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Eliminate toxic contaminants from your diet to maximize health and longevity, doctor says
Maintaining a healthy diet involves two things: getting the right stuff and not getting the wrong stuff.
Sometimes its easier to think of the things we need to say “yes” to, to maintain a healthy balance. Lists abound. Leucine, antioxidants, vitamin D, high-density lipoproteins, etc. There are things we dont need, too. But what about the things we should actively avoid? Mel Schottenstein says, Having a healthy diet and reducing stress are great, but ingesting super-toxic substances will undo all your great work.
Avoid exposure to thousands of toxic chemicals by cutting out plastics
One of the most important ways for maximizing health and long life is to remove various toxic exposures from our lives, says Mel Schottenstein.
Shes a naturopathic medical doctor focusing on integrative oncology and integrative therapies for chronic inflammatory response syndrome (CIRS).
At my clinic, I focus on evaluating the possible causes of my patients’ concerns, she says, which involves removing obstacles and focusing on regeneration and repair.
That starts with what her patients put in their bodies.
We are exposed to thousands of toxic chemicals each day, she tells me. For example, each year we consume roughly 5g of plastic, from our foods alone. Which is equivalent to a credit card.
Note that this is different from the debunked figure of 5g per week. A 2019 study in Environmental Science & Technology estimated that annual microplastic consumption might be as high as 121,000 particles, including the ones we breathe in.
Eliminating dietary plastic isnt as easy as it sounds
Elsewhere on this site, weve written about the effect microplastics are having on our brains. But how do they get in, in the first place?
We recently reported on a study that found a staggering 3,601 chemicals from plastic packaging in blood, urine, and breast milk samples.
We eat foods wrapped in plastics and cook our foods in plastic containers, Mel tells me. They can leach invisibly into our foods, especially if heat is applied. From there, they find their way into our bodies.
Even our sea salt is contaminated, she says. Studies support this, too. One, from 2022, found microplastic contaminants in every sample of sea salt they investigated.
Sea salt is a vector of microplastics in the human body, it concluded.
Another study, from 2018 (via National Geographic), found that 90% of table salt brands from around the world contained microplastics.
Finally, Mel highlights that the foam firefighters use to spray forest fires contains polyfluoroalkyl substances, of PFAS, a group of synthetic chemicals known as forever chemicals for their stubborn ability to stick around. In other words, plastic is practically inescapable.
Whether or not were actually ingesting 5g of plastic annually, Mel points out that all these exposures inevitably add up.
But there are things we can do
If theres plastic in bottled water, avoid bottled water. You might also be able to find a table salt supplier that has a proven track record of being plastic-free.
Beyond these two changes, Mel says there are some ways we can avoid ingesting more plastic than we need to.
For example:
- Filter water before drinking.
- Store foods in glass or metal containers instead of plastic.
- Don’t reuse single-use plastics for food or drink storage.
- Use wooden cutting boards.
Plastic exposure is one of the common exposures Mel says she sees among her patients. There are more, but the ubiquity of micro- and nanoplastics was the thing she chose to highlight when asked about the best way to extend lifespan and maintain good health.
Mel Schottenstein is the director of Mitogenesis. She has completed degrees and/or courses at Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Bastyr University, the Paracelsus Clinic (Switzerland), and the National University of Natural Medicine.�
