Love Your Liver – Episode

Empowering You Organically – Season 12 – Episode 107

Title: Love Your Liver

Hosts: Jonathan Hunsaker, TeriAnn Trevenen

Description: Like a city’s infrastructure, the liver has hundreds of different functions and is a connected with every part of the body.  Tune in to learn how to support your liver for vibrant health!

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“Like a city’s infrastructure, the liver has hundreds of different functions and is a connected with every part of the body.  At every moment of the day, this vital organ is involved in manufacturing, processing, and supplying vast amounts of nutrients for the 60 to 100 trillion inhabitants (cells) of the body. Each cell is, in itself, a microscopic city of immense complexity that generates billions of biochemical reactions per second. To sustain the incredibly diverse activities of all the cells of the body without disruption, the liver must supply them with a constant and uninterrupted stream of nutrients, enzymes, and hormones. With its intricate labyrinth of veins, ducts, and specialized cells, the liver needs to be completely unobstructed in order to maintain a problem-free production line and frictionless distribution system throughout the body.”  ~ Andreas Moritz ~ a Medical Intuitive and practitioner of Ayurveda, Iridology, Shiatsu and Vibrational Medicine. Author of The Amazing Liver & Gallbladder Flush, Timeless Secrets of Health and Rejuvenation, Lifting the Veil of Duality and It’s Time to Come Alive.

The liver is our largest cleansing organ in our body. It must deal with all digestive functions in the body and much more.

Your liver is your best friend; treat it with mindfulness and kindness by eating clean food of the highest quality to lessen the amount of work it has to perform to keep you alive and healthy. When you eat the SAD (Standard American Diet) full of fried foods, meat, sodas, endless cups of coffee, dairy, unhealthy, hydrogenated fats, highly- acidic foods, white flour, and sugar, you damage the liver, clog the bile ducts responsible for the digestion of fats, and create liver and gallbladder stones.

Remember, when the liver works overtime all the time, its ability to filter out toxins becomes compromised. The stones start forming, clogging out both organs and eventually suppressing the immunity of the entire body.

Cleansing the liver is highly recommended for anyone who is trying to balance their hormones. Detox is vital because our bodies are loaded with chemicals, excess estrogens, and other toxins.

There are two critical steps you can take to maximize your liver’s ability to remove toxins.

These are:

• Decreasing toxic load
• Supporting the liver through dietary and lifestyle improvements

1. Recommendations to reduce toxic load:

• Eat an organic whole foods diet
• Eat antibiotic and hormone-free meats, fish, and dairy
• Use a whole-house water filtration system
• Use a high-quality air purifier in the home or office, and open windows as often as possibl
• Avoid alcohol, caffeine, smoking, and illegal drugs
• Avoid plastics – particularly plastic wrap and plastic-lined cans
• Swap out chemical household cleaners, soaps, and antibacterial products for all-natural brands
• Use chemical-free beauty and skincare products – choose those without toxic preservatives and additives such as parabens and artificial fragrances

2. Support the liver through diet and lifestyle to promote optimal functioning:

• Decrease intake of refined carbohydrates to help heal fatty liver
• Eat liver-supportive foods such as beets, citrus, avocados, and cruciferous vegetables
• Consume high-quality protein such as eggs, fish, organ meats and gelatin found in bone broth – the amino acids found in these foods support phase 2 of liver detoxification
• Support the emptying of the GI tract by eating plenty of fiber
• Break a sweat – this should be done regularly, through exercise, saunas, and steam rooms
• Manage stress to decrease cortisol overproduction
• Use herbs that support the liver – these include chlorophyll, cilantro, turmeric, dandelion root, burdock root, milk thistle, and artichoke extract
• Take supplements that support liver function, including the B complex of vitamins, vitamins A, C, D, and E, along with N-acetyl cysteine, which is a precursor to glutathione (the master antioxidant).

3. Support glutathione production

Glutathione is one of the most potent antioxidants in the body. It protects the liver from damage and it plays a crucial role in preventing a host of conditions linked to inflammation.

