This post discusses the importance of eating organic for chronic illness.
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Table of Contents
Who is Betsy Leighton?
I’m a writer, blogger, and healer dedicated to helping individuals reconnect with their innate peace and wholeness by healing nervous system dysregulation. My personal experience with chronic illness called Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) shapes my work, and my content offers tools to empower those with chronic illness to improve their well-being and take charge of their health.
I created the Sacred Self-Healing Method and am a trained and certified Safe and Sound Protocol provider, an author, blogger, and A Course in Miracles Teacher. I hold a Master of Divinity in Spiritual Counseling and am a trained spiritual mentor, with certificates in sound healing, aromatherapy, nutrition, and Sacred Deathcare. I offer a self-study certificate program in the Sacred Self-Healing Method, provide spiritual counseling and coaching, courses, and supported subscriptions for the Safe and Sound Protocol.
What is MCAS?
Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) is a chronic condition that affects all organ systems. It can cause severe, disabling symptoms every day, including potentially fatal anaphylaxis.
The common triggers for MCAS are infections, toxic exposures including mold exposure and EMFs, trauma, concussions, and stress.
MCAS often occurs with other chronic conditions like Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS). Managing MCAS is challenging because many healthcare providers are unaware of it, and diagnostic tests can be unreliable. Treatments include antihistamines and mast cell stabilizers in the form of medications and supplements, along with avoiding triggers. Check out this post on managing MCAS.
What does eating organic mean?
When you have a chronic illness like MCAS, it pays to know what organic means because not all food labeling is intuitive. Organic or biological foods are produced using methods that comply with organic farming standards. Standards vary worldwide, but organic farming features practices that cycle resources, promote ecological balance, and conserve biodiversity. Generally, that means that chemical pesticides and herbicides are avoided in food production. However, as you will see below, that doesn’t always apply to all stages of food production.
Why is organic a vital part of eating healthily
I learned last week in the Gut and Brain Class at Frequency Fixx that glyphosate is the primary chemical herbicide used on crops. Unfortunately, our bodies detoxify glyphosate through the same pathways the liver uses to detoxify other toxins. If that pathway is bogged down, our body has to hold onto those toxins.
In our current toxic world, our bodies are very likely to be bogged down, so your detox needs help, not to slow down. Eating organic food relieves our bodies of one primary source of toxins. We need toxins to go out, not new ones to come in.
As I discuss in this post, toxicity is one of the leading causes of MCAS. This post discusses the importance of detoxification when you have MCAS.
What is glyphosate?
Glyphosate, commonly known as Roundup, is a broad-spectrum systemic herbicide and crop desiccant. It is an organophosphorus compound, specifically a phosphonate, that inhibits the plant enzyme 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase. It is used to kill weeds, especially annual broadleaf weeds and grasses that compete with crops.
Crop desiccants are used to dry crops for storage after harvest. So while a crop may be grown organically without glyphosate, it might be treated after harvest to dry the product. This happens with many organic grains, including rice, wheat, and oats.
Glyphosate: the cancer-causing Roundup chemical found in children’s cereal
Glyphosate is a toxic pesticide widely used on crops. The active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup, it is sprayed on oats right before harvest to dry them out, so it ends up in many oat-based products, like cereals and breakfast bars.
Since there is no federal monitoring of glyphosate in oats, we wanted to know how much Roundup could be found in oat-based breakfast foods popular with children. So we commissioned independent labs to conduct three separate rounds of tests.
After an initial set of tests revealed troubling amounts of glyphosate in popular oat-based products marketed to children, we twice expanded our test to include even more products. Once again, almost all of the products had levels of glyphosate above 160 parts per billion, which is our health benchmark for glyphosate in oats.
https://www.ewg.org/areas-focus/toxic-chemicals/glyphosate#:~:text=Glyphosate%3A%20the%20cancer%2Dcausing%20Roundup,like%20cereals%20and%20breakfast%20bars.
Eating organic is even more important when you are chronically ill
When you have a chronic illness like MCAS, your body is already struggling to keep up with detoxification.
And glyphosate itself has been found to cause mast cell degranulation. – source
It is noteworthy that antibiotic use in organic meat and dairy products is less in organic production. The prevalent use of antibiotics in conventional animal production is a key driver of antibiotic resistance in society. – source
Breaking down the problems with glyphosate
There are several ways that glyphosate, in particular, is problematic for human health.
This article discusses how glyphosate is implicated in manganese depletion, which can lead to gut dysbiosis, autism, birth defects, infertility, and neurological diseases.
