By Brent Hauver

“We are what we eat” may need to be updated to include, drink, touch, absorb, and are exposed to. Chemical toxins bombard us in this modern world from all sides. They’re in the water we drink and the food we eat. They’re in the cleansers we use, our beauty products, and even in the air we breathe. They leak from our walls, our clothing, our floors, and our furniture. Herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, pharmaceutical residues, petroleum byproducts, and pollutants; toxins surround us.

Obesity is a rising trend in countries that follow more Western diets and lifestyles, but what if this spike in weight gain can’t be entirely blamed on fatty foods and lack of exercise? Turns out toxins contribute to weight gain and make it more difficult to lose pounds too.

Our bodies are clever machines and they’re prepared for a multitude of external and internal attacks from many sources like viruses, fungi, bacteria, and poisons. When toxins enter our bodies, they’re sent to the liver to be broken down and flushed away. But, when the liver is overwhelmed and the heart and other organs are endangered, our bodies jail the leftover toxins, locking them away inside fat cells. This lets the liver catch up and we can release the toxins slowly later to be cleaned or sent packing.

This means that as toxin levels climb, continually overwhelming the liver, more and more toxins, along with fat, must be stuffed into storage for later. The number of fat cells goes up and people become overweight or obese.

Unfortunately, this process starts young, younger than we thought. Studies show that babies begin storing toxins in fat cells even before they’re born. Infants exposed to toxins in the womb are born with more fat cells and have higher risk of rapid weight gain leading to becoming overweight children and adults.

These toxins also make it very difficult to lose weight. Fat cells crammed with toxic compounds don’t function well. These malfunctioning cells often over-release leptin, which burns out receptors, leading to leptin resistance. Leptin is a hormone that regulates eating and fat burning. Leptin resistance tells our bodies that we need more food and need to store more fat even when there’s plenty of fat stockpiled away. The drive to overeat makes losing pounds problematic, especially if the body keeps insisting on hoarding fat.

Even without leptin resistance, if high toxin levels are still entering the body when we try to lose weight, our body will keep combining them with fat and stowing them in cells. It becomes important to eliminate toxin sources before trying to lose weight.

Losing weight comes with setbacks in and of itself. Dropping pounds and inches means releasing and burning fat stores, which can flood the system with toxins that had been previously locked away. This toxic torrent slows the weight loss process, causes a weight loss plateau, or can lead to a yo-yoing effect as the body responds by filling fat cells over and over as we rerelease those poisons time and time again.

Start by removing toxins from your life. Stop smoking, drinking alcohol, coffee, or soda, eating junk food, and using harsh cleansers. Look for more natural, organic beauty supply products, cleansers, soaps, shampoos, deodorants, and detergents. Drink more filtered water more often. Choose organic foods free of pesticides, fungicides, genetic modification, and herbicides. Cut back on refined sugars and processed foods. Add more organic plant-based foods to your diet to get the vitamins, minerals, and enzymes that will cleanse the body and improve its function.

Exercise and eat well as you gradually lose weight. This will let your body deal with the released toxins slowly and manageably, breaking them down and flushing them away without feeling the need to incarcerate them once more in the fat storage facilities on your hips, stomach, or anywhere else.

Brent Hauver is a Holistic Health Researcher who owns and operates Sage Health and Empowerment Center in Overton, NV.