Obesity and diabetes are the two largest epidemics our generation is facing currently. While many would like to contribute the cause to carelessness, overeating and lack of exercise, there is an underlying issue at play that needs to be strongly considered: TOXINS!!!
The toxic load we are exposed to every single day is weighing down on our body’s ability to flush out fat cells. Not just that, but because of this and many other factors, such as environmental factors, our body’s detoxification systems are not up to par. Over time, the abundance of toxins stored in our cells pile up, making it near impossible for our body to process them properly and flush them out of our bodies. What this means to you is that your body needs you to jump in and help with detoxification.
Now, please don’t let the word detoxification scare you. Detoxification is a normal function of the liver and is how our body processes and eliminates substances that don’t belong, such as toxins. It is not a fad diet or something necessary for those with addiction issues. Detoxification is a process your body performs all day, every day in order to keep your cells healthy and well, and in turn, keeping you healthy and well, too.
But as I have mentioned in this post and this post, we are exposed to an abundance of toxins and chemicals every single day. These toxins bog up our system and weigh us down, literally, causing our body’s naturally occurring detoxification system to not function as it should.
How do toxins contribute to weight gain?
External toxins that enter our bodies are stored in our fat cells. To an extent, this is a good thing because we need fat to protect our vital organs. But more often than not, we have too many external toxins entering our body and therefore, too many toxins stored in our fat cells. So what happens when this is the case? As you accumulate more toxins, your body needs more space for storage so it holds onto the fat cells. These toxins also poison our metabolism, therefore slowing it down significantly and slowing down or inhibiting weight loss.
Toxins can cause quite a bit of damage to your thyroid gland. Your thyroid gland governs your body’s metabolic rate so when it is not functioning properly, neither is your metabolism. Toxins also as damage our mitochondria, the part of our cells that help to burn energy.
Toxins have been shown to inhibit leptin signals to your brain. Leptin is the hormone that tells when you you’ve had enough to eat and makes you feel full. So when leptin signals are not triggered properly from the brain, what does this do to you? It means that you most likely feel hungry all the time, causing you to eat more food and more frequently when you typically wouldn’t.
Unfortunately, there are so many environmental toxins and poisons that we do not have direct control over. But fortunately, there are ways you can minimize your exposure to them. One of the best and simplest ways to do this is by following a safe & effective nutritional detox program on a routine basis. I feel very strongly that almost every person can benefit from detoxing so if you are struggling to lose weight, or think you may have low thyroid function and are experiencing weight gain because of it, or if you feel that you may have toxic overload (like most Americans), learn more about the toxic load and register for my 3-Day Mini Detox series here. You’ll learn even more about toxins, how these poisons affect your total health and what you can do to remove toxins from your environment and more importantly, your life.