Make your selection

Condition Food and Additives Toxicity

Condition groupToxicity

Link
http://thedeliciousrevolution.com/cleanse/cooked-food-toxins/

Condition information

Cooked Food Toxins is the unambiguous, accurate label given to the chemicals formed when foods are exposed to high heat. The five categories of cooked food toxins are unmistakably dangerous and should be avoided if not eliminated from your diet. After each toxin you will find easy ways to avoid or lessen your exposure.

Advanced Glycation End Products (AGE’s)
Internal AGE’s are formed when excess glucose molecules adhere themselves to the protein strands wrapped around fats in the bloodstream. This may not sound devastating, but these protein strands enable the fat cells to move easily through the watery blood stream. When glucose attaches to these strands they reach out to yet another protein, adhering the two together. When this happens between multiple fats in the blood stream LDL cholesterol rises. When clumps of fats stick to capillary walls arteriosclerosis begins. When the proteins of the skin are glued together in this way, wrinkles form. AGEs can be kept low in the body by keeping glucose levels at a healthy low so these reactive molecules don’t have the chance to wreak havoc on the body.

According to the leading researcher on AGE’s, Professor Helen Vlassara, M.D. of Mount Sanai Medical School, the most significant sources of AGE’s are from the food we ingest and cigarette smoking. AGE’s are formed in foods by exposure to heat and formation increases exponentially based increasing temperature and length of exposure to heat. The biggest culprits are animal fats cooked at high temperatures, but even plant foods can contain AGEs if they are cooked to the point of browning or crisping.

Lower your exposure to AGEs:

• • Avoid foods cooked at high temps; frying, grilling, and baking at high temps.
• • Choose cooking methods such as steaming, boiling, or baking under 250?F.
• • Refrain from eating foods that are cooked to a crisp, charred, or blackened.
• • Eat more plant based, raw foods (uncooked they contain negligible if any AGEs)

A team of researchers in Sweden studying exposure to acrylamide (an industrial chemical) in the workplace, discovered that acrylamide is present in the bloodstream of those who eat certain cooked foods. Their findings revealed that acrylamide is formed whenever foods that contain the amino acid asparagine and any reactive carbohydrate are heated above 248?F. Acrylamide causes DNA damage, neurological and reproductive damage, and is a probable carcinogen. It is worth mentioning that the EPA deems the maximum safe level of acrylamide in a single liter of water to be 0.12 micrograms. A large serving of McDonalds French fries contain 82 micrograms, more than 683 times the acceptable level. This is due to the high content of asparagine in potatoes.

Lower your exposure to Acrylamide:

• • Eliminate acrylamide creation in foods, especially potatoes, by cooking foods at temperatures below 248?F.
• • Remember that water boils, or turns to steam, at 212?F which makes steaming or boiling the preferred cooking method for potatoes (and any asparagine-containing foods such as asparagus, wheat, sweet potatoes, etc).
• • The smoke point for ALL cooking oils is much higher than 248?F, which means that eliminating ALL fried foods that contain asparagine is advisable.
• • Avoiding potato chips, French fries, as well as breads and cereals that are cooked above 248?F will significantly lower your acrylamide exposure.
• • Foods on the raw foods diet contain no acrylamide.

This cooked food toxin is formed when creatine and amino acids are cooked at temperatures above 302?F. If you know anything about muscles and muscle building, you probably know that both creatine and amino acids are found in muscle tissue. That means that whenever you consume muscle meats from animals, (and what cut of meat isn’t a muscle?) you are being exposed to this mutagenic and carcinogenic toxin. Plant sources occur at much lower levels and only when food is browned or charred.

Lower your exposure to Heterocyclic Amines:

• • Eliminate exposure by removing muscle meats from your diet and not cooking foods above 302?F.
• • Lower your exposure by cooking meats at low temperatures, for example a beef stew cooked in crock pot at low temps instead of a steak cooked well done on a grill.
• • Increase the amount of raw foods because raw fruits and vegetables do not contain any heterocyclic amines AND they have the added benefit of containing cancer fighting antioxidants, and fiber to help your body move foods, such as muscle meats, through the digestive tract more quickly and efficiently.

Nitrosamines
These known carcinogens are an accepted evil in processed foods, especially in meats like hot dogs, sausages, bacon and sandwich meats. Nitrosamines are formed when the preservatives nitrites or nitrates combine with amino acids and are exposed to high heat such as grilling or frying or to the acid in the stomach. The formation is known, but accepted because the nitrites and nitrates prevent botulism, a highly deadly bacteria to humans. Nitrates and nitrites are also found in processed cheese products, pickling salts, no-fat powdered milk, beer, and livestock feed.

