Toxins... Oh Noes!

Every day we get threads on detoxes aiming to rid the body of these mysterious toxins.

What exactly ARE toxins, and should we be worried about them?

You need to read this, or failing that, the main points I've summarised below.

http://fitnessreloaded.com/most-common-food-toxins/



The dose makes the poison. Small doses of "toxic" substances can be quite harmless. We are prone to worrying needlessly.

Detoxing does nothing to reduce these toxins.

What are the 4 most common toxins?

• Lead - highly monitored; “dietary intake of lead by a 2-year-old child has dropped more than 90 percent since 1979";
• Methylmercury - mostly found in a few forms of seafood; The FDA is currently revising their 2004 guidelines for pregnant women in order to encourage them to eat more fish!
• Pthalates in plastic - there is no evidence of any harm done to anyone
• Pesticides - 95% of pesticide residues are less toxic than caffeine!

But what about the children??? “People are exposed to a lot of different compounds but we know that eating a really good diet during pregnancy is absolutely critical and has enormous beneficial effects, that taking prenatal vitamins is very beneficial and probably the key thing in terms of a child’s development is stimulation of the child. Read to your child. Play with your child. Talk to your child. All those things are just incredibly important and probably have much more effect, positive effect than these chemicals are having negative effects."

After spending more than 15 hours researching for this article – The author came down to three conclusions:

I’m much safer than I thought I was.
Still, I should keep washing my fruits and vegetables for pesticide residue. This is common sense.
I should keep an eye on but not necessarily worry about food toxins. Instead I can put my mental resources somewhere else. Let me expand on this.
I feel that even though our food is getting safer, our toxicophobia is getting worse.

Toxicophobia: An insane or greatly exaggerated dread of poisons.

Put your energy into worrying about real issues that matter. The Nepal earthquake. The violence in Nigeria. Genital mutilation. Sexism.

Stop wasting everyone's time and your own money on detoxes and phobias that do nothing to help anyone.