Ways to increase glutathione production include:

• Gentle exercises, like tai chi or restorative yoga
• Taking stress down a few notches with calming practices like meditation, mindfulness exercises, or grounding
• Include sulfur-rich foods in the diet that support and stimulate glutathione production, such as garlic, onions, and cruciferous vegetables
• Consume foods high in vitamin C and E, like oranges, berries, grapefruit, tomatoes, peppers, sunflower seeds, almonds, and avocado
• Include selenium-rich foods, like brazil nuts, sardines, beef, and liver
• Eat bitter-tasting dark leafy greens, like arugula, chicory, mustard greens, Swiss chard and collard greens

4. Get your sweat on

One of the best ways to encourage detoxification is through the skin. Sweating is a way to help purge heavy metals and larger toxin molecules from the body.

• Sauna – infrared saunas, in particular, can help break a sweat in a healthy way
• Steam Room
• Exercise

5. Address overexposure to environmental toxins

The poly-chlorinated and brominated chemicals, like PCBs and flame-retardants, are harmful to the liver. These are present in drinking water and many foods. Other environmental toxins such as BPA and other plastic softeners like phthalates can artificially increase estrogen levels.

• Avoid plastics including water bottles and food packaging, BPA-coated receipts, and plastic flip flops
• Consider installing a high-quality home water filtration system, or start by purchasing a drinking water filter
• Use only natural cleaning products and personal care products
• Eat organic fruits and vegetables, grass-fed meats, and sustainably caught wild fish

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Episode 107 – Love Your Liver

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Jonathan Hunsaker:

Welcome everyone to another episode of Empowering You Organically. I’m your host Jonathan Hunsaker joined by my co-host, TeriAnn Trevenen.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

Hey everyone.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

So today we are talking about a very vital organ, probably one of the most important organs in your body, and that is your liver. And it’s responsible for cleansing out all the toxins and really delivering all the nutrients that your body needs to all the trillions of cells in your body. And so it’s going to be a great podcast. We’re going to talk all about your liver, how to cleanse your liver, how to support your liver and just understanding more about it and all its functions.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

Absolutely. And we’re going to start out by reading a little quote for you today by Andreas Moritz, who is a medical intuitive and practitioner of Ayurveda, iridology, shiatsu and vibrational medicine, a specialist on the liver, even has some books around the liver and the function of the liver. And this says, “Like a city’s infrastructure, the liver has hundreds of different functions and is connected with every part of the body.”

TeriAnn Trevenen:

At every moment of the day, this vital organ is involved in manufacturing, processing and supplying vast amounts of nutrients for the 60 to 100 trillion inhabitants or cells of the body. Each cell is in itself a microscopic city of immense complexity that generates billions of biochemical reactions per second to sustain incredibly diverse activities of all the cells of the body without distraction. The liver must supply them with a constant and uninterrupted stream of nutrients, enzymes and hormones.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

With its intricate labyrinth of veins, dots, and specialized cells, the liver needs to be completely unobstructed in order to maintain a problem-free production line and frictionless distribution system throughout the body.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

I know that we all know we have livers and we think about our livers, but it doesn’t get treated the same way I feel like these other organs, right? When we go to do a cleanse, we’re doing that colon cleanse. We’re doing different things for our respiratory system and our lungs to get health. We’re doing our cardio where we’re lifting to get our muscles strong or doing things to get our heart strong. I think it’s almost like that unsung hero that liver that we don’t always pay much attention to, but it plays such a vital role in our health. And I think there’s a lot of times that a lot of people are suffering from health issues that have to do with their liver being overtaxed, so to speak. So they are over-consuming toxins. Their liver is just never getting a break. It’s just constantly working overtime, overtime, overtime. And we know what that does to our bodies and our minds on a regular basis.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

If we’re going, going, going and we don’t stop, we eventually burn out. I feel like it’s the same thing with our liver. I feel like a lot of times people are just overworking it, overworking it, overworking it. And I think it’s time that we really understand how to give it a break and how to really support our liver so that it can support us in feeling the healthiest that we may have ever felt in our lives.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

Absolutely. One of the things that people don’t understand about the liver is that eating the standard American diet, which right now is full of flour, sugar, a lot of junk and garbage food, your liver has to work on overtime to process all of that junk. And not only that, but then on top of it, you’re not producing the things that you need in your liver to keep your liver healthy and your body healthy.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

