Nutritional Self Defense

Environmental sensitivities are a hot topic in the wellness world these days. Some people have a strong reaction to chemicals in their food, while others experience discomfort when they’re exposed to perfumes, mold, or loud noises. The rays of the sun are healing and comforting to some people, but can send others into major physical distress. Chances are, there’s something in your environment that you’re especially sensitive to. The good news is, you can boost your body’s ability to protect itself from troublesome toxins by practicing “nutritional self defense.” Join Emily Rosen, Director of the Institute for the Psychology of Eating, as she shares some tried and true strategies for strengthening our defenses in this practical and engaging new video from #IPEtv!

In the comments below, please let us know your thoughts. We love hearing from you and we read and respond to every comment!

Here is a transcript of this week’s video:

Greetings friends, this is Emily Rosen, Chief Operating Officer of the Institute for the Psychology of Eating.

Today’s Topic: Nutritional Self Defense

This is a concept that I believe has become powerfully important for those of us who are interested in good nutrition to understand and consider.

Normally, most people tend to think of nutrition as getting the required vitamins, minerals, and nutrients that we need so that the body can simply do its job. Clearly, science tells us that we have specific nutritional requirements for the form and function of the body. Therefore, it seems reasonable to assume that we need to acquire our baseline nutrition from the food we eat and everything will be okay.

I honestly wish this were true.

Maybe there was a time in human history that it was.

But here’s the challenge, my friends:

We live in a time when we are under fantastic pressure from an ever-changing world, from an experiment in industrialized living, and where we have a truly unprecedented exposure to thousands of human-made chemicals that never before existed in nature. Whether it’s by the air, water, food, contact with our skin, whether it’s radiation, electromagnetic pollution, and the myriad of chemicals contained in our body care products, household cleaners, laundry detergents and more – the body is under assault.

That’s why it’s important to think in terms of nutritional self-defense.

That’s what I would tell any of my closest friends or loved ones.

We need to reinvent and re-imagine nutrition so it stays current and contemporary with life as we know it in this moment on planet Earth.

It’s no longer enough to think of nutrition as simply getting enough nutrients to survive. We need to think of nutrition as one of the most important ways to help our body defend itself against a world that has a lot of poison in it.

On the one hand, I believe this is very simple in concept.

On the other hand, it takes some curiosity and study to begin to learn exactly how one can do this.

The first step is attitude and approach. That means getting on board with the strategy of using nutrition to help protect the body. As hard as it might be, I would ideally love for us to do this in a way where we aren’t living in fear, anxiety, and constant worry about all the harmful chemicals that might be making us sick. I meet too many people who live in fear of a toxic world and find themselves in a continuous state of upset and challenge.

Simply be an aware and concerned warrior.

This is life, this is the world we live in, and these are the measures that one must take to optimize one’s chances of good health while we’re still alive.

Here are some simple strategies to get you oriented to what nutritional self-defense can mean:

1 – Super Foods

I still find the term super foods a bit funny – it sounds like something that the superheroes and comic book characters would eat to maintain their superpowers. But here’s the thing: by definition, a super food means a substance that’s extremely nutrition-dense and can have a powerful nutritive and even healing effect on the body. Think of seaweeds, chlorella, various kinds of berries, turmeric, coconut oil, high quality fish oils, chia seeds, cacao, fresh green juices, and others.

2 – High Quality Foods

One way to practice nutritional self-defense is to avoid foods that are heavily laden with toxins in the first place. Many toxins accumulate in the body and are stored in the fat tissue. They can impact our brain, organs, glands and the very genetic machinery of the human body. I know you’ve heard the list by now of foods to avoid – think of any GMO produced food, fast food, most processed meat and dairy products, fish that concentrate mercury, excess sugar, high fructose corn syrup, poor quality oils – including canola oil, soy oil and any commercially produced foods that have hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils. I’m also talking about artificial sweeteners, and any foods that are highly processed and highly engineered.

3 – Experiment with Supplements

Lastly, it’s a great idea to play with and explore the use of different herbs, vitamins, and other substances that we can take in pill, powder, or concentrated liquid form – that have been shown to have a powerful nutritional self-defense effect on the body. There is a long list of immune enhancing herbs, anti-inflammatory herbs, heart protective herbs, brain protective herbs and so much more. Probiotics have proven to be a very powerful way to enhance digestion, stimulate immunity, and improve our overall health. There is an endless list of possibilities.

I hope you understand that I’m not so much sounding an alarm as I am alerting you to a wonderful way that you can rise to the occasion in your own nutritional and metabolic journey. Nutritional self-defense is all about having the curiosity and the courage to use diet and nutrition to help ourselves be more effective and powerful in the world.

I hope this was helpful! Please email us at info@psychologyofeating.com if you have specific questions and we will be sure to get back to you.