Episode 50 of the Living Life Well Show: Avoiding Toxins in Cooking
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[00:00:00] Welcome to the Living Life. Well show the intersection of God's word, today's science and healthy living with common sense application, all based on the truth of the word of God. I'm your host, Dr. Jon Skelton. Now let's get straight to the truth.
Jon: All right. Welcome back to the Living Life Well Show Today I want to talk about how we can avoid toxins when we're preparing food at home. We know when we go out to the restaurant, we don't always have our choice of, what is used to cook, whether the foods are fresh or frozen, maybe, what.
Oils they are or aren't using. And so we have more control when we're at home. What I really wanted to talk about is our exposure to, [00:01:00] unintended chemicals that can come in by the way we store, prepare, and, buy our food. So today what we want to talk about is. Organic. Is that really the way to go?
Do we really need to buy everything organic? You absolutely don't need to buy everything organic. Some, fruits and vegetables have their own natural defense against the pesticides the environmental working group, has a, list they update yearly, with the amount of toxins in our fruits and vegetables that are non-organically grown. And so when they look at that, there are, the dirty dozen. And the Clean 15. So the dirty Dozen being, the 12 that you really want to buy organic.
The Clean 15 are the ones that have the most resistance to pesticides and chemicals in our environment. [00:02:00] What does buying organic really mean? Well, honestly, it can mean not a lot. Okay. Because in today's agricultural, we have, spray , especially out here in West Texas where, you have, airplane sprayers, applying pesticide and with our winds and those things that can carry those pesticides.
Over to the organic farmer that's next door, down the road, you know, few hundred yards, maybe even a mile away, depending upon, how windy it is and what the conditions are, when those pesticides are being sprayed. In addition, if a organic farm is really near, another farm that has some significant runoff, particularly when you're talking about cattle and swine.
You can have runoff into that property as well. They see this quite a bit in California. You notice this quite often where you've got, two, big industries. A traditional farming industry [00:03:00] that's using a lot of, chemicals to help, increase yield, and then you've got the organic farmer that's literally next door.
And you will see a lot of runoff, with that association. So just going organic isn't always, going to eliminate your exposure to toxins. If you are able to get those heirloom seeds, those, non, genetically modified, seeds, then you can, if you have room, plant at your home and do those things again.
Those same things would apply if your, neighbor is, applying a ton of fertilizer to their yard, and you're right there next to it. There will be some leaching, into the soil that's why I really like raised beds, for that. Particular aspect. Spray obviously isn't as much of a concern, if you're living, within the city limits if you're out in the country maybe.
It just really kind of, depends on where you are. But you can do those raised beds, [00:04:00] and. Help to eliminate that leaching into the soil by bringing in, fresh, organic soil. Again, there's gonna be some trust and faith in that this actually is organic and what it says, over time, you can develop that for yourself, by composting and doing different, techniques at home to really help to make that soil that you're planning in as good as possible. Now obviously all of us can't do that. All of us aren't going to have the time or space to dedicate to growing that.
Dirty dozen at home, nor do we necessarily have the environment to grow those dirty dozen, at home. You are gonna take some faith when you are buying from, your grocery store. If you want to use really good reputable places like Natural Grocers or Sprouts, someplace like that.
So, of course, growing, and eating organic, at least that dirty dozen is important and beneficial. [00:05:00] Avoiding seed oils and seed oils. It's much the same way as I've discussed olive oil in the past, is that it's how it's produced, right? So the seed oils are coming from plants, but the way that they're processed and made to be, quote, shelf stable.
Creates that toxic environment. You can get some seed oils that are quote, clean. But again, it's that aspect of being able to verify and do those things. That's why I really recommend, olive oil, the extra virgin, the Cold Press. First press, cold Press. If you want to go, one step further, looking to California for that.
They have a certification there. That is, gonna give a little extra, reassurance as well, that is also going to help to eliminate your toxin exposure when you're cooking at home. Now, [00:06:00] there's some other things though that you need to think about as well. Storing your. Food. People talk about what do I need to store it in?
Can I store it in plastic containers? Can I store it in plastic wrap? Can I, store it in aluminum foil? Do I need to store everything in glass or metal what do I need to store it in? Storing it can be important. When we're looking at aluminum foil, if aluminum foil is touching anything else that is metal within your refrigerator.
Yes, very well. There could be some leaching into that food. So anytime you're ~l ~using aluminum foil as a, potential covering or, preserving, leftovers or waiting for meal to heat up later, you do wanna make sure that you are free of it touching. Any other metal surface because sometimes there can be conduction which allows aluminum to leach in.
But again, this is, [00:07:00] something that typically nowadays, not a whole lot of people are using aluminum foil. Mainly what we're using is plastics, a lot of the plastic Tupperware containers are what we typically store things in. Now, the storage of it can lead to some, toxin, introduction, even in a cold environment.
However, it's more when you take it. And heat it, and are preparing it, that you're going to get that leaching of those microplastics and chemicals associated with plastics plastic wrap or plastic bags, in general. And that's when you're really going to. Potentially get exposure.
Now, me personally, I really love those steam bags. They make it really easy for me to, heat up, a bag of vegetables eat that, right away. Frequently I move those [00:08:00] into a glass bowl, to heat up in the microwave and consume 'em that way. However, I don't always do that.