If we go back to a quote that we read at the beginning, I love how it says at every moment of the day, this vital organ is involved in manufacturing, processing and supplying vast amounts of nutrients for the 60 to 100 trillion cells of the body. It’s like if you think about a car, I mean, if you’re not taking care of and maintaining your car all the time, it’s going to break down, the tires are going to wear out. It’s not going to run the way that it should if you keep putting it off, putting it off, putting it off. We’ll consider your liver like a car. If you’re constantly feeding your body with junk and not taking care of your body and doing things to help your body detox, including the liver.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

We talked about this in another podcast where we have multiple organs that detox in our body. The liver is also one of those. And so if we’re not taking care of it, eventually that car is going to break down or our body is going to break down. Now, as we talk more and more on the podcast about our bodies and health and all those things, every little part of our body matters, but the liver is a huge part of our overall health. Think about what we just read and what we’re talking about. It functions in so many different capacities to support the body and keep it healthy.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

So if you’re eating all of those garbage and junk foods that are a part of the standard American diet, your liver is on overtime, it’s not getting what it needs, and your body’s working harder to try and keep up with what you’re putting in it versus really supplying it with what it means.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

Absolutely. Some of the key functions that the liver does. I know we all think about it when it comes to breaking down alcohol, right, and helping to process that. But it breaks down alcohol and medications. It controls 500 metabolic processes, produces proteins in cholesterol, regulates blood composition and processes nutrients. And then obviously it’s detox in the blood. It produces bile. So it does so many different things.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

Well, can I stop you for a second too? Let’s talk about that for a minute. Going back to working your liver on overtime and filling it with garbage, over time if your liver isn’t getting what it needs and it’s working hard, you talked about detoxifying the blood, but your liver actually loses its ability to filter out toxins. It becomes compromised. That’s when stone start forming, clogging out organs and eventually suppressing your immune system of your entire body, so all of the immunity of the body.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

Well, I mean, you can use the analogy of the car or even your home air conditioning system, right? You’ve got that filter there. And if you don’t change it, it’s getting filled up with dirt, but then ultimately that dirt starts passing through. It can’t keep filtering it or it can’t filter as efficiently. I think the liver is just something that we don’t pay a lot of attention to when we’re feeling sluggish, when we’re feeling like there’s something that’s just not right with us, and we look at all these other things, right? Whereas, hey, let’s actually take a minute to take a step back and let’s look at what is our liver doing, and are we feeding our body and our liver the right nutrients and giving it the right breaks that it needs to actually break down the foods to give us the nutrients we need to filter out the toxins to allow us to really run optimally?

TeriAnn Trevenen:

Well, and one other thing to mention on the liver as well is we don’t often think of this, but the liver is directly tied to hormones as well. We’re going to talk about some things that you can do to help support your liver in being healthy and strong for your body, but cleansing the liver is highly recommended for anyone who’s trying to balance their hormones, and detox of the liver is vital because our bodies are loaded with chemicals, excess estrogens and other toxins that impact our hormones. So consider if you’re having a struggle with hormonal imbalance, that you may be overloading your liver and not supporting it with detoxing it and keeping it healthy as well. So just something to think about if that’s something you’re struggling with.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

I think a lot of people struggle with hormonal imbalance. It’s probably not something we talk about nearly enough. We often just think about, “Oh, the physical aspect of my body.” But our bodies are holistic, so if we’re not supporting the physical side of our body, our emotions are going to go downhill as well. Our hormones are so impacted by how we take care of our body. So just something interesting to note there.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

Well, in talking about the hormones, I mean, it’s definitely more important as we get older, right? I feel like that’s where things start getting more out of balance. And it’s interesting when you talk about the liver having excess estrogens because we’re getting estrogens into our bodies from so many different external sources that didn’t happen before, from all the plastics that we use, the plastic water bottles, all the different testing that’s just showing that there’s estrogen overload going on. And it’s happening in both men and women, and it’s causing massive side effects. It’s affecting people in a big way.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

