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The Live Lightly Podcast, hosted by Jessica Franklin, a busy mom, wellness enthusiast, and Mother Nature lover, focuses on living a sustainable and healthy lifestyle and empowering busy moms to do the same. Jessica shares her journey of eliminating chemicals and plastic from her household and discusses the challenges of finding truly sustainable products amongst greenwashing. The podcast features interviews with founders of sustainable companies, who share their stories and the obstacles they faced to make their products healthy for you and the planet. Experts on environmental issues and chemicals also provide insights on the connection between household products and food and people's health and the environment. The Live Lightly Podcast empowers and inspires busy moms to make sustainable choices for their families and Mother Earth!
Jessica (00:00)
welcome to the Live Lightly podcast. I'm your host, Jessica Franklin. today's episode, we're going to explore how some of the most common chemicals present in everyday plastics impacts hormone health. I'm joined by Maritza Worthington, a functional hormone practitioner and women's health nutritionist. Welcome, Maritza.
Maritza Worthington, FDN-P, CHNC (00:18)
Thank you so much for having me, Jessica, and I can't wait for us to just dig in.
Jessica (00:24)
just be on this for hours, I wanna dive right in.
What toxins in plastics are considered
hormone disruptors because this is where your expertise comes in and I'm sure you see it a lot.
Maritza Worthington, FDN-P, CHNC (00:41)
Yeah, you know, plastic, it is everywhere. And I think there's like about 240 ,000, you know, particles of plastic in just one liter of bottled water. So yeah, if you think that you're not intaking plastic, you're probably wrong because on a weekly basis, I think it's like what five grams that people intake. It's a lot. So over time, you know, it all accumulates in the body and it starts to disrupt hormones and.
I would say the top offending chemicals in plastic are gonna be phthalates, BPA, and also the heavy metals that come with those plastics like lead, antimony, and arsenic. So all of that is in just a plastic bottled water.
Jessica (01:28)
Yeah, that's a lot. And when you hear that, you would never have chosen to drink out of a plastic bottle.
But it's not only in water bottles. chemicals are found in a lot of plastics that our food is packaged in at the grocery store too, correct?
Maritza Worthington, FDN-P, CHNC (01:45)
Yeah, so food packaging is another big one. And then the containers that people use, if you're microwaving plastic, that's going to be 10 times worse. So, you know, these plastics, they increase estrogen in the body. And not only that, they affect fertility. They impact both male and female hormones, and they affect pregnant women as well. So,
Jessica (01:54)
Hmm.
Maritza Worthington, FDN-P, CHNC (02:12)
You know, I see the impact of that over time that can come up in testing. And the way that I can tell that maybe someone had too much plastic is if they are too estrogen dominant. So if their estrogen or estradiol is a little bit higher than normal and their progesterone levels are too low, then that is an indicator of, okay, there could be too much plastic here in the diet that is just disrupting everything.
Jessica (02:17)
Mm -hmm.
Mm -hmm.
Maritza Worthington, FDN-P, CHNC (02:39)
So I would say probably the women that are most affected by plastic are those that are looking to get pregnant, women that are already pregnant, and breastfeeding moms.
Jessica (02:53)
What if you're talking about someone who is like, hey, well, you know, I'm not pregnant and I'm not a breastfeeding mom, let's say a teenager or somebody in their early twenties who just not got that on their radar yet.
Maritza Worthington, FDN-P, CHNC (03:07)
So, you know, probably a little bit of plastic in the body isn't going to make a whole big difference, especially like if somebody is younger and, you know, their journey with plastic is going to be a lot less than, you know, somebody that is hitting their mid thirties and above. However, BPA is cumulative. So what that means is it builds up in the body and it's stored in tissues. It does like.
Jessica (03:24)
Mm -hmm.
Mm -hmm.
Maritza Worthington, FDN-P, CHNC (03:35)
adipose tissues. So that means it's going to go for those fatty organs like the brain. It's going to collect the sort of belly area. So over time is when it becomes a toxic burden. So that toxic burden might be really low for someone who's young, but I'm just, you know, kind of scared to see like, what will that look like if there is no change to the diet five, 10, 15 years later? And how can that become
Jessica (03:48)
Mm -hmm.
Mm -hmm.
Maritza Worthington, FDN-P, CHNC (04:04)
an infertility case. So sometimes we don't always make that connection, but you know, you can always connect the dots looking back. And I think plastic is definitely, it's part of that puzzle.
Jessica (04:06)
Mm -hmm.
Mm -hmm.
yeah, let's go ahead and talk a little bit about some of the things that people start experiencing and then maybe their OBGYN isn't really able to set them on the right path to,
solving those issues because they're not really looking at these types of indicators, are they? Okay.
Maritza Worthington, FDN-P, CHNC (04:37)
Unfortunately not. That's not part of the standard American healthcare plan. So I would say that like toxins are very much overlooked in Western medicine. So that's definitely not something that your OB -GYN is going to bring up. They're not as concerned about plastic because if they were, they wouldn't be recommending things like plastic IUDs, which cause nutrient depletions.
Jessica (04:43)
Mm -hmm.
Maritza Worthington, FDN-P, CHNC (05:06)
and actually cause more hormone disruption over time.
Jessica (05:09)
let's dive into how the plastics are directly affecting the hormones
Maritza Worthington, FDN-P, CHNC (05:14)
Estrogen dominance is probably the most common from over consumption of plastic. And that's because BPA is considered a Xenoestrogen. So what that means is it mimics your own estrogen in the body. So your body actually can't tell the difference from what is imposter estrogen versus what is its own estrogen, which means that it starts to bind to your cells receptors equally. And so.
Jessica (05:19)
Mm -hmm.
Mm.
Maritza Worthington, FDN-P, CHNC (05:40)
You know, now we have double the estrogen in the body than what