 2014. Print.

9. Schuld, Andreas. “Fluoride: Worse than We Thought.” The Weston A. Price Foundation. 14 April 2004. https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/environmental-toxins/fluoride-worse-than-we-thought/

10. “Mottled Enamel.” The Free Dictionary. Accessed 29 June 2021. https://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/mottled+tooth

11. “Nutrient or Drug?” Fluoride Alert. Accessed 29 June 2021. https://fluoridealert.org/researchers/fda/drug/

12. Aggeborn, Linuz and Öhman, Mattias. “The Effects of Fluoride in Drinking Water.” The University Of Chicago Press Journals. Accessed 29 June 2021. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/711915

13. Krol, Casey. “Fluoride’s Effect On The Pineal Gland?” Truth About Fluoride. 17 June 2021. https://truthaboutfluoride.com/fluorides-effect-on-the-pineal-gland/

14. Murphy, Andye. “The Pineal Gland and The Third Eye Chakra.” Gaia. 26 February 2020. https://www.gaia.com/article/pineal-third-eye-chakra

15. Kopf, Carol. Fluoride Dangers. 11 December 2005. https://fluoridedangers.blogspot.com/2005/12/fluoride-causes-cavities.html

16. “Aging the Bone: The Degenerative Effects of Skeletal Fluorosis.” SCRI Group. Accessed 29 jUNE 2021. https://www.scrigroup.com/limba/engleza/100/Aging-the-Bone-The-Degenerativ43711.php

17. Krishnamachari, K A. “Skeletal fluorosis in humans: a review of recent progress in the understanding of the disease.” Progress in food & nutrition science vol. 10,3-4 (1986): 279-314.