Again, this is our liver trying to find that balance, trying to get rid of stuff, but yet when we’re constantly giving it stuff, even though, “Hey, I’m drinking bottled water. This is good for me because I’m drinking more water.” But tests have proven that water that’s been in plastic bottles is exposed to sunlight, has a lot more estrogen in it, how long has it been in the bottle of water, all of these different things. And plus, all sorts of other things in our diet. Toxins get in there. Our liver is really trying to just find a balance.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

I don’t want to go too far down that tangent, but when you start talking about the hormones and all of that, I don’t think most people even consider that your liver regulates a whole lot of the hormones as well and the estrogen and just all of that stuff. So let’s jump right into what are some ways that we can reduce the toxic load on our liver.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

Yeah. So the first thing we’re going to go through here. I’m just going to talk about a few tips for reducing that toxic load on your liver. And you’ve probably heard some of these before, but eating organic whole foods diet, and I would add to that herbicide and pesticide-free. If you’re eating something that’s a USDA certified organic and non-GMO verified, it’s a lot less likely to have those pesticides, those herbicides. You’re eating that organic whole food, and that reduces the toxic load by cutting some of those toxins out of your diet that you get if you’re not doing that.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

Eating antibiotic and hormone-free meats, fish and dairy. Use a whole house water filtration system. And let me just say too. With some of these steps, it may be a lot to take on. And so with eating a whole foods diet, eating antibiotic and hormone-free meats, using a whole house water filtration system. Let’s go to the filtration system for a minute. You may not be able to do a whole house filtration system. It can be very expensive and very costly. You can actually get … I use Berkey Water. A lot of people I work with use Berkey Water. It’s back there. It’s in the corner. It’s that big silver thing on my counter. It filters your water and makes it very pure and clean.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

You can actually get water bottles from them if you can’t afford the big filter. You put that in your water bottle so you at least get clean water that you’re drinking every day to reduce some of that toxic overload from the toxins that are in the water. There’s things you can do. If you can’t afford a whole filtration system, start small baby steps and just working your way up to it. Same thing with eating organic whole foods diet. If you’re not doing that right now, try buying one more organic thing at the store every time you go, and then every time you go like, “I got an organic carrot stick. Okay, I’m going to do that every time moving forward. I got organic this today. I’m going to do that every time.” Slowly working it and you don’t have to do it all at once. Little changes will make a big long-term impact.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

Use a high quality air purifier in the home or office and open windows as often as possible. We get toxins through the air that we breathe. Avoid alcohol, caffeine, smoking and illegal drugs. Avoid plastics, particularly plastic wrap and plastic lined cans. I think that’s a good one not only for our body’s environment, but for the environment overall. Swap out chemical household cleaners, soaps and antibacterial products for all natural brands. Use chemical-free beauty and skincare products. Choose those without toxic preservatives and additives such as parabens and artificial fragrances.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

We just released our skincare line. We’ve been talking a lot about the fact that there are so many toxins and chemicals in our products we’re putting on our skin and we don’t even realize. We think they’re helping us, but they’re not. Going back to the plastics, I have a glass straw in my cup today, and I started reading about the environment one day and how much straws are impacting our ecosystem. And I was like, “I’m buying glass straws today.” And we’ve quit using plastic or even paper straws [inaudible 00:12:49] glass, and they’re usable. So little things that you can do to make a change that makes a lasting impact not only on the environment, but also the environment that’s in your body.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

Absolutely. I want to touch on a couple of those because you went through that list pretty quickly. You talked about eating antibiotic and hormone-free meats, fish and dairy. It’s really important. I mean, the factory farming that’s going on and the quality food that’s being fed to the cows and the chickens and the farm-raised fish it’s horrific that we actually consider what we’re feeding them as food with how many chemicals, hormones full of GMOs or GMO corn, different things like that. And you have to understand that when you eat that animal, if you eat animals, you’re eating what they eat, right? And so you’ve got to really pay attention to, yes, I understand it might save a buck or two now, but it’s going to cost you that much more in the future when it comes to your health and your body’s health. And so also consider I think, and not just I think, but the nutrient density is greater in grass-fed, in organic foods, organic meats, different things like that. You’ll actually consume less food.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

