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From Plate to Plague: How Crap Food, Toxins, and Stress Fuel Poor Health

Kathryn Faraj • June 2, 2023

In our fast-paced and demanding lives, it's crucial to prioritize our health and well-being. However, as women, we don’t always choose to put ourselves first. It is easy to make excuses. You can take control of your health by focusing on these three main factors: the food you eat, the toxins you expose yourself to, and your stress level. Let’s talk about why it can be so detrimental to our overall well-being if we are making poor decisions regarding these three factors. 

The Cascade of Dis-ease


  • Step 1: Crap food, Toxins, Stress
  • Step 2: Sedentary lifestyle, dehydration, poor sleep
  • Step 3: Insulin resistance, chronic inflammation
  • Step 4: Oxidative damage, poor mitochondrial function
  • Step 5: Hypertension, Plaque build up in our arteries
  • Step 6: Our heart stops pumping effectively, and our blood stops flowing effectively
  • Step 7: STROKE or HEART ATTACK
  • Step 8: Premature DEATH 


 The first step within this downfall is the step that is the most within your control to make changes! Starting here is important but also effective in improving your health! 

Low Quality Diet

The foods we eat everyday play a significant role in shaping our overall health and wellness and here’s why: Every decision we make regarding what we put into our bodies either fuels us or causes inflammation. Certain foods lack important nutrients, such as vitamins, minerals, and fiber that our bodies need to function appropriately. 

Processed foods, especially those high in refined sugars, can trigger inflammation in our bodies and lead to chronic health conditions downstream like those outlined in the disease cascade above. 

Poor food choices can cause spikes and crashes in our blood sugar levels which leads to that afternoon fatigue, mood swings, and difficulty maintaining a healthy weight. 

Toxins

Toxins are substances that can accumulate in our bodies through various sources, including pollution, chemicals in personal care products, and contaminated food. Our bodies are designed to manage and get rid of toxins through our urine, sweat, stool, and saliva. However, we start to see problems arise when our bodies are unable to excrete the harmful toxins that we’re exposed to. Retention of toxins causes inflammation and can lead to common diseases such as type II diabetes, cancer, dementia, and many others. 


Common household items that may be exposing you to toxins:


  • Cleaning chemicals
  • Candles 
  • Perfumes 
  • Your furniture
  • Cookware 
  • Pesticides on our fruits and vegetables


We must appropriately detoxify which occurs when we have appropriate nutrients TO detoxify (another reason our food choices matter).

Stress

In today’s fast-paced world, chronic stress has become increasingly prevalent. Exposure to chronic stress can affect our mental and physical well-being through increased cortisol leading to spikes in blood sugar APART FROM FOOD and other hormonal imbalances downstream.


You may not feel like you are stressed or that you lead a stressful lifestyle but stress can present itself in many ways such as insomnia, recurrent colds and illnesses, mood swings, fatigue, and many more. 

Stress can be mental/emotional, chronic simmering infection (we may not always be aware of), intense long aerobic exercise, and poor sleep.


If you feel like you have a well rounded diet, and you don’t frequently expose yourself to toxins, but you still do not feel like you have do not have optimal health, stress in some form may be to blame.


 You can take back control of your health by maximizing your intake of healthy whole foods, minimizing your exposure to toxins, and prioritizing your well-being by reducing stress.

     

Your everyday choices play a large role in your overall wellness.

Start by asking yourself, what am I choosing 90% of the time? Attempting to make lifestyle changes can feel overwhelming! 


I help women like you discover how to take control of your wellness. I educate, inspire, and empower you to feel your best. At Integro, I want to make sure that prioritizing your health doesn’t have to feel like a daunting task. 


Remember, small changes can make a big difference, and investing in your well-being is a lifelong journey.


Stay Vibrant and Empowered 


- Kathryn

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By Kathryn Faraj • December 17, 2023
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