Cavewomen Don't Get Fat (7 page)

You heard right, ladies: there are chemicals strewn all over the environment that are making us fat.

It's believed that obesogens mess with our metabolisms in ways that make our bodies favor fat production and become less efficient at breaking down fats. This is what makes losing weight so difficult for many of us. Interestingly, this toxic trigger for obesity is a particularly American one, given how chemically dependent our society has become since World War II. In many other parts of the world, people eat far less highly processed foods than we do and tend to eat locally grown and raised foods more than we do, too.

Since there's no scientific remedy for restoring your toxin-hijacked metabolism, the best medicine is prevention. And this is where detoxing your environment—and diet—comes into play.

You've likely heard the advertising phrase “Better living through chemistry!” Well, if you want to live a long, disease-free life, you need to keep bad chemicals out of your home and your food. Here are some surprising places where toxins are hiding: in the surfaces that make your nonstick pans slick; in the plastic bags, films, wraps, and containers that clog up your kitchen drawers and shelves; and in the water that flows through your kitchen tap. Toxins are also hiding in the food you're lugging home from the grocery store. (High-fructose corn syrup, my gorgeous friends, is a leading obesogen.) They can also be found in the bathroom, beauty, and hair-care
products that you use daily. They're even in your plastic shower curtain! So much for washing away the grime of the world: you're actually ingesting it through your scalp and pores pretty much every time you use a brand-name product.

Obesogens are lurking around your yard too: they're in the pesticides and weed killers that keep your grass green and turn your tomatoes red. Unless you're eating all organic foods, they're also showing up on the fruits and veggies you buy at the local grocery store.

And don't get me started on electronic devices. We worry about what those electronic emissions may do to us, but we already know that the heavy metals and plastics that our phones, TVs, and computers are made of are constantly giving off toxic gases.

Feeling overwhelmed? I know—sometimes you have to be scared straight before you take things seriously. I know I do. It's a particularly cavewomanish type of tough love, but you can handle it.

There are obesogens in the medications we take, and in the medications that are fed to the conventionally farmed animals that eventually make it to our dining tables. These compounds make us fat, ruin our libidos, addle our brains (causing headaches, depression, sleep problems), and generally wreak havoc on our endocrine systems. None of this is good for us.

Let's face it: we're not going to give up all of our modern conveniences, but there are some easy things you can do to reduce the obesogen load in your home:

• Get rid of your nonstick cookware; instead, use cast iron, glass, and any other chemically inert cookware, such as clay, stainless steel, and copper pots.

• Toss out the plastic food containers you have and use glass ones instead. Do the same with water bottles, opting for aluminum and glass.

• Minimize eating canned goods. There's a thin layer of toxic plastic inside most cans. Fresh or frozen foods are always
better than canned in terms of lowering your exposure to obesogens.

• When you buy meats, poultry, or seafood, ask that it be wrapped in paper rather than plastic. If you do buy prepackaged foods, rinse them well to wash off any plastic residue before cooking.

• Use a water filter to reduce contaminants in your tap water for drinking. A reverse-osmosis filter is best, but pitchers with carbon filters work well too.

• Try to avoid using aerosols, especially room fresheners and hair sprays. Instead, use organic hair-care products and 100 percent beeswax candles with cotton wicks.

• Use mineral-based cosmetics and organic skin-care products. Ditto shampoos and soaps.

• Use “green” cleaning products and laundry soaps. (See
page 267
for a comprehensive list of safe skin-care products and
page 269
for a list of household products to use.)

• Give chemicals the finger and switch to organic products free of all forms of BPA (bisphenol A), parfum, propylene glycol, methacrylate, benzaldehyde, octinoxate, isopropyl myristate, polymethyl methacrylate, phthalates, EDTA (ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid), all parabens, any product with sodium lauryl sulfate, butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), propylene glycol, carbomers, and cocamides.

• Get hot and sweaty in a sauna at least three times per week to facilitate the body's release of toxins. Exercise is another beneficial way to sweat and move out those toxins.

By implementing even just a few of these suggestions, you will begin to detoxify, and you will give your body a fighting chance to shed some weight. For a more comprehensive lifestyle guide to toxins, treat yourself to Debra Lynn Dadd's amazing book
Home Safe Home: Protecting Yourself and Your Family from Everyday Toxics and Harmful Household Products
.

Now that you've started to kick environmental toxins to the curb, it's time to get the dirty stuff out of your diet too.

When we work consciously to avoid ingesting toxins, we prime our bodies to lose weight, lower our risks of getting hormone-related illness (such as diabetes, certain cancers, heart disease), and improve our moods, our sex drive, and, of course, our overall energy.

What we put into our bodies matters. We know that some items are no-nos because they make us fat and, even worse, sick. Every Paleo Chic woman banishes tobacco, eliminates refined sugars, and cuts way, way back on her alcohol consumption. (Of course, indulging in a celebratory cosmopolitan or margarita now and then is fine.) We also go easy on caffeine and strive to buy organic, fresh, grass-fed, and local foods whenever possible.

Here are other Paleo Chic ways to protect yourself from toxic overload:

• Eat your greens. Dark leafy greens and bright green vegetables are like free-radical-seeking drones: they're rich in chlorophyll and help keep our livers functioning at their highest capacity.

• Pile your plate with fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs in a rainbow of colors. Color indicates the presence of vitamins and minerals, and the more vibrant they are, the more toxin-fighting power they have.

• Eat organic. Believe it or not, it takes only a week of eating all-organic to allow your body to eliminate the pesticide residue that it may have built up. Even if you can't buy organic all the time, doing so as much as possible will do your body a world of good.

• Up your antioxidant intake by eating more berries, cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, bok choy,
watercress, cabbage), dark green vegetables, tomatoes, avocados, and nuts. Think of antioxidants as nature's firemen. They'll tap out inflammation, which can manifest as joint pain and skin conditions such as psoriasis and acne. They promote cell growth and help create a cellular barrier to free radicals, which are like little pinballs that seek electrons from other cells in order to make themselves more stable. These free radicals accelerate aging, initiate buildup of plaque in arteries, suppress the immune system, cause digestive disorders, and damage the reproductive organs and lungs.

• Clean up your gut. Keeping the ecosystem in your intestinal tract healthy and balanced will keep you regular and fight against low-grade infections (including yeast infections), food allergies, and other gastrointestinal ailments.

• Drink lots and lots of clean, filtered water. Nothing dilutes poisons and cleans like good old H
₂
O.

Lastly, don't underestimate the power of exercise in the fight against toxins. When we work up a sweat, we release all kinds of beneficial chemicals into our bloodstreams, while the body purges unwanted substances via perspiration. Working out also reminds us to hydrate well.

We can take a positive page from our cavewomen sisters by emulating their chemical-free lifestyles to the best of our ability. Keeping it green, whole, and fresh goes a long way toward giving our bodies a fighting chance in getting our gorgeous groove back.

F
or the past twenty-five years, it has been hammered into us, by one fad diet or another, that we have to cut carbs entirely from our diets in order to lose weight. So we immediately stop eating anything with carbs. We lose some weight, thinking,
Hey, this isn't so bad
. Then within a couple of weeks, we realize we're
starving
and could lick the food in magazine ads. We think,
One small baked potato, a few slices of a baguette, and a scoop of dulce de leche ice cream every so often won't hurt
. Before long, it's
Oh, what the hell! I'd rather be fat and sated than skinny and starving.
We're off to the races again. Our hunger is sated, and our jeans don't fit. They're even tighter than before we stopped eating carbs. So what gives?