And so, yes, it may be more money per ounce, per pound, but if you consume less of it and your body gets the nutrients it needs from less of it, it actually doesn’t end up costing a whole lot more. We talked about the whole house water filtration system. A lot of things that people don’t understand is the amount of chemicals, chlorine, fluoride, things like that that are in our water that comes through our shower heads. Then we sit in the shower for 10 or 15 minutes. We put our kids in a bath for 10 or 15 minutes, and skin being our number one organ is absorbing all of this as well.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

And you can get very inexpensive filters that hook onto your shower head. So I don’t have a whole house filtration system, but I do have the filters on our shower heads. I have a Berkey in my house for drinking the water. As far as clean purified air in your house, especially during all this quarantine and COVID-19 and they’re telling everybody stay at home, it’s really hurting us health-wise because one of the biggest things that determines how much COVID-19 affects you or if you get infected with it is your levels of vitamin D. And so if you’re not supplementing with it, where else do we get our vitamin D? Is from the sun and being out in the sun. Also, the fresh air. And so if we’re stuck inside all the time, we have our windows closed, our doors closed, we’re inside for days at a time, it’s more toxic to sit there and breathe that air than to go outside and breathe whatever is going on even in your city.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

So make sure you’re opening up the windows in your house, have your doors open. I understand it’s summertime. I understand it’s hot. Yes, your bill might go up a little bit with your air conditioning, but turn it off and just open up your front door on your back door or your front window and your back window and just let some fresh air go through and cleanse your whole house. We talked about avoid alcohol, caffeine, smoking and illegal drugs. I’m going to say avoid illegal drugs as much as you can as well. Those prescription drugs really wreak havoc on our liver and our body. I’m not saying that there’s not a place for them at times, but I feel like they are used way too often.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

There’s a prescription for every ailment now.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

There is.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

[inaudible 00:16:06] making things up that don’t even exist sometimes too. It’s wild. It really is.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

Yeah, and it’s not even the prescription drugs. It’s the pain relievers that you’re getting, over the counter stuff. It’s all these synthetics that if you just take a few minutes to do some Google searches and don’t click on the first three links that come from the pharmaceutical companies but read down and look at the different herbs that you can take, the ashwagandha that you can take for the stress relief, the turmeric you can take for pain relief, but all of these different … There’s herbs and teas and tinctures and oils that will solve 95% of your day-to-day issues that you’re suffering with rather than taking these synthetic drugs.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

So I just want to go back through some of these because it’s really important. We can talk about how important all of that stuff is and quickly skim over it, or we can really just take a second and consider how much in our life do we just do out of habit, how often do we just buy this meat because this is what we’ve always bought or because it’s cheapest, or we’re used to eating this snack, or we’re used to doing this or used to doing that. And like you say, just make the little change. Buy those organic carrots, add a filter onto your shower head, get a Berkey water bottle, which I think is $20 and it has the black filter inside of it.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

I mean, there’s little changes we can make, and over time, your body you will feel a difference. You’re not going to wake up tomorrow and let’s say you’ve got the money and you go buy a Berkey and organic and this, that and the other. You’re not going to wake up in two days or three days and all of a sudden feel like superman or superwoman. It takes a process. And so, yes, you will feel better in a week, two weeks, three weeks, a month, month and a half, and you don’t have to change everything all at once, but constantly be making these changes, constantly making these upgrades. Don’t get stuck in the same routine where you’re going to continue feeling the same way that you’ve been feeling.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

Absolutely. So moving on to some of our next things, we have so many show notes today that you can go through and read, but I’m going to sum up some of the things that we have. We have about five points here that we wanted to talk about, but a lot of them repeat some of the same information that can really support a healthy liver.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

So the second thing we can do is support the liver through diet and lifestyle to promote optimal functioning. So we’ve talked a little bit about this with some of our reducing the toxic load, but really eating food that supports the liver, beets, citrus, avocados, cruciferous vegetables. Decrease your intake of refined carbohydrates to help heal fatty liver. Consume high quality proteins. We just talked about this. And really looking at what kind of meats you’re putting into your body. Eating plenty of fiber. Also, exercise, breaking a sweat, so saunas, exercise, steam rooms really helps with a healthy liver. So making sure you’re doing that. Managing your stress to decrease your cortisol overproduction.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

