Become A Toxin Detective and Save Your Family

By Cheryl Meyer

How to be an “Army of one”.

We live in a toxic world, and our government is not protecting us from all these toxic substances.

Our conventional food is being sprayed with poison in the form of pesticides and herbicides.

Our water has all these toxins that seeped down to our water table and into our water supply, along down the toilet and other industrial chemicals that have made their way into our system.

There are over 80,000 chemicals used in our everyday products. Companies are allowed to self-regulate, so looking up those ingredients was certainly an eye-opener. Fragrances are poisons that go through our lungs and our skin. Most cleaning products do us harm whether we are touching them with our skin or whether they are off-gassing into our air.

I have decided that health is balance and that the things that throw us out of balance create disease. For example, toxic chemicals throw our bodies out of balance and cause “leaky gut,” which causes disease. The liver is the workhorse of our body and evicts all the toxins as best it can until it cannot keep up.

Be a toxin detective and search where toxins are in your life. Then, eliminate them and your toxic load and save your health.

“A Detective, or Investigator, is responsible for seeking out information and researching the circumstances of a situation to solve crimes or uncover details about a civil matter. Their duties include examining evidence.”

I want to shed light on the available tools to discover where the toxic substances are in your world. Your health depends upon them. They were where I started when I first got autoimmune disease, and lowering my toxic load was an important step back to wellness. I found hundreds of toxins in my world. I discovered that they had an unacceptable amount of toxic ingredients. And all combined, the toxsynergy [sic] made me sick.

I am proud to introduce Marilee Nelson, and Branch Basics’ new course, Toss the Toxins. I have audited the class, and it is brilliant. Branch Basics Concentrate was one of the low-toxin products I discovered when I started replacing some of the poisonous products I used before getting autoimmune disease. Please take advantage of their systematic approach (and amazing products); you will likely “feel” immediate relief by getting all those poisons out of your home. This is a huge step towards recovery with the logical system they have offered. I wish it had been available when I got sick 10 years ago.

If you have any of the symptoms on my list from my article “Signs You Are Not As Healthy As You Think”, you need to do two things:

1. Use the Toss the Toxins Course information to remove toxins from your environment.

2. Please change what you eat and follow my advice in my Eat the Rainbow article.

Most Americans are walking around feeling lousy and do not slow down enough to notice. The symptoms get louder and louder until the two-by-four comes down in the form of one of the Chronic Diseases. Best to react now.

Finally, pursue medical support from a practitioner who will “hear” you and respond to what you share with them. These medical champions have solutions for you to return to wellness.

Start to adopt the other 20 lifestyle habits that will change your health. (see my article)

If you want to learn from my detective process, which is really what my first book, It Feels Good to Feel Good, Learn to Eliminate Toxins, Reduce Inflammation and Feel Great Again, details, the book is available on Amazon and Walmart.com. I am convinced that eliminating toxins and lowering my toxic load saved my life.

I encourage everyone to be proactive about their health.

The question remains, where can you research beyond these two resources? There are some nuances to some of the tools I have come to depend on, so I thought I would offer some insights to help get you started in your new venture of being a TOXIN DETECTIVE for you and your family.

Let's start with food. But first I suggest you read my article Ditch the SAD and Stop Eating CRAP article about what Big Food has done to corrupt our food supply.

Tip

Read every label. If there are words on it that you cannot pronounce and do not know what they are, put it back on the grocer’s shelf – Do Not Buy It.

This tip has simplified my approach.

If there is an ingredient on the box, be it at the grocer, in the freezer, at a fast-food restaurant, or in a restaurant where they are not serving farm-to-table, and if I do not know what it is, I put it back, and I do not eat it.

Sugar is under 64 different names in processed foods. Some you will recognize, and some you will not. Sugar is toxic no matter what, so whether you know if it is sugar or not, put it back. If you do not know an ingredient, do not eat it. You do not need that poison in your body. Sugar negatively impacts every cell in your body and your brain. So please put it back and do not eat it. Period!

If you cook and use quality whole-food ingredients, a little sugar is not the problem. Instead you want to avoid the enormous amount of sugar hidden in all the Big Food products.