Lower your exposure to Nitrosamines:

• • Eliminate nitrate and nitrate containing foods from your diet, including animal meats that are not exclusively grass fed.
• • If you choose to eat nitrosamine forming foods, do so with foods that are high in vitamin C and or Vitamin E which can offset damage and possibly block formation of these toxins in stomach acid.
• • Eat a high raw diet with more raw foods, living produce, nuts and seeds.

Called PAHs for short, these toxins occur naturally from volcanoes or fires and from man-made sources such as automobile exhaust, trash burning, cigarette smoke, fumes from cooking fires or cooking oil. We may not be able to control exposure to these carcinogens from natural sources, but we can control our exposure by reducing or eliminating the consumption of grilled or charred meats and exposure to cooking fumes.

Lower your exposure to PAHs:

• • Refrain from eating meats that are grilled, blackened or charred.
• • Avoid areas of high exposure to exhaust, smoke, coal, or fresh tar or asphalt.
• • Do not exercise in or near any of the conditions above.
• • You guessed it, eat more raw foods! Fresh fruits and vegetables are a better choice and help offset the damage PAHs can cause.

In summary…
You can avoid or eliminate exposure to ALL five major cooked food toxins by switching to a raw foods diet or a high raw diet. You can decrease your exposure and increase your body’s ability to remove toxins you are exposed to more efficiently by incorporating more fresh, organic fruits and vegetables into your diet. You can also decrease exposure by choosing steaming, boiling, stewing or baking at low temperatures over frying, grilling, and baking at high temps. Decrease your exposure to carcinogenic toxins while increasing your energy and loosing weight by incorporating more raw food recipes.

Condition information addendum

Natural Toxins in Food

The toxins in food are not limited to manmade chemicals. There are several toxins that are found in natural foods.

Some can be neutralized through the proper preparation techniques of soaking, fermenting or cooking the food substance, others are poisonous in any form. Here’s a list of some natural food toxins:

• Aflatoxin: carcinogenic toxins in food which is produced by the Aspergillus flavus fungus. This fungus can contaminate foods such as grain, nuts, and legumes such as peanuts. Aflatoxin-producing members of Aspergillus are common and widespread in nature. They can contaminate grain before harvest or during storage. Aspergillus lives in soil, decaying vegetation, hay, and rancid grains and nuts. Crops which are frequently infected include:

• • Grains such as corn, sorghum, pearl millet, rice, and wheat
• • Oilseeds such as peanuts, soybeans, sunflower seeds, and cottonseeds
• • Spices such as chile peppers, black pepper, coriander, turmeric, ginger,
• • Tree nuts including almonds, pistachios, walnuts, coconuts, and brazil nuts.

The toxin can also be found in the milk of animals that are fed contaminated feed. Virtually all sources of commercial peanut butter contain minute quantities of aflatoxin, but it is usually far below the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) recommended safe level.

• Ergot: a toxin produced when the Claviceps Purpurea mold infects rye and other grains. In medieval times, outbreaks of the disease “ergotism” were common and known as St. Anthony’s fire. The name was in reference to the severe burning sensations in the limbs caused by vasoconstriction of blood vessels. The vasoconstriction sometimes resulted in gangrene and loss of limbs due to severely restricted blood circulation. The neurological symptoms of an ergot infection included hallucinations and irrational behavior, convulsions, and death.
• Goitrogens: a class of toxins in food which suppress the function of the thyroid gland by interfering with iodine uptake. Long term exposure can cause an enlargement of the thyroid (goiter). Foods containing these substances include soybeans (and soybean products such as tofu), pine nuts, peanuts, millet, strawberries, pears, peaches, spinach, bamboo shoots, radishes, horseradish, and vegetables in the genus Brassica (bok choy, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, canola, cauliflower, Chinese cabbage, collard greens, kale, kohlrabi, mustard greens, rutabagas, and turnips.
• Hydrazines: volatile carcinogens found in many raw mushrooms, including shiitake and the white button mushrooms common to the grocery store, produce section. Mice display a significant increase in the incidence of several types of tumors after they are fed uncooked mushrooms. Cooking the mushrooms destroys a third of the hydrazine compounds.
• Lectins: toxic protein compounds found in most foods, but in heavy amounts in many seeds, grains and legumes. Large amounts of lectins can damage the heart, kidneys, and liver, lower blood clotting ability, destroy the lining of the intestines, and inhibit cell division. Cooking neutralizes lectins to some extent, and digestive juices further destroy them. People living at high altitudes, where water boils well below 212 degrees should cook lectin-containing foods in pressure cookers to avoid lectin poisoning. Lectin toxins in food are found in:

• • Grains, especially wheat and wheat germ but also quinoa, rice, buckwheat, oats, rye, barley, millet and corn, and all products made from them (oils, vinegar, alcohols, flours, etc..)
• • Legumes (all dried beans, including soy and peanuts and the products made from them)
• • Dairy foods, if the cows producing the milk are fed grains instead of grass (this would include most commercial milk products)
• • Plants in the Nightshade family, including potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers.

The lethal toxin Ricin is made from castor beans, which contain large quantities of a, particularly deadly lectin. Raw black beans contain enough lectins to kill rats in one week.

Lectins have the ability to bind to insulin receptors on your cells, enabling the transport of glucose into the cell, much like insulin does. The import of this is that even vegetables and nuts, which are staples in a low carb diet, can stall weight loss if they contain active lectins that mimic insulin.

• Opioid Peptides: Most people with food intolerances have digestive issues with wheat and dairy products. The common factor between these foods seems to be the opiate-like substances produced when the proteins from these foods are broken down during digestion. These opiate substances act on the body’s internal opioid receptors and can alter the perception of pain and affect respiration, digestion, and mood. These opiate substances are found in the following proteins:

• • • Casomorphin (milk)
  • • Gluten exorphin (wheat gluten)
  • • Gliadorphin/ gluteomorphin (wheat gluten)
  • • Rubiscolin (spinach)

• Phytates and Phytic acid: compounds found in many foods, but especially soybeans, whole wheat and rye. In the human gut, phytic acid acts as an anti-nutrient. It reduces the absorption of valuable minerals such as calcium, iron, magnesium, and zinc by binding the minerals into an insoluble salt. Relatively high concentrations of phytic acid occur in the following foods: whole-grain cereal foods (wheat, rye, rice, oats), nuts and seeds, soybeans, other types of beans, potatoes, artichokes, blackberries, broccoli, carrots, figs, green beans, and strawberries. Soaking or sprouting the grain foods will neutralize much of the phytic acid, except in soybeans, which must be cooked for more than 10 hours at very high temperatures to remove the anti-nutrients.
• Psoralens: natural toxins in food products such as celery, parsley, and parsnips. These compounds sensitize the skin to the harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation in sunlight, and as such is said to be photocarcinogenic. They are not destroyed by normal cooking procedures (boiling or microwave); thus humans are exposed to appreciable levels of psoralens through the consumption of celery, parsnips and other psoralen-containing foodstuffs. Psoralens are used to treat pigment disorders of the skin and other skin diseases such as psoriasis and nonmelanoma skin cancers.
• Solanines: a toxic alkaloid found in high concentrations in the green patches on and just under potato skins and eyes. They are also found in tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant. Solanine has both fungicidal and pesticidal properties, and it is one of the plant’s natural defenses. The human body converts solanines into a poison called solanidine. Solanine poisoning is primarily displayed by gastrointestinal and neurological disorders. Symptoms include nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach cramps, burning of the throat, heart arrhythmia, headache, and dizziness. Hallucinations, loss of sensation, paralysis, fever, jaundice, dilated pupils and hypothermia have been reported in more severe cases.

  Experts say that a hundred grams of raw potatoes contain between 2 and 13 milligrams of solanine. Experts believe that doses of 200 milligrams of solanine eaten at one sitting may cause problems. Symptoms can be gastrointestinal (abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhea, vomiting) or neurological (apathy, drowsiness, mental confusion, shortness of breath, weak and rapid pulse).

  You can avoid solanine and another similar toxin called chaconine by avoiding green potatoes. Exposure to light or stress (or even aging) causes a potato to synthesize a green pigment called chlorophyll. Light, stress, and aging also cause the potato to produce chaconine and solanine. The appearance of chlorophyll is a warning that something is wrong with the potato. You should also avoid eating potato peels. About 30% to 80% of the toxin content of a potato is in its peel. Fortunately, these compounds are not well absorbed by the gastrointestinal system and are soon eliminated in the feces.

• Trypsin inhibitors: toxins in food that reduce the availability of trypsin, an enzyme essential to protein digestion and metabolism for humans and animals. They are found in abundance in soybeans, and in lesser amounts in raw egg whites and lima beans.

Source

Updated: 2022-11-04