So there’s a lot of things around this as we’re going through some of these points where it breaks down to how are you eating, managing your stress, exercise. These are things we hear all the time, but I think we just hear it and then put it in the back of our mind. But they really are so important for our overall health as we were talking about earlier, our holistic health. And then also I want to mention taking healthy supplements.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

So we’ve talked about this many, many, many times on the podcast, but we just cannot get the nutrition that we need out of just our food alone because of our soil and the quality of our soil that we’re growing our foods and also because of the quality of our diet, so supplementation comes into play. And something I am a huge advocate for and talk about a lot is knowing what supplements you need for your specific body. I am never going to tell someone, “Take every supplement you can find.” You really can do a lot of work to get your blood tested. You can find out how your liver is functioning. What your body is deficient in is super important.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

And I always recommend when it comes to supplementation, don’t add four supplements at one time. I’m always super careful if I’m adding a supplement into my regimen that I’m doing one supplement addition at a time and seeing how it impacts my body. I carry on with the current supplement routine I’m on because my body’s used to that, but I’ll add one in and see how it feels. You really need to be supplementing with things that support your body and support your health overall. If you find that your liver function is not optimal, you can include a B complex vitamins. Vitamins A, C, D and E are some other things that you can do in your supplement regimen. So again, food, exercise, sweating, managing your stress, supplementation, things we’ve talked about many, many, many times.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

Because a lot we’re talking about here is some lifestyle changes. We’re talking about reducing the toxins kind of detoxing. And I think a lot of times we hear the term detox and you think, “Okay, it’s time to do a two-week detox. It’s time to do a one-week liver cleanse. It’s time to do a colon cleanse,” things like that. And I’m not going to knock those cleanses. What I will say though it’s like that spring cleaning of your closet or your garage that you do once a year, and it’s great. And you get in there and you tear it all apart and you reorganize it and it looks great. But then slowly throughout, excuse me, throughout the weeks and the months it starts getting cluttered again, it starts getting messy again, and by mid-summer, end of summer, it’s like, “I got to clean my garage again,” but then we don’t clean it until the next spring when it’s time to do our spring cleaning and that big cleanse.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

And what I would really encourage people to do is instead of looking at, “Let me do a big liver cleanse. Let me do a big this cleanse or that cleanse.” Make the necessary small daily changes that keep it clean all the time. And it’s the stuff that you’re talking about, about adding in the different vitamins. It’s about, which we’ll talk about, the exercise and the sweating. And it’s talking about minimizing the toxins and all of that and consider looking at different teas. We have a daily detox that we use because we’re getting away from this whole let’s crash and flush everything out in a week. And yes, it’s all great. We run optimally for the next month or two, but then it slowly builds up because we haven’t changed our habits. We haven’t changed our day-to-day stuff.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

So I just really want to stress as we’re talking about the liver, as we’re talking about detox. If you want to do week-long plans, fine, that’s all great. But consider making the necessary changes that keep it clean all year round, and that’s where you’re going to see the biggest difference and I think where you’re going to feel the best.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

Absolutely. Do you want to go through our next point?

Jonathan Hunsaker:

Supporting glutathione production. Glutathione is one of the most potent antioxidants in the body. It protects the liver from damage and it plays a crucial role in preventing a host of conditions linked to inflammation. So ways to improve glutathione production include gentle exercises like Tai Chi, restorative yoga. I mean, even just slight stretching, going on walks, just moving your body. I think we get so stuck in what’s good, what’s bad. Should I do it this way? Should I do it that way? What’s the new fad. What’s the new trend? What’s everybody putting on Instagram or Facebook now? Just move. Get your steps in. That’s going to be one of the best things you can do.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

Taking your stress down a few notches with different calming practices, whether that’s meditation, again, mindfulness exercises, even grounding. If you’re not familiar with grounding, that’s taking your socks and shoes off and go walking around in the grass. Go stand on the sand. Go swim in a natural Lake or an ocean. All of these different things help ground our bodies and it helps bring us back to balance.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

