Category Archives: Detoxification

Cruciferous Vegetable Recipes from the Omnivore’s Delight Archive

Broccoli Slaw

Ingredients:

  • 4 broccoli stalks peeled and ends cut off.
  • 1 medium carrot, ends removed.
  • 4 cups shredded red cabbage (about 1/3 of a medium cabbage)
  • 1 small red onion, minced.
  • 1 shallot, coarsely chopped
  • 2 medium cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
  • ¼  cup apple cider vinegar
  • 1/3  cup grape seed oil
  • ½ Tbsp honey
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ¼ tsp fresh ground pepper
  • ½ cup pine nuts

Heat oven to 300 degrees.  Spread pine nuts out on cookie sheet.  Bake until lightly toasted, 7-10 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent burning.  Remove from oven and let cool.

Using a grater, shred broccoli stalks and carrot into a large bowl.  Add cabbage and onion and mix to combine. 

Put shallot, garlic, olive oil, vinegar, honey, salt, and pepper in food processor.  Process until smooth, about 30 seconds.

Pour dressing onto broccoli-cabbage mixture.  Add pine nuts and toss to coat evenly with dressing.  Cover and place in refrigerator for at least 2 hours before serving.

Curry Roasted Cauliflower

Ingredients:

  • 1 large cauliflower cut into medium florets.
  • 3 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1 Tbsp curry powder
  • ¼  tsp salt.

Preheat oven to 425.

Place cauliflower in a large bowl.  Drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with curry powder and salt. Toss until evenly coated.  Pour cauliflower onto a roasting pan in a single layer. Roast, stirring occasional until golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes. 

White Bean and Kale Soup

Ingredients:

  • 3 15 oz cans of Cannellini beans drained and rinsed
  • 4 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 medium onion, diced,
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 large carrot, dices
  • ¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped
  • 1 Tbsp fresh sage leaves, chopped
  • ½ tsp dried thyme
  • 4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
  • 1 bunch kale (preferably lancenato or dino kale) leaves removed from stems and chopped
  • 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • ½ tsp salt, plus more for taste
  • Water if necessary for thinning

In a large saucepan, heat 2 tbsp olive oil over medium heat.  Add onions, carrot, garlic, and salt. Sauté until softened 7 to 10 minutes.  Add parsley, sage, and thyme.  Continue to sauté for another minute. 

Add the beans and stock to the pot.  Bring to a simmer cover and allow to simmer for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat 2 Tbsp olive oil in a large fry pan over medium heat.  Add kale and sauté until leaves begin to wilt.  Drizzle with balsamic vinegar and a pinch of salt.  Stir and remove from heat.

Using a hand blender puree bean mixture until smooth.  Add cooked kale to soup.  Taste and adjust seasoning with salt or more balsamic vinegar as necessary.  If constancy is too thick add a little bit of water until desired consistence is achieved.

Arugula Pesto

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups arugula leaves, rinsed and dried
  • 1 clove garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped
  • 2 tbsp. chopped walnut
  • 1 tbsp. lemon juice
  • 1 tsp. lemon zest
  • ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
  • Salt

Combine the arugula, a pinch of salt, garlic, nuts, and about half of the olive oil in a food processor or blender.  Process  until smooth, scraping down the sides as necessary.  Check consistency.  Add more oil and process again until desired consistency is reached.  Add more salt if necessary.

Arugula pesto is great on cooked grains, chicken, salmon and cooked or raw vegetables.

Time for a Spring Cleanup!

If you think you may be carrying around a toxic burden, there is some good news. Making some simple diet and lifestyle changes can have a big impact on decreasing your exposure and increasing your body’s ability to mobilize and get rid of toxins.

 Several easy ways to increase your body’s natural elimination of toxins are:

  • Stay well hydrated: Drinking a minimum of 64oz of water a day is important for helping to flush toxins out through the kidneys.
  • Have regular bowel movements: One of the prime routes for toxins to leave our bodies is through the bowels. Constipation leads to impaired elimination and actually increases the reuptake of toxins from the gut. Staying well hydrated, getting regular exercise, and getting plenty of fiber in your diet can help make sure that you are having one to two bowel movements a day. If you are suffering from constipation, make an appointment with me today so that we can improve your elimination!
  • Exercise regularly: Moving your body helps to keep the lymph and circulation moving which helps to flush toxins out of your tissues.
  • Eat cruciferous vegetables: Cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and kale have compounds in them that help to promote proper detoxification.
  • Drink green tea: Green tea contains compounds that help to mobilize toxins from fat and helps to make sure that those toxins get excreted in your stools. Two cups a day is a great place to start.
  • Eat more fiber: The consumption of both soluble and insoluble fibers have been shown to increase the excretion of numerous toxins In addition it helps to prevent constipation and can optimize your gut ecology.  Good sources of fiber include whole grains, fruits, vegetables and legumes.

Several easy ways to minimize your toxic exposure are:

