"I have systems, routines, or ways of living that I have chosen for my life that have caused my body or household to feel better, get sick less, have more energy, and other beneficial outcomes - all based in my lifestyle edits."

1.    We Eat Very Few Heavily Processed Foods. We aim, especially in this current season of life, to consume foods that are not processed heavily with chemicals and processes that allow them to be shelf stable for months. What goes into these items -with the exception of fermented foods, homemade canned foods, etc. – are items that your body is not designed to process because they are non-biological and therefore your body has a hard time metabolizing them. These foods are full of preservatives, artificial colors and flavors, seed oils, and synthetic vitamins. What I understand this to cause is your detox pathways to again be overloaded, leading to brain fog, anxiety, inflammation, fatigue, energy crashes, and destroys the gut microbiome, as well. They have gums, artificial sweeteners, emulsifiers, and confuse the body as it tries to react to them – causing immune responses, high inflammation, nervous system overload… and truly leave you hungry again sooner than later since they have more ‘empty calories’ in them.

2.    We only utilize olive oil and avocado oil. Again, I am not a scientist or a professional. But, my understanding is there are research studies showing evidence that seed oils can be linked to skin cancer. Upon learning that, I felt connected to the story because I have had skin cancer and actually got it in my late twenties. It was a spot on my back that I had been keeping an eye on for a couple of years and when it had first popped up, had asked a local doctor about it and he told me it was ‘no big deal’ (hence why it took years to figure out- a moment I like to highlight because you have to be your own advocate. It was my own advocacy that caused us to figure out it was cancer). I am fair-skinned and, yes, have tanned in my life but in very, very limited doses. I acknowledge it could have been that tanning that caused it, but also that it could have been my diet, as I have been much more exposed dietarily to toxins than via UV rays. There is research on this and I highly suggest anyone interested go read about it – very interesting!

Other than its connection to my skin, as well as having always been taught by my mother that olive oil is much better for you, I have learned that seed oils are very high in omega-6 fatty acids, which modern diets already have a massive overload of. When your body then has excess of this fatty acid, it causes chronic inflammation. This, again, is outside the lines of what our body is naturally meant to consume via evolution and biology.

In addition, they oxidize easily, break down faster with heat and light, and then form toxic aldehydes when used to cook with. What this means is once they are used to cook with, they cause damage to your cell membranes, stress out your liver because it is trying to detox this as a toxin, and impair mitochondrial function. This then causes fatigue, brain fog, poor metabolism, and inflammation.

THIS is a huge reason that professionals and scientists like Gary Brecka discuss restaurant foods notoriously making people feel awful. The reason that seed oils are everywhere is because they are cheap, shelf stable, and flavor neutral which means they are dominantly used in processed foods, restaurant cooking, fast food, and packaged snacks.

Essentially, if an ingredient on the package says any variation of seed oils, the quality-meter is already lower. For me, this is super important because being gluten free and wanting to buy only organic non-GMO foods, I can be deceived by finalllllly finding a granola bar that I can eat, and then realizing that all of my snacks I gloriously have located, mostly still have sunflower seed oils in them, or oils that allow them to be cheaper and more shelf stable, but not actually healthy.

With all of that being said, it doesn’t mean olive oil is just entirely good for you. With high heat, it too can still become toxic for the body by chemically doing some of the same things, it just has a higher heat threshold/ smoking point. And then there are other suggestions that are provided such as it being extra virgin olive oil, only, as well as that it is cold pressed, and instruction to utilize raw or with low heat.

Avocado oil is typically the number one oil that I understand to be healthy. It has a higher smoke point (that heat threshold I was referring to), is stable for cooking, low in omega-6 fatty acids, neutral in flavor, and less prone to oxidation.

1.    We consume 100% grass fed organic milk and butter. Now, this is a new requirement in our household as of the last year. Basically, upon continuing to learn, I realized we were doing all of that above, and yet we were consuming byproducts from these animals that were being fed grain, or were being ‘finished on grain’ (which is when they aren’t 100% fed grass), where they then were consuming GMO products, eating things with herbicides and pesticides on them, etc. This, of course, can be tricky in that water run-off can still have chemicals in it from other farms utilizing pesticides, still then being in the grass that is consumed. But, we feel that the closest we can get to 'clean', the better.