Breathing exercises too.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

Absolutely. Include sulfur rich foods in the diets that support and stimulate glutathione production, such as garlic, onions and cruciferous vegetables. Consume foods high in vitamin C and E like oranges, berries, grapefruits, tomatoes, peppers, sunflower seeds, almonds and avocado. Include selenium rich foods like Brazil nuts, sardines, beef and liver. Eat bitter tasting dark leafy greens, like arugula, chicory, mustard greens, Swiss chards and collard greens. All of these are different ways to just support your glutathione production and to increase it.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

Our next point, we’ve already touched on this. I’m just going to say very briefly, but we have a whole point that just says get your sweat on because one of the best ways to encourage detoxification is through the skin. Sweating is a way to help purge heavy metals and larger toxin molecules from the body, so sauna, steam room and exercise are a great way to do that.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

And then our last tip of the day comes back to … We’re giving it its own section here. We talked about avoiding over exposure to environmental toxins, so avoid plastics, including water bottles and food packaging, BPA coded receipts. Consider installing a high quality home water filtration system or start by purchasing a drinking water or a drinking water filter. Use only natural cleaning products and personal care products. We talked about these things. Eating organic fruits and vegetables, grass-fed meats, sustainably caught wild fish.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

So there are so many toxins in our environments, and there are people out there who are working really hard to provide high quality food, products, things like that that cut down on that. Also, I just want to say where our dollar goes to really matters in keeping those toxins down in our environment. People who are looking at sustainable eco-friendly environmentally friendly ways to keep our earth clean, just like we’re trying to keep our liver and our body clean. So I think that where we spend our money and where we spend our time impacts our health and our world overall.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

Absolutely. I’ll say one last time because I think it holds a lot of people back. You don’t need to be an all or nothing person. It doesn’t need to be all or nothing. You don’t have to say, “Well, I can’t afford all organics. I’m just not going to do it. I can’t afford a whole house water filtration system, so I’m not filtering my water. I can’t go to the gym two hours a day, so I’m not going to go to the gym. I can’t do this. I can’t do that.”

Jonathan Hunsaker:

You don’t need to do all of it. Just do a little bit and do a little bit at a time and then celebrate yourself for doing these little things. Take on just one little thing, “I’m just going to drink nothing but filtered water moving forward and that’s it.” And that’s the only change you’re going to make. And then next month let’s add another one like, “I’m only going to use clean cleaning products in my house,” or, “I’m only going to eat organic vegetables.” We don’t have to do it all right away. It doesn’t have to be overnight. You don’t have to go to get to do this, but making these little changes and then celebrating yourself for doing them.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

I think so often we’re so hard on ourselves. We feel like we have to do it all or nothing that. I’m going to go all in and then we lose motivation and we lose something. We fall off the wagon and we’re back to eating the chocolate cake and taking shots of vodka and saying, “Screw it all, right?”

TeriAnn Trevenen:

Yeah.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

It doesn’t need to be that way. So I think there’s a ton of great information in this podcast. Go check out the show notes at empoweringyouorganically.com and you can download the transcripts. You can watch this over again. You could listen to this on iTunes. You can read the show notes. Just pick one of these things that we talked about and let that be the new you for the next month. And then pick another thing and then pick another thing. And in a year you will be amazed at the difference that you will have made to your body.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

I know this because I used to be 270 pounds. I used to smoke two packs a day. I used to drink seven nights a week, and it didn’t all change overnight. It’s happened over time, and now six years later being smoke free, now being nearly a 100 pounds lighter and keeping it off, I can tell you, it’s the little changes that you do that matter that get you to where you want to be and allow you to stay there. It’s not going to happen by doing it all at one time. So pick one thing, do it for month then add a new thing and show me your before and after pictures in a year. I think you’ll be amazed at not just how much better you look but how much better you feel, how much more energy you have to play with your kids, your grandkids, all of that fun stuff. So I am done rambling. Do you have anything else you want to add?

TeriAnn Trevenen:

I think we’re good for today.

Jonathan Hunsaker:

Thank you so much for tuning in. Again, go to iTunes, subscribe, give us a high rating if you like what we’re sharing here. Give us your feedback and go to empoweryouorganically.com for everything else that you need. Thanks for tuning in.

TeriAnn Trevenen:

Thanks everyone.

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