Sometimes there is just the convenience factor of being able to do these things, but as often as possible, especially if you're gonna be at home and you have the resource available to you, you always want to heat in a glass container in the microwave. Now let's talk about preparing the food.
So when we're preparing food, specifically, what we're talking about here really is more the utensils, that we're using to cut with and cut. On more specifically. So when we are chopping vegetables, we can see that we actually get a lot of the microplastics that come into our body just by using the cutting board, just by the substance that we are using to prepare our food on that can then get leached in because as we cut through that [00:09:00] vegetable, cut into the board, there is a small amount of microplastics that are released. And when they did a study on carrots, it showed that a significant amount was actually in the carrot after using the cutting board. The University of North Dakota did the study and they were trying to determine how much microplastic exposure you get, when using these plastic cutting boards. And so what they did is they specifically cut carrots. Carrots may be on the higher end of microplastic exposure, strictly by the force used to cut through the carrot completely. You can get up to about 15 milligrams of microplastics.
Each time you cut, and ~then ~in total for a year, you can get about 50 grams of microplastics. Well, what does that actually mean? That's the equivalent of eating 10 plastic [00:10:00] credit cards every year if you're using a plastic cutting board. What are the alternatives? Obviously you could use glass, but probably the best is to, use a wooden cutting board.
The wooden cutting board has natural anti-microbial properties as well. And so really that is gonna be where you're gonna want to go when you're preparing your food we also talk about, you know, really avoiding microplastics and the other way is bottled water, right?
So, listen, I drink, bottled water, every once in a while as well. Generally I like to use, a BPA free container, for my water primarily, but I don't always have that choice. And so. This is about. You know, making the choices often as possible as you can to avoid those microplastics.
If you are having to drink out of a, plastic water bottle, just make sure that you're not leaving it in the sun. Anytime there's heat applied, [00:11:00] that's when you're really gonna get those. That microplastic. So as we heat in the microwave, as we would, cut, you're creating friction, creating damage, essentially heat, and you're gonna have that release of microplastics, which can then, invade your body.
Why are we so worried about the microplastics they can be endocrine disruptors and cause, issues with fertility, potentially developmental delays, behavior change, and even weakened immune systems. So for all those reasons, we really want to avoid those microplastics in our environment,
as far as cooking, what is the best rule of thumb, if it says non-stick, non-toxic, it probably is. So really the main substance that you want to use to cook is gonna be cast iron. Cast iron is gonna give you, the least amount of potential harm leaching into your food, from the metal itself. I hope, this has [00:12:00] helped shed some simple things that you can do to help, eliminate and avoid, toxins.
We're never gonna be able to avoid all the toxins, in our environment, but making some small, simple changes, throwing out the cutting board, making sure that we're heating, things in glass as opposed ~to, ~to plastic. Those are. All gonna be simple changes that can really add quite a bit of benefit when you look at it over time.
You know, last time I mentioned that I have a new program coming out in the next few weeks. Probably just right after Easter, this is gonna be 40 days, 40 days is significant. 40 days is generally enough time to make a behavior change that can last.
This 40 days program is dedicated to anyone wanting to pursue a change in their life, change in the way of going about their physical health, their mental health. Even their spiritual health to a large degree. [00:13:00] And it will be helpful for anyone trying to get off GLP ones, anyone that's trying to lose weight, anybody that's dealing with autoimmunity, this will be beneficial, for you.
If you're just generally having, joint pains and, inflammation within your body, this is gonna be for you. Now, 40 days is significant, not only for behavior change, but biblically speaking as well,
biblically speaking, when we look in the Bible, we see that 40 was used many different times we see it with regards to Noah and the flood. We see it even with regards Jonah. We see it with regards to David and Goliath even. And of course we see it with regards to Christ and his time in the wilderness.
Anytime there's 40 days, we can expect challenges. We can expect that there's gonna be some hard things, but we have a specific way that we want you to go about this during this program to help bring the Holy Spirit. [00:14:00] Into the aspect of going through these 40 days, because anytime there's gonna be success as it is shown in the Bible, you're bringing the Holy Spirit with you, and generally speaking, you're usually bringing other people along the way as well.
But that's what we're hoping to create with this 40 days program. We're hoping to create a community of like-minded people ~that are ~wanting to move forward, with getting real and lasting change just in time, for the summer, the second half of 2025, and really looking to. Up your, health, physically, mentally, spiritually, in all aspects.
So be on the lookout, for those as well. If you want more information, you can, go to our website, click on our socials, anything there that will, get you information, about that upcoming program as we get closer to it. I hope this has been beneficial. I hope this has, been somewhat entertaining and I pray that you [00:15:00] have a great week.
Thanks and God bless.
That's it for this episode of The Living Life. Well show if you like what you've heard and want to learn more or want to know how to put this into practice for yourself, go to live life well clinic.com. Until next time, this is Dr. Jon Skelton saying go out and live the truth so you can live life well.
The preceding is for entertainment and educational purposes only. It is not meant to be used to prevent, diagnose, treat, or cure any condition. The information contained in this show does not substitute the need for a qualified medical professional, nor is it meant to provide medical advice or services.
If you feel information presented in this show may apply to you, we recommend you seek out the help of a qualified medical professional who can evaluate and treat your specific [00:16:00] concerns.
