How might we help flush the pollutants stored in our fat that come spilling out into our bloodstream during weight loss?

“Fasting to Detox”

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Most persistent industrial pollutants,

like organochlorine pesticides

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such as DDT and PCBs,

were banned several decades ago,

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and dioxin emission

is strictly regulated.

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However, we’re still exposed to these

chemicals through several routes,

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the major source of which

is contaminated food,

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especially fatty animal products

such as fish, meat, and milk.

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When we eat these chemicals,

they get primarily stored

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in our own fatty tissue

where they slowly leach out

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into our bloodstream,

but better in our fat

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than in our brain

or other vital organs.

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Having more body fat may

actually play a protective role

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by sequestering

the toxins away,

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but they can come spilling

out when we lose weight.

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Body weight loss increases

the concentrations

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of potentially toxic pollutants

in obese individuals.

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Of the 19 pollutants studied,

they all went up,

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15 significantly so.

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Every study that has looked at it

found increased blood levels

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of toxic pollutants

accompanying weight loss

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whether induced by diet

or bariatric surgery:

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increases between 14 and 388

percent with a large enough loss.

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The more weight that’s lost,

the higher the pollutant levels

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climb because all those

chemicals stored in your fat

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over all those years

come spilling out.

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The theoretical concern is that

if released into the blood

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at a faster rate

than they are cleared,

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the levels of these compounds

could become toxic,

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causing side effects, such

as sweating, headache, and nausea,

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but the opposite happened when

PCB-poisoned patients were fasted.

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In 1979, about 2000 people

in Taiwan were exposed

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via an industrial accident

that contaminated rice oil,

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leading them to have a

higher body toxicity burden

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than even long-time

consumers of seafood.

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But after a modified

fasting regimen,

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all 16 patients they tried

it on showed improvements,

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with some enjoying dramatic

relief of their sufferings,

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but this was after just

a few days of fasting;

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so, they couldn’t have really

lost that much body fat.

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And, they didn’t measure

PCBs before and after;

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so, it’s not clear they were

experiencing some sort of detox,

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nor what relevance

this has for people

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who haven’t been

acutely poisoned.

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The initial rise in pollutant

levels in the first year

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of weight loss may

eventually stabilize or fall.

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Check out what

happened in Biosphere 2,

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a remarkable experiment designed

to be a completely closed ecosystem,

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the longest sustained

period of humans isolated

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in a confined environment

on record.

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But due to crop failures,

it turned

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into a 2-year experiment

of calorie restriction.

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They all lost about 25 pounds

in the first 6 months

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and stabilized there,

and while the levels of PCBs

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and a DDT metabolite

known as DDE initially went up,

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they appeared to start

coming back down,

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but that initial spike

is quite a jump.

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That’s one of the reasons

health authorities recommend women

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don’t try to slim down

during breast-feeding.

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For example, here’s a woman

whose breast milk levels

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jumped up after she had fasted

and lost about 20 pounds.

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Because fat is mobilized

into breast milk,

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the secretion of human

milk is a major way

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these pollutants are eliminated

from the mother’s body.

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Breast is still best regardless,

but you can keep your levels lower

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by not going out of

your way to lose weight

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until after breastfeeding

is finished.

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What can one do to help flush

the contaminants during weight loss?

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One of the reasons the pollutant

levels in the biosphere subjects

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eventually dropped is because

they were eating a high fiber diet

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centered around fruits, whole grains,

beans, nuts, and vegetables,

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and we know that fiber can

bind to these pollutants

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and potentially flush

them out of the body.

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So, when losing weight,

eating lots of whole grains

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may be important to increase

the elimination of pollutants

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while, of course, cutting down

on animal fat, including fish,

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so you don’t pile on

extra at the same time.

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What about just

eating some Pringles?

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What was the dietary intervention

in this randomized trial

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to decrease the body

burden of pollutants?

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Subjects were randomized

to 24 fat-free Pringles

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a day or regular Pringles.

What?! Why?

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It all started with this

crazy case report of a guy

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heavily contaminated by PCBs

who managed to rid himself

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of 90 percent by losing

weight eating potato chips

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made out of the fake fat olestra,

which doesn’t get absorbed,

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and so appears to pull

pollutants out of the bloodstream

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into the stool for elimination.

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It works in mice, increasing the

excretion of hexachlorobenzene

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30-fold and cutting the levels

in their brains in half,

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but in people, the drop in PCB blood

levels with the olestra Pringles

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was not statistically significantly

greater, and for some reason,

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LDL bad cholesterol levels shot

up 28 points in the olestra group.

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And, while olestra and drugs

like cholestyramine may absorb

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pollutants and remove

them from your system,

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they also may cause you

to dump fat-soluble vitamins.

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So, to get the best

of both worlds,

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losing pollution

without losing vitamins,

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fiber-rich foods

maybe our best choice.

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Instead of olestra

supplementation to detox,

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why not try to not tox

so much in the first place.