First, grass fed dairy scientifically contains higher omega-3 fatty acids, a better ratio of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids (remember, omega-6 are the ones we were talking about earlier), more conjugated linoleic acid, and more anti-inflammatory compounds. Grain-fed contain much higher omega-6 fatty acids (the bad guys from up top that we overconsume, already) and more inflammatory fat balance. The reason that I understand that this matters is because the omega-6 overload drives high inflammation, and the inflammation then impacts your hormones, gut health, brain health, and immune function.

Grass fed also contains more fat-soluble vitamins – so they are richer in vitamins A, D, E, and K2 (which is apparently very important...but then again, my brain is screaming ‘of course it is!’). K2 helps to put calcium into bones and teeth, keep calcium out of your arteries and soft tissues, supports cardiovascular health, and supports hormone and immune regulation. Grain-fed dairy has significantly less K2.

My big reason for this move towards grass-fed dairy, as I learned all of that ^ after I made the move, is that it reduces chemical and toxin exposure. Grass-fed cattle are typically exposed to fewer herbicides/pesticides from feed crops (glyphosate, for example). They are exposed less to mold toxins that are then stored in the grain and are less reliant on antibiotics and hormone interventions. This means that less of these items are transferred into the milk fat (toxins concentrate in fat). Butter then would have larger transfers of toxins, making grass fed very important when it comes to butter.

Basically, grain-fed cows have their rumen bacteria changed, fat composition changed, their inflammatory markers increase, and then the milk composition changes, too – all from eating grain. This, according to some of the people that I follow in this field, makes grain-fed cow milk biologically ‘altered’ since it is not what our bodies are naturally built to consume.

           In conclusion, from what I have learned, our bodies work as a system (you already know what my logical brain wants to say here). Therefore, all of the manufactured chemicals, processed foods, and cheap oils are in place to make corporations money, not to make me healthy (‘of course they are!’). So, eating how I choose to eat is not about elitism but is absolutely about making my body feel better and ensuring I have more longevity than I would if I didn’t make these choices.

I will say, that within one year of going completely organic, our household got sick immensely fewer times in a year – and we have maintained that. In addition, I recently found out by performing genetic testing that I have the MTHFR gene mutation, which means by body has a higher problem in removing toxins, amongst other things this causes. With foods that can impact the same systems that my gene mutation impacts, eating clean is more important now than ever.

Other things we do for a healthy lifestyle:

-      Take a daily probiotic/prebiotic (I use Pendulum Akkermansia)

-      Take daily vitamins – especially those sourced to my own gene mutations, and only vitamins that are methylated (naturally occurring in nature, not synthetic or man-made)

o  We take these at the same time each day, as well. The body, I have learned, really loves and receives a routine well.

-      Getting 7-9 hours of sleep

-      Drinking lots of water

-      Aiming to get up with the sun more

-      Eating dinner at the same time every night (we try)

-      Drinking a glass of water with my probiotic each morning before coffee

-      Consuming fewer plastics, not storing our food in plastic, and paying attention to microplastics (hot drinks in disposable cups, ziplock baggies, plastic cups, plastic cutting boards, etc)

-      Installing a reverse osmosis system in our house for drinking water to create cleaner water than what comes from a plastic bottle or the tap, and with a higher PH. (Our system is the Cloud system)

-      We try to get cheeses made not in the United States.

-      We use Celtic Salt as our house salt

-      Take creatine daily (creapure + NSF certified)

-      We only use stainless steel pans or cast iron, we do not use anything that is non-stick/has chemicals.

-      Get outside in nature

-      Exercise

-      Have community / experience community

-      Journal and read more

-      Limit alcohol intake (once a month, sometimes once every two months, or never)

Snacks we implement to replace processed snacks:

-      0% greek yogurt + Organic plain peanut butter (no sugars, additives, etc) + raw organic honey + homemade or organic granola + an organic banana

-      0% greek yogurt + apples cut up + honey

-      0% Greek yogurt + organic plan tahini + organic spices + organic salsa mixed together to make a dipping sauce

-      Homemade chicken salad with organic chicken + organic grapes + organic celery, avocado oil-based mayo + and Greek yogurt + organic spices

-      Lots of organic nuts and organic granolas

-      Organic blue corn chips

-      Organic Fruit

-      Organic Veggies

-      Organic Celery + Organic Peanut Butter

-      Organic pumpkin seeds

-      Sourdough Toast (gluten free or homemade)

Again, I am not a professional, I just am speaking for what I have done myself for my household. If you are on a health journey and find this inspiring or feel connected to this post, I am excited for you and the change you inevitably will be making towards better health!

-Annastasia Hicks