Next, have poison grown right up in the plant, and then more poison is used to get them out of the plants? Corn, canola, vegetable, sunflower oil and peanut oil are all GMO (genetically modified) oils, meaning they either have BT Toxin grown right up in the plant or have been heavily sprayed with Glyphosate, which is Round-up, and which we now know causes cancer. That is a HUGE red flag and another great reason to avoid processed food. I will not even dignify it by calling it food because it is all fake, and nothing is real about this imitation food.

Suppose you follow my advice to not buy it when you are unfamiliar with the ingredient. In that case, you also avoid all the synthetic vitamins in the food that your body cannot utilize and all the synthetic chemicals that make this foodstuff look, smell, sound, feel, and taste like the real thing. It is a dupe, and there is nothing real about it. These ingredients give your body no operating code to function on, and you not only do not need them but they can also harm your body. You need the real thing from real organic, whole foods.

Avoid MSG that is in processed food. It is now marketed in processed foods under 90 names.

I could list them all here, but if you follow my rule, you do not have to remember or check this lengthy list. You do not know what it is, so you will not eat it and put it back on the shelf. It is a neurotoxin, so it damages our brains. It has been connected to autism. It is an Umami that Big Food adds to their food to addict you and to hook you in—another layer of addictive ingredients. You will be fine if you become a smart shopper and do not eat processed food with these unknown ingredients. Easy peasy. One of the terms that MSG hides under is “Natural Flavors.” I do not know what that means, do you? I have discovered that it is often MSG, but not always. So, call the company if you see natural flavors and do not want to discard the product. Do not give up. Sometimes they do not want to disclose that it IS MSG so that they can be rather cagey about it.

But let me give you an example, and since this had a happy ending, I am even going to share the brand. I teach a Ditch the SAD (Standard American Diet) class, and on my snack list, I have recommended a Keto bar called Good Fats. It has Erythritol in some, which I cannot eat because it is like a baby laxative in my body, so I only eat the ones that do not have that sweetener. Others are not bothered by it. There has been controversy about Erythritol recently. Although the headlines said do not eat it, as it causes heart disease, I now read that the study is misconstrued, so the jury is out on the sweetener. However, looking closer at the ingredients for the bars I cannot eat, I discovered the old “natural flavors" term again.

So, I wrote Good Fats. I got a sweet reply that they were looking into it, but nada. I wrote again. I wrote a third time and got a sweet reply that customer service had not heard back yet, and they replied that they had not forgotten me. Several requests later (I will admit I was getting very annoyed), I finally got my answer and was pleasantly surprised. They had written to all their suppliers to make sure no MSG was used anywhere by any of them. It got a thumbs up. I appreciate that they took my request seriously and passed it on to all my clients. My clients love these snack bars. Win.

As an FYI, I eat very little that is processed. What processed foods I eat have real ingredients spelled out on the box and nothing suspicious, like products from Simple Mills.

Now onto the next area you will find toxins, real whole foods. Conventional crops are heavily sprayed with pesticides and herbicides. “Cides” means poison. I do not want them in my body; they trigger a "flare", which means inflammation. (I have no more pain from my autoimmune disease, but I still have the disease.) So why would anybody want to eat poison purposely?

The first this I found was the EWG Dirty Dozen/Clean 15 lists. They change yearly and list the 12 dirtiest foods you really MUST buy organic and then the cleanest 15 of the batch that are ok. So if you do not want to always spend the extra money on organic, these items are safer.

I start advising new clients to avoid the Dirty 12. I give them cards with lists and GMO items, which I will get into immediately.

Here's the rub, Broccoli fell off the clean list last year, it is not on the dirty side of the card, but it is no longer considered “clean”. I have found another great research database called “What’s On My Food” by the USDA, where I look up produce. And, yikes, broccoli has 33 different pesticide residues on it.

3 are known or probably Carcinogens

16 are suspected hormone disruptors

6 are neurotoxins

6 are developmental or reproductive toxins

9 are Honeybee toxins(no bees, no pollinators, no crops)

I certainly do not want these toxins in my body, so not, whenever possible, I buy organic broccoli. Look when you are visiting this site at what poisons are on each of our veggies and our fruits.

This is the link to the What's on my Food Website, where you can look up the pesticide and herbicide residues on the plants:

www.whatsonmyfood.org/

There is a drop-down menu to the right. I have discovered that some items are not on their drop-down menu but are in their database. I search google with "what's on my food and then the name of the veggie or the fruit and then see what pops up. This is a great guide to encourage you to buy everything organic if possible. It is eye-opening to learn just how many toxins are on each food.

