4 Easy Steps to Improve Your Health And Minimize Your Toxic Load.

The truth is the food in the U.S. is making us sick, but there are options to combat this.

Lately, there's a lot of information about how the food in the United States makes people sick. Unfortunately, I see videos and other content of people saying they've given up hope of changing this reality.

As overwhelming as all this information is, and as much as I understand this sentiment, giving up is not the answer — it is slow improvements and progress.

No one will have the perfect diet with zero processed foods or synthetic ingredients. Still, if you educate yourself just a bit, you can significantly lessen the amount of pesticides, microplastics, and artificial, carcinogenic, and toxic ingredients you consume.

Here are four simple and easy steps I recommend to anyone who wants to start living a less toxic lifestyle.

Disclaimer: Improvements require change, and change requires effort. If you want to be healthy, you need to decide to follow through with the changes this requires. No one is healthy by chance or convenience.

Buy organic produce.

Organic produce does make a difference.

Organic crops are not grown using synthetic pesticides, fertilizers, and genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Some of the fertilizers used in non-organic crops are known to be carcinogenic — glyphosate, otherwise known as Round-Up, is one of the most popular.

This is one of the main reasons I choose to buy organic. The nutrition content may not be that different, but with organic produce, I know I'm not eating cancer-causing pesticides.

I get mine from a grocery delivery service called Imperfect Foods/Misfits Market — they sell them at a discount, which is helpful for the budget, and they deliver once per week, so my produce is always fresh.

I'm not affiliated or sponsored by them.

If you eat meat, dairy, and eggs, buy pasture-raised and grass-fed.

Pasture-raised chickens are allowed to roam around on large plains of grass. They have a minimum of 108 square feet of outdoor space.

They are treated better, are healthier, and therefore produce better eggs.

Grass-fed cows are the happiest and healthiest. How do we know this? Grass-fed cows have two to six times more omega-3 fatty acids, crucial in disease treatment and prevention.

This is why it matters where the meat and dairy you eat comes from.

The healthier the animal, the more nutritional the food they produce, the more health benefits for you.

I also get these groceries from my food delivery service.

Get a good water filter.

There's a website where you can look up what chemicals are in your tap water based on your zip code. I looked mine up and was disgusted to find out what was in my tap water.

Now the question becomes, how do you clean your water?

Fortunately, I've been studying people whose focus is this, and they have recommendations for water filters.

I have Aqua Tru's water filtration system; from personal experience, it makes a difference. I have noticed better energy levels and how satisfied I feel after drinking water.

I drink less water now because I'm better hydrated, and this water doesn't contain nasty toxic chemicals from the treatment plant.

I do add minerals to my water because the filter cleans everything out. I mean everything.

I'm not affiliated with this company either. I'm giving you my recommendations and what I do for myself.

Rule of thumb for when you buy processed and packaged foods.

We can't avoid processed foods, but we can choose better options.

I have a rule of thumb that I adopted from the people I've been studying, and it's really simple — if it's in a bag, make sure the ingredients are or come from real food. I buy packaged foods whose ingredients I can read and understand.

I recommend a brand like Simple Mills. They have cookies, crackers, muffins, brownies, and cake mixes, all the stuff we like but without any of the synthetic and crappy ingredients.

If you don't like reading labels or find it too time-consuming, some apps can help you determine if something you want to buy is good or not — I use the Yuka app. I've also heard the TrashedPanda app is a good one.

If there's one thing and only one thing you can or want to do to improve your health and lessen your exposure to toxic chemicals, it should be to change the quality of the foods you eat.

What you put in your body has a significant impact on your health — mental and physical.

You can start implementing these four steps today to lessen your toxic load.

Side note. Don't start throwing out everything in your fridge, pantry, or cabinets. Instead, wean out of these products by slowly choosing better options.

This is how I did it. I started with my groceries first, then moved on to other household items. Little by little, I switched out a bunch of products.

Now the food I consume and other products I use are mostly of much better quality and made from non-toxic ingredients.

Like I said, the goal is progress, not perfection.