  • Avoid Fish High in Mercury: While the right fish can be a healthy part of the diet and a good source of omega-3 fatty acids the wrong fish can be a major source for the heavy metal mercury. Fish with the highest mercury levels include tuna, tilefish, swordfish, and sea bass. Alaskan salmon, sardines, shrimp, tilapia, soul, and haddock tend to be low in mercury. A pocket guide to mercury levels in fish can be downloaded at: www.nrdc.org/health/effects/mercury/walletcard.PDF
  • Avoid Farm Raised Salmon: Farm raised salmon can be contaminated with high levels of PVBs, dioxins and chlorinated pesticides. If it doesn’t say that it is wild Pacific or Alaskan salmon don’t eat it! In general, if it is labeled as Atlantic salmon, it is farmed salmon.
  • Use a water filter in the kitchen and shower: City water supplies and well water are often contaminated with low levels of lead and other heavy metals, chlorine, as well as pesticide and other environmental toxin residues. In the shower, these toxins can become aerosolized and breathed in.
  • Eat organic foods: Our food supply is full of pesticides, herbicides, hormones, and antibiotics. By choosing clean foods it helps to reduce our exposure to toxic compounds. The Environmental Working Groups Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen lists can be helpful in trying to determine what fruits and vegetables you should purchase organically. Because animals accumulate and concentrate the toxins that they are exposed to, I advise minimizing your intake of animal products and when you do eat them, make sure that they are organic. The Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen lists can be found here: EWG’s 2024 Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce
  • Leave your shoes at the door: Shoes get covered with all of the pollutants outside and when worn inside track them all in increasing our exposure. This is particularly important in households with children who may be spending a lot of time on the floor. Skip the dry cleaning: The solvents used in dry cleaning are highly toxic and have been found to be elevated in homes for over 48 hours after the clothes were brought inside. A new process known as wet cleaning is far less toxic and works just as well. There are cleaners in most areas that offer this. If you do have clothes dry cleaned let them air out in the garage or outside for forty-eight hours before bringing them into the house.
  •  Don’t use nonstick pans: Nonstick pans give off a compound called Polyfluoroalkyl chemicals (PFCs) which cause neurological and thyroid impairment and are associated with increased risk of ADHD and high cholesterol.
  • Fill your house with house plants: Plants in your house can help to clean the air of potentially harmful toxins.  According to research by NASA, the top plants for cleaning the air in your house include English ivy, philodendrons, spider plant, golden pothos, gerbera daisy, chrysanthemums, Boston fern, corn plant, dracaena, Ficus and rubber trees.

Following some of these recommendations will go a long way towards helping to decrease your toxic load. In addition, periodically embarking on a focused detoxification program can help give the liver a break and allow it to catch up on clearing your toxic load. In cases of more severely impaired detoxification or elevated toxic load, a more comprehensive detoxification program may be necessary. In addition, it is important to make sure that you are detoxifying at a rate that your body can handle to avoid a potential worsening of your symptoms.

To determine if you may have an increased toxic load, complete the Detoxification Questionnaire.

 Dr. Knight can help you to customize a safe and effective detoxification program that is appropriate for you. Call today for more information or to schedule an appointment to begin your journey to a cleaner you!

Are You Toxic?

If you breathe air, drink water, or eat food, the answer to this question is likely yes.

 It is an unfortunate fact that all of us have toxins in our bodies. A study by the Environmental working group tested individuals for 210 environmental toxins. The study subjects had on average 91 of the 210 toxic compounds in their bodies. They were found to have on average 53 compounds linked to increased cancer risk, 62 compounds known to be toxic to the nervous system, 55 compounds that are known to impair immune function, and 58 toxins known to be toxic to our hormonal systems.

Many of the chemicals tested are fat soluble. This means that they do not easily leave the body, but instead are stored in our fat tissue. Through exposures from our food, air, water and daily living, the levels of these toxins increase over time, leading to an increased toxic load.

While in some cases our bodies are able to deal with the toxic burden unaided, often times that is not the case. When this occurs, it can have damaging effects on our health causing symptoms such as fatigue, depression, memory problems, headaches, tremors and balance issues, weight gain or difficulty losing weight, and hormonal imbalances.

An increased toxic burden is associated with increased risk for allergies, asthma, diabetes, chemical sensitivities, fibromyalgia, autoimmune diseases, neurological conditions such as Parkinson’s, and certain cancers.

Luckily, by limiting further exposure, supporting the body’s ability to process and get rid of toxins, and helping to repair damage done by previous exposure it is possible to minimize the negative risks associated with our increased toxic burden and improve conditions that have been caused by our toxic burden. To find out if toxins or impaired detoxification may be contributing to your symptoms or preventing you from achieving optimal health complete the Detoxification Questionnaire or schedule an appointment with Dr. Knight.

Love Your Liver

Have you thanked your liver today?

Our livers are pretty amazing organs. One of their many roles is to metabolize compounds that can have toxic effects and convert them into a form that can be easily excreted from the body. Back in preindustrial days, these toxins mainly consisted of the breakdown products of hormones and neurotransmitters as well as naturally occurring toxic compounds in the foods that we ingest. Over the past 100 years they have had to rapidly adapt as our modern industrial society exposes us to more and more toxic compounds. The word “toxin” itself does not describe a specific class of compounds, but rather something that can cause harm to the body. More specifically, a toxin or toxic substance is a chemical or mixture that may injure or present an unreasonable risk of injury to the health of an exposed organism. Some examples of toxins include industrial chemicals and combustion pollutants, pesticides, toxic elements, food additives, plastic byproducts, metabolites of our own hormones and neurotransmitters, and pharmaceutical medications.

 To give the liver an even greater challenge, most toxins are fat soluble, which makes it harder for them to be excreted in the urine, sweat, and feces. It also makes it easier for them to find their way into our cells. In order to try to get rid of them, the liver (primarily) has a complex system of enzymes that help convert these fat-soluble compounds into water soluble compounds that can more easily be excreted. There is a great deal of genetic variability in how this system works. In some people this process occurs more slowly while in others it happens more quickly. This partially explains why one person can drink a cup of coffee in the morning and be up all night while the next person is not affected.

Most toxins have to go through a two-step process in order to be able to be excreted from the body. Our nutrition can have a big effect on how well this two-step process works. Certain foods and compounds slow parts of it down while others speed it up. When things are out of balance the process can go awry and even more damaging compounds can be produced.

By supporting the detoxification pathways with proper nutrition and focused nutritional supplementation, we can help to increase the efficiency and safety of how the body detoxifies compounds, helping to lower our overall toxic load and decreasing the potential damage to our health.