So far, we have discussed pesticides and herbicides and the Dirty Dozen/Clean 15. However, we have not discussed the full list of GMOs ( Genetically Modified Organisms -things that would never have happened in nature by have changed due to science.)

These items have toxins grown right into the center of the plant, or they have been engineered to be “roundup” ready, which means they get drenched in this carcinogenic substance. I avoid all of these. Instead, I look for the Non-GMO Verification label on the packaging.

For real foods, be aware of which ones are problematic and avoid these unless you buy organic.

Those foods would be:

• GMO Summer squash (all)

• GMO Rice

• GMO vegetable oils

• GMO corn

• GMO alfalfa

• GMO cotton (Remember toxins go through the skin)

• GMO Yeast

• GMO peas

• GMO sugar beets

• GMO tomatoes (Conventional tomatoes are also heavily sprayed, so ONLY buy tomatoes organic)

• GMO salmon (They are much bigger and nastier, and if they escape, they could dramatically wild salmon fishies)

•GMO soy (93% of soy is GMO

• GMO potatoes

• GMO apples (the blossom is sprayed, then grown with BT toxin right in the plant, a double whammy.

• GMO papaya (Only Hawaiian after a crop was almost devastated by bugs)

And the most insidious

GMO Wheat - all conventional wheat products are drenched in Glyphosate, and none is washed off. It is in bread, crackers, and cookies - and it is drenched because, in addition to killing bugs, it puts the plant under stress, so the growers get a much bigger yield from the fronds. DO NOT eat conventional wheat products. Only organic. Organic is starting to be more available.

Congress did not pass a law that would have labeled GMOs on processed foods. Instead, they protected industry in what is known as the Dark Act, keeping this information hidden, so be aware and avoid them all. This is all done for gaslighting. They do not want you to know, while the Big Chemical and Big Food companies make a fortune.

There are also a couple of apps to scan products on your phone that will highlight toxins and help you decide whether or not to buy a product. One is Skin Deep/Healthy Living App by EWG.

You can scan a QR code and get the important information. There is also a new app that another health coach shared with me called YUKA. Made Safe is a company that does a rigorous process to ensure safety. Https://madesafe.org/

When you go to the EWG.org site to manually look up a product, have your product at hand. Start at the bottom of the ingredient list (the smallest amount in the product) and work your way up. Any toxin is too much toxicity. When you come across an undesirable ingredient, stop and know that this is a product you will want to replace with a better lower toxin product. And get it into a bin and out of your home.

So, let us talk about how to use EWG, since they offer much more than just their Dirty Dozen/Clean 15 lists.

EWG.org will become your friend. Utilize it. They have put together an amazing database. It has gotten more user-friendly over the last few years. However, there are many problematic ingredients. EWG has an enormous database, and you can look up whole products for a toxicity rating or look up ingredients if the whole product is not listed there. It can be tedious to look up the individual ingredients, but it is worth it.

They have a major database for foods, cosmetics, chemicals in household products, water filter systems, etc. It would be best to look up all your cosmetics (Skin Deep), liquid and aerosol cleaning products (Healthy Living), personal care products, etc., in their database, and there is a Food Data Base. Remember, Big Chemical, Big Pharma, and Big Food do not want you to know what is in their products, so there are some conflicting views as to the accuracy of the data in the EWG data Base. Please do not believe them. EWG does meticulous research. Protect your body and your family, and opt out of any ingredient or product that EWG calls out for toxicity. And always be diligent in looking things up before you buy.

A few things to know:

• Food companies can use all these toxic and fake ingredients that Food Engineers have formulated for them.

• Cosmetic companies self-regulate. Look up ingredients on your products. What they consider acceptable is often not what I want on or in my body.

The first product I looked up was my foundation from a very expensive French company. It was a 9 on a 10-point scale.

Yikes, it opened my eyes to the importance of being a diligent investigator.

• Fragrances are all poison. Whether you are spraying it on your body, in your room, or using products with pretty smells, they are poisoning you. Whether it is laundry detergent, fabric softener, shampoo, cosmetics, cleaning supplies, etc., you do not want it. Even the one that takes scents out of the room is toxic.

And since I cleaned up my food and as many toxins as possible in my home, I rarely have body odor, so I do not need fragrances. Body odor is a sign of toxic load.

Chemicals in cleaning products are often not disclosed under the banner of a proprietary blend. Many refused to share their ingredients with EWG. If they do not disclose, do not use them. You have a right to know what you use in your home and your body.

What do you use instead?

Branch Basics has a recommended list of products on their website that they do not manufacture but personally use and have researched to be clean, so check out their list before choosing a replacement item. I also listed products I used as replacements when I went through this process noted in my first book. The first foundation I chose was discontinued, and I chose a replacement item recommended by the team at Branch Basics. I love it.

The Big Corporations have so much money that they pay universities and scientists to do studies and dictate their required results upfront. Since Universities rely heavily on large amounts of their funding to come from Big Corporations, they oblige.

Toxin detectives

These are a couple of examples given by Calley Means, Stanford grad, Harvard MBA, and Coke Corp Executive turned whistleblower: In 1963, the Sugar Research Foundation (SRF paid Harvard researchers the equivalent of $50,000 to refute sugar's role in heart disease, and researchers happily produced the results they were hired to produce. In stead of blaming sugar, Harvard and the SRF blamed cholesterol and saturated fat. Today, after 60 years of fat-is-bad food policy, Americans have never been in worse health, with no shortage of studies vindicating fat — including saturated fat.”

“Soda companies spend 11 times more on nutrition than the NIH. Eighty-two percent of independently funded studies show harm from sugar-sweetened beverages, but 93% of industry-sponsored studies said no harm (this info is from the excellent book Food Fix).

"95% of the panel who created the most recent nutrition guidelines had financial tied to food or pharmaceutical companies"

And this quote from the National Institute of Health-

"Industry funding of nutrition-related scientific articles may bias conclusion in favor of the sponsor-s products. with potentially significant implications for public health."

Https:pubmed.ncbi.nim.nih.gov/17214504/

This is true of commercial products as well.

Stephanie Seneff, PhD researcher at MIT, has been studying to understand the root cause of autism. She made an observation I want to share with you because I believe it puts toxins into perspective. Individual ingredients are studied for toxicity, but that is not the full story. It may be that many poisons in small qualities combine in a toxic cocktail that is far more damaging to our body and interrupts our health. Each toxin, each pesticide, and each herbicide has been studied individually. Still, in our world, no one has studied what happens when they combine with others in our environment or our bodies. A toxsynergy happens when they get together to create havoc in our bodies. Try to avoid as many toxins as possible, even in small amounts.

And this quote from the National Institute of Health“Industry funding of nutritionbias conclusions in favor of sponsors’ products, with potentially This is true of commercial products as well.

I love Marilee’s approach in the Toss the Toxins course. Get them out of your house. Do not let the toxins or the off-gassing from the toxins impact your health.

Final Thoughts:

I would tell you that you only need to look all your products up once, but formulations change, so you might want to review them every so often to ensure that what you are using is still safe. Being diligent about toxins is important to your long-term health, whether in your food, cleaning supplies, personal care products, cosmetics, or the air you breathe. Our government is NOT protecting us, so please be vigilant, research, and care for your body and your family. Your body is the only place you have to live; you want it to be as healthy as possible for the rest of your life.

We each can make better decisions for our lives and our families. So I am asking you to be an agent of change and to become An Army of One.

1. Spread the word.

2. Join the movement.

3. If you are a parent, join Moms Across America.

4. Vote with every product you purchase.

5. Call your congressperson and senator often and demand cleaner air and water, that we ban toxins in our food and label GMOs, and control Big Pharm from price gouging. Do not call once. Call often. Be active. We do not have to take it anymore. Make yourself heard.

6. Support EWG, The Organic Consumers organization, Cornucopia, or other fine organizations working on our behalf to educate us and fight for our health.

7. Knowledge is power. We need to support these organizations to keep us informed.

8. Purge the toxic substances from your life, one by one, until they are gone. The Branch Basics Teams’ “Toss the Toxins” approach will save your home and your air.

9. Follow the doctors and other experts I list in my first book, “It Feels Good to Feel Good,” for constant updates that will impact your health. Then, go to their website and join to receive their newsletters.

10. Please share your knowledge, but realize each of us gets to decide for ourselves what to do. You can only change what you do and be the change you want to see. You can be an example.

11. Educate your children to make better choices. Their lives depend on it. They are little pitchers and will mimic what they see you do.