Are there toxins hiding in your child's school lunch?; Swapping your probiotic for beets; Your special diet and the holidays
No Tru Foods substack next week-enjoy the time away from devices and spend time with family and friends! Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!
What is in your child’s school lunch?
Below I have attached the link for an informative webinar discussing research findings on the pesticides, not just glyphosate, found in school lunches. It is shocking to hear these smart ladies discuss the levels of toxins in our future generation’s food.
Link: https://rokfin.com/stream/23733/The-NEW-MDS-Moms-Doctors-and-Scientists?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
On that note, frozen pizza is a popular school lunch. According to the EWG, frozen pizzas may contain harmful chemicals. For instance, titanium dioxide, a nanoparticle color additive that may cause DNA damage, was found in Celeste Orignal Cheese Pizza. TBHQ, an immune system-harming substance, was found in Totino’s Cheese Flavored Pizza Rolls. BHA, a potential human carcinogen, was found in Bagel Bites Pizza snacks. Imo’s Pepperoni Pizza had potassium bromate, another potential human carcinogen, and Fly guys Pepperoni Pizza contained Red dye 40 connected to children’s developmental and behavioral issues.
To see the full article on the Environmental Working Groups site: https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news/2022/07/slice-health-problems-frozen-pizza-chemicals-linked-cancer-dna-and
Beets to improve microbiota outcomes
Probiotics are expensive, so I like to mix them up for myself and my clients to reduce the cost and daily supplement intake. Some foods to incorporate for gut health include fermented foods such as fermented pickles, sauerkraut, kimchee, and other fermented vegetables, and raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar (1 T. in 8 ounces of water 1-3 times daily).
But did you know that beets (not just fermented ones) can also improve your gut diversity?
A new pilot study indicated that beets, a nitrate-containing food, could improve gut microbiome outcomes within three days of consumption, with greater improvements at day 14 (Wang et al., 2022). Participants consumed beetroot concentrate mixed with water (30 ml concentrate in 250 ml water) for lunch and dinner. After the study, stool samples were analyzed.
Beets have so many benefits besides gut health. Beets offer liver, and cardiovascular support, may reduce the risk of blood clot formation and stroke, support methylation, improve exercise endurance and reduce elevated blood pressure. Beets nitrate content may even assist with depression and memory loss.
Some ways to incorporate beets: steam whole peeled beets and add to salads or serve with a pat of butter; add beets to hummus recipes, beet soup, grate, or roast them. Powdered beets or beet juice are also good options.
Other nitrate-rich whole foods include spinach, arugula, parsley, cabbage, and turnips.
Source
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030881462202951X
Your diet and the holidays
The holidays pose challenges for those who follow a special diet. If you follow a diet for your health condition, should you go off it during the holidays?
It depends…
If you follow a diet that manages a health condition and know you will feel worse if you do not follow it, stick with your diet. Oftentimes, people go off the diet not because of willpower but because of offending others.
If they get insulted or angry that you are not eating their prepared dishes filled with ingredients that will make you feel sick, that is their issue, not yours. You do not need to make a big deal or announce that you cannot eat those foods, but instead, eat the foods you can and bring a dish you know you can eat.
Suppose your chronic health condition is under control. In that case, eating small amounts of foods you usually do not consume will probably not pose much of an issue for you (except for allergies, alcoholism, and celiac disease). For instance, if you have a wheat sensitivity but have been wheat free for a year and have worked on gut health, consuming half a roll or a small amount of the crust from pumpkin pie may not pose an issue.
Ultimately, it is up to you what you choose to eat or not to eat, but no one should make you feel guilty.
On the flip side, you do not need to announce to the world that you can’t eat most of the foods prepared or complain.
Be polite and respectful of the time, energy, and effort into holiday meal preparation, regardless of whether you can eat it.
Coming up early in 2023, I will talk about detoxes, fasts, and juicing cleanses since you will see many of these on social media sites and many products to buy. I am unfamiliar with this hype, and I will tell you why.