In addition to posing problems for humans and animals due to manganese, glyphosate is also an endocrine disruptor. Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that can interfere with endocrine systems by mimicking hormones in the body’s endocrine system. These disruptions can cause cancerous tumors, birth defects, and other developmental disorders. The problem is not just that glyphosate disrupts the endocrine system, but that very low doses of glyphosate affect the body more than higher doses. – source
In addition, for rats exposed to low-dose RoundUp, their fat and liver cells showed increased levels of inflammatory markers, including prostaglandin D2 synthesis by mast cells. – source
Another study showed an interaction between glyphosate and CYP1A1 gene variants, with adverse effects. Other studies show that glyphosate affects neuronal and oxidative stress pathways. – source
The key to avoiding glyphosate
This makes it critical to search for foods, and especially grains, that are certified free of glyphosate. Because of industry pressure on our regulatory bodies and poorly constructed scientific studies, glyphosate is considered safe at high levels. So the onus is on the consumer to be aware of the risks and take extra care to look for products free of glyphosate. For instance, this brand of oats is certified glyphosate-free.
The bucket theory
The bucket theory simplifies understanding symptom reactions with MCAS. Imagine your body as an empty bucket you don’t want to overflow. Reactions to various stimuli fill the histamine bucket at different rates, forming the total histamine level (how full your bucket is). More histamine means more symptoms. By managing triggers, reducing exposures, and taking medications and supplements, you can control your bucket’s level.
Know your typical symptom progression
Understanding your symptom progression during a flare is key to developing your rescue plan. This post discusses how to recognize symptom progression so you can be prepared to address them.
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Want a tool to easily track your symptoms?
Check out these circadian health tools!
I’m an affiliate with Bon Charge, a company that makes tools for circadian health, and you can receive 15% off your order with my coupon code BETSYL.
Bon Charge offers tools such as yellow– and red-tone blue-blocking glasses, red light therapy devices, PEMF mats, infrared saunas, and EMF-blocking products.
Sign up for the SSP!
I’ve found the Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) to be the most helpful bottom-up healing strategy if your nervous system has been overloaded with toxic exposures, including mold or non-native EMFs, chronic infections, concussions, stress, or trauma. The SSP is a passive listening therapy that helps heal nervous system dysregulation. Many people with MCAS and other chronic conditions have nervous system dysregulation stemming from infections, toxic exposures, concussions, and trauma. The SSP is an easy-to-use app that lets you listen to specially filtered music for 30 minutes each day as part of a 5-hour cycle. Studies show the SSP has a profound effect on mental health and chronic conditions. Here’s a short podcast describing the Safe and Sound Protocol.
You can sign up for the SSP here!
Heal your mind!
While the SSP is a bottom-up, somatic therapy for healing the nervous system, the Sacred Self-Healing Method I offer is a top-down nervous system-healing modality that focuses on cognition, attention, perception, and emotion, using the mind’s higher functions. The SSP and the Sacred Self-Healing Method complement each other and together produce lasting results. Here’s a short podcast on my self-healing practice.
I provide one-on-one in-person and remote chronic illness and caregiver coaching, as well as Sacred Self-Healing Sessions based on the Sacred Self-Healing Method, a proven, novel co-creative healing modality detailed in my Books.
Order my books!
Here’s a short podcast highlighting my five books.
My latest book, Living In The Light: Healing with Forgiveness, Sound, and Light, is all about the tools that have been most helpful for me to heal: forgiveness, sound, through nervous system retraining using the Safe and Sound Protocol, and light, through entraining my circadian rhythm with the energy of the sun. Living In The Light is available here!
Rocks and Roots chronicles my solo backpacking journey on the Superior Hiking Trail and my efforts to overcome nervous system dysregulation, gut dysbiosis, and Mast Cell Activation Syndrome symptoms to complete the 328-mile hike successfully.
The Sacred Self-Healing Method ebook is available here and in most ebook retailers!
The Sacred Self-Healing Workbook is available for purchase here!
Betsy’s first book, Sacred Self-Healing: Finding Peace Through Forgiveness, is available here
Companion Recordings
The companion audio recordings of chants, guided meditations, and sound healing demonstrations that accompany the Sacred Self-Healing Method are available for free on my YouTube channel here
What do you think?
I’d love to have your reply below!
Disclaimer
The preceding material does not constitute medical advice. This information is for information purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, cure, or treatment.
