How Everyday Products are Making You Sick and Fat 64/84

Today I've got a really good one for you guys. This information is all coming from a podcast that I listened to a couple months ago and I've finally had the time to take legit notes and write it up for you. This was from an episode of Renegade Radio with Jason Ferruggia and his guest was a man named Dr. Anthony G. Jay. Dr. Anthony G. Jay is a PhD Scientist who spends his time studying fats, hormones, and cholesterol. In this episode, he goes into detail about artificial estrogen and how it's making the world fat, sick, and infertile. He lists off the top 10 artificial estrogens to avoid and where to find them. He also recently wrote a book called "Estrogeneration" which is just ordered on Amazon. If, after reading this, you want to order it as well you can do so HERE

So to start off we need to talk about what estrogen actually is. Estrogen is the female sex hormone, it is responsible for the development of female sex hormones and reproduction. Obviously, estrogen is super important and is necessary for both men and women to function normally. The problem comes when the levels become way to high and start to cause major problems. Normal levels of estrogen for women range between 20-400 nanograms per liter (ng/L) depending on what time of the month it is. The problem that were seeing  is estrogen level up to nearly 2,000 ng/L, which are the levels we see in pregnant women and levels in men that are normally where women should be.

These increase are caused my estrogneic compounds which are compounds that act like estrogen in he body. These things cause estrogen levels to skyrocket and cause some huge problems. So what problems are associated with high estrogen levels

• Fat cell increase - Estrogen makes you put on fat, which makes sense when you look at it from the perspective of pregnancy. Fat has a ton of energy that mothers require to make sure their baby stays alive. It also makes you store fat in the way women typically do like in the hips or breasts
• Depression - Artificial estrogen is messing with natural estrogen levels can cause problem with depression and can decreases motivation 
• Allergies - When women get pregnant is suppresses their immune system so that their body doesn't kill the fetus. High level of estrogen from artificial sources can decrease the immune system and leave you open to illness and allergies 
• Infertility - Because estrogen is the female sex hormone it can cause some crazy problems in men. The biggest of these is infertility and other reproductive problems 
• Increased cancer risk - Breast cancer rates are up 250% since 1980 and have increase even more in different parts of the world. High estrogen levels are known to be one of the main causes of this.

So obviously this can all be some pretty terrible stuff, so what do you do about it? Here is Dr. AJ's list of Top 10 Estrogenic Compounds to avoid

1. phytoestrogens 
1. This compound is plant hormone that acts like estrogen in our body (just like this whole list)The biggest culprit of these compounds are soy and flax.
2. Micoestrogens 
1. This are also called zearalenone and they are a mold estrogen. In the U.S. we have these huge silos where were store grain. This grain starts to mold while it's in there, and it molds quite. The U.S. has no regulation or legal limit on how much mold can be found in our grains so other countries take advantage of that. When the UK gains have too much mold in their grain they ship it over here and we eat it. Isn't that great? As it turns out, non-organic grains are way worse because they are mass produced. Although you might think that organic would be worse, the large numbers result in lots of mold. Corn and wheat are equally bad when it comes to mold levels
3. Atrazine 
1. This is the second most used herbicide in the North America and it's totally illegal in European Union. CORN is by far the biggest problem for atrazine. The only real way to avoid it is to get organic corn. Studies have found 200ng/L causes reproductive abnormalities in frogs and cows that are fed with corn can have leves of atrazine of 700,000ng/L!
4. Triclosan/ alkylphenols
1. These two are soap estrogenics (found in our soaps) Triclosan will be listed on label but alkylphenolas will not. Make sure to keep a lookout for these two on your prodcuts. Because so many products have these compound in them, you can see what products Dr. AJ recommends on his website here  http://www.ajconsultingcompany.com/whatiuse.html
5. Oxybenzone/ benzophenone/ 4-methoxybenzophenone
1. These are the sunscreen estrogens and they are found in basically every big name sunscreen we use. Check the above list for good options or just look for organic sunscreen or one that have 20% zinc. By the way, BP is completely illegal in Europe.
6. Red 3 and Red 40
1. These two are obviously food coloring. Red 3 has been brought to FDA over 20 times to make it illegal but they keep getting shut down. These products require massive labels in Europe because they realize they may cause harm in children. A better option is to use beet juice instead.
7. Parabens 
1. These are perfumes estrogen and they are used as a preservative in the product. There are many different names and varieties "Methol- Propal- Benzol-" so keep a lookout for differnt ways they try to hide them. An interesting fact about parabens is that they move through blood and you pee them out. This results in public swimming pools have Paraben levels that are "concerning for children". They have also found high levels in Polar Bears because it is circulating in the water. 
8. Phthalates
1. This is a plastic additive that companies use to make it more rigid. Plastic #2,4,5 are the "best" ones for you to use by in reality you should try to avoid plastic when you can. Researchers have found up to 15% phthalates even in the better plastics listed above. Phthalates are actually far worse than BPA in this circumstance and products listed as "BPA Free" means they use phthalates instead.
9. BPA
1. This become popular years ago when people started to figure out how bad it was. It's not illegal nationally but the research is clear on how bad it is. There have been over 12,000 research papers starting how harmful it is. Even though it's not illegal nationally, 17 states made it illegal instead in some way or another. To combat that bad press BPA got, companies using BPS instead, which is basically the same thing.
10. Ethinyl estradiol (EE2)
1. This is the artificial estrogen that is found in birth control. Because of the high quantities our country takes birth control, it is found in pretty high qualities in the drinking water, especially in cities. Another big issue is that the human body doesn't break it down, because it is created that way. This means that it sticks around for a long time and creates a ton of problem.  

Ok I know, lots of super big chemistry words in there. I tried to make it as simple as I could but I also wanted to keep the actual names of the compounds in there. Now that you know the list we'll look at a couple of things you can do to stay away from these things. 

• Filter your water, especially in the city.
• Check labels if you're worried about this. Look for the crazy names listed above and check the list of good products I posted
• Buy things that are  fragrance free 
• Avoid plastic when you can, aim for stainless steel or glass instead.
• Avoid non-organic corn and wheat if you can. This also means grass fed beef is going to be a better option. 

I also recommend that you listen to the entire podcast yourself so you can hear the info straight from the source. You can always refer back to this list when you're done so that you have everything written out for you. You can find the podcast HERE.