- Eat different types of foods, implementing the colors of the rainbow in your everyday foods.
- Choose organic, grass-fed, free-range local beef/chicken.
- Eat and cook unprocessed whole foods and whole grains.
- Avoid low-fat packaged foods (yogurts, milks, etc.). Buy whole-fat instead.
- Use animal fats such as tallow, lard, bacon fat for cooking. Use virgin cold-pressed olive oil for salads. Avoid imported olive oils and buy local (California, Arizona olive oils) as they are fresher and have minimal oxidation – spoilage. The local oils are not diluted with canola oil and natural flavors. Unfortunately, there are no strict regulations on the imported olive oil and there were reports that it gets diluted with substances that are not beneficial for human’s health.
- Buy wild-caught small fish such as Alaskan salmon (canned or fresh), herring, sardines, trout, and anchovies. As fish accumulates toxic PCBs, mercury, and other chemicals in its’ fat, it is better to eat smaller fish that does not have as much fat and eats a varied plant diet instead of other fishes. Avoid bigger kinds of fish such as swordfish and shark. Also, even though tuna is the chicken of the sea and is not very big in size, it contains a lot of mercury and not recommended for expectant mothers. I generally advise to avoid farmed salmon too (Atlantic, Pacific, etc. kinds), unless you are sure that the salmon was sustainably farmed. Wild salmon is much richer in pink, almost red color, with thinner streaks of fat dividing the muscle tissue.
- Purify your water. It is very important to drink enough water – to calculate the amount of water to drink per day, divide your weight in ounces by 2. For example, 150 pound person would need to drink at least 150/2 = 75 ounces of pure water per day. Do not forget that tea, coffee, alcohol, and Soda dehydrate you. It is also important to drink clean water. When you see water pouring from your kitchen tap, you may think it is pure… Think again. We installed the whole house 4-stage carbon filter and did not regret it. Just within two weeks of setting up the new white filter, I can see it turning more and more brown. This is water we shower with, wash our dishes and clothes. That is what I can see, but over 200 chemicals, antibiotics, medications, birth control pill hormones are present in tap water cannot be seen with a naked eye. Just last year, I got a notice from Gilbert that TTHM contaminant in water exceeds the EPA limit but is still considered safe. Here is the “Total Trihalomethanes, or TTHMs, which can increase the risk of cancer and liver, kidney or central nervous system problems if consumed at a high level for many years.” According to AZCentral, “The town did recommend that infants, pregnant women, the elderly and people with compromised immune systems consult a doctor for medical advice.” The only advice I can give to any pregnant or nursing woman is to not drink contaminated water. So, it is even more important to have some kind of filter for drinking water. Avoid plastic bottles, as they leach BPA (Bisphenol Phosphate-A) into your drinking water. Use pure and not bottled water for infant formula.
- Choose organic The Dirty Dozen and The Clean 15. The Environmental Working Group has released the new list of veggies and fruits for 2017 here:
The Clean 15 can be conventional/non-organic:
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- Sweet corn
- Avocados
- Pineapples
- Cabbage
- Onions
- Frozen sweet peas
- Papayas
- Asparagus
- Mangoes
- Eggplant
- Honeydew
- Kiwifruit
- Cantaloupe
- Cauliflower
- Grapefruit
Here are the foods that should be organic (The Dirty Dozen):
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- Strawberries
- Spinach
- Nectarines
- Apples
- Peaches
- Celery
- Grapes
- Pears
- Cherries
- Tomatoes
- Sweet bell peppers
- Potatoes
- Make or buy fermented veggies. Sauerkraut, kimchi, salted refrigerate pickles, whole fat yogurt or kefir have natural and affordable prebiotics and probiotics. See my “3-Day Sauerkraut” recipe for the instructions.
- Choose clean makeup and personal care products (lotions, creams, oils, etc.). Search the complete database of the ingredients and products compiled by the Environmental Working Group here.
- Go to bed between 10 and 11 pm.