THE JOY OF EATING DIRT

                                                                                        

               By Danelle Carvell                                                               

So many people I know feel like crap. And I'm not talking about older people. My daughter says she feels like crap every day. She's exhausted by mid afternoon, gets frequent headaches, has blurry vision at times, and deals with skin issues. She has undergone every test offered by our health care system and has spent a lot of money trying to figure out what the problem is. 

Yesterday she went to a holistic doctor and is feeling hopeful that she will finally get the answers she has been seeking for two years. Holistic doctors look much deeper and they test for problems that other doctors don't even consider...problems such a mold toxicity, parasites, candida overgrowth, and leaky gut syndrome. 

You probably heard about leaky gut syndrome. It sounds strange, but if you're not feeling well yourself, there's a good chance that you are suffering from it. After reading the book, Eat Dirt, I'm convinced that most people I know have symptoms of leaky gut because their lifestyles and the foods they eat would make it impossible for them to avoid it. 

We have a preoccupation with sanitizing everything in sight. Our food is over-pasteurized and loaded with GMOs and pesticides. We rely on antibiotics too much. The products we put on our hair and skin is loaded with chemicals. Our household cleaners are loaded with chemicals. All of these things come with a heavy price and the price is our health. 

You simply can't starve yourself of actual nutrition, eat toxic levels of processed foods, slather your body with chemical-filled products, use chemicals to clean and scent your home, and over-sanitize everything you touch without destroying your gut health. Seventy percent of your immune system is located in the gut. According to Dr Axe, author of Eat Dirt, all of the above mentioned factors plus an insufficient exposure to dirt leads to a breakdown of the intestinal wall, allowing food, bacteria and toxins to seep into the bloodstream. That's what leaky gut is.

I highly suggest you read the book yourself, but I did highlight what I felt were the important parts and I'm going to give you a breakdown of that below. For the sake of time, I'm making it a list. How many of the things below could you change about your lifestyle and food choices? And if you did change those things, would you feel better? Dr Axe believes that leaky gut is at the root of most of our health problems, including allergies, asthma, food sensitivities, diabetes, digestive diseases, arthritis and every autoimmune disease, thyroid conditions, chronic fatigue, autism and more.

HERE ARE SOME THINGS YOU COULD CHANGE TO FEEL BETTER 

1. Ditch hand sanitizers and use essential oils for personal products (Recipes in the book)
2. Reduce antibiotic use
3. Go barefoot and expose yourself to more dirt because the microorganisms in soil improve the absorption of nutrients, eliminate yeast overgrowth and improve bowel function.
4. Chew 30 times per bite
5. Avoid gluten
6. Take healing epsom salt baths with lavender essential oil
7. Drink chicken bone broth for its healing compounds
8. Move your body, get some kind of exercise each day
9. Stop using antibacterial products and give up your deadly addiction to sanitizing everything. Living in too steril of an environment makes our bodies vulnerable to disease.
10. Use household cleaners, soaps and detergents that are chemical-free (Recipes in the book)
11. Use makeup, hair and body products that are chemical-free
12. Eat organic or locally-grown foods that are not sprayed with pesicides, loaded with preservatives, or genetically modified. Do some research on GMOs if you don't understand. As a rule, if the package doesn't say Organic, you can assume it is GMO because they are so widespread in our food supply at this point.  
13. Avoid white and brown sugar, use natural sugars such as honey, maple syrup, molasses, agave or stevia
14. Lower your stress level. Emotional stress weakens the immune system
15. Get off unecessary medications. They all damage the gut lining.
16. Let your kids make mud pies and get their hands dirty
17. Eat seasonally and locally
18. Spend more time outdoors
19. Find other ways to manage pain besides taking a pill (CBD oil, essential oils, accupuncture, massage)
20. Eat locally-grown honey to boost your immune system during allergy season
21. Check your home for mold, especially in the basement
22. Use air fresheners and dryer sheets that are chemical-free
23. Stop eating processed, easy-made boxed and frozen foods, and start cooking from scratch.
24. Drink 8 to 10 cups of pure water each day (Buy a water purifier, don't drink bottled water)
25. Don't eat convenient bags of produce that are rinsed in a chlorine solution. If you see dirt on the produce, that is a very good thing. 
26. Learn about the health benefits of bentonite clay
27. Eat probiotic-rich foods such as kefir, yougurt and sauerkraut
28. Eat raw honey and bee pollen
29. Get a dog
30. Swim in the ocean
31. Take a good quality probiotic supplement
32. Take a soil-based supplement such as shilajit
33. Avoid emulsifiers such as polysorbate 80 and lecithin (especially found in ice cream)
34. Don't use canola, corn, soybean oil or any hydrogenated oil unless you want gut dysfunction. Switch to extra virgin coconut oil for cooking. Olive oil should not be heated.
35. Avoid deli meats with hydrogenated fats, gluten and nitrites
36. Microwave popcorn and nonstick pans contain PFOA, linked to cancer and hormone disruption
37. Take fewer showers
38. Drink raw,organic fermented milk from goats or sheep. (Or raw cow's milk from Jersey or Guernsey cows). Unorganic milks, yogurts, butters and cheeses are loaded with antibiotics given to the cows.
39.  Coconut or almond milk are good alternatives to cow's milk. Coconut is far superior to almond milk for gut health
40. L-glutamine is one of the best supplements for leaky gut (Take 5 grams of powder twice a day with meals).
41. Take digestive enzymes
42. Use almond or coconut flour instead of wheat flour
43. Learn all the foods that have hidden gluten on page 78
44. Avoid artificial sweeteners such as sucralose, aspartame, and saccharin. Avoid Nutrasweet and Equal, found in diet sodas. These synthetic sweeteners are chemically toxic and dangerous.
45. Eat organic, grass-fed beef and chicken or wild-caught fish, which are high in omega-3 fats
46. Eat more fermented vegetables and sprouted foods
47. Learn about the benefits of essential oils for relaxation and healing
48. Learn about medicinal mushrooms
49. Take blue-green algae or one teaspoon of spirulina every day
50. Do not ever use powerful weed killers such as Roundup anywhere, especially if you have children
51. Avoid chlorine in municipal water supplies and household cleaners

Learn about the damage of chemicals in your products such as sodium laurel sulfate, parabens, phthalates, petroleum-based chemicals, DEA, triclosan and a long list of others. Your favorite lotion could be damaging your gut lining, creating antibiotic resistance, and affecting your body's endocrine system, thyroid, pancreas and adrenal glands. Think about every single thing you put on your hair, face and skin. Are you polluting yourself every day?

That is a long list, and it would be expensive to do everything on that list. But small changes make a difference, and your health is worth the effort, especially if you're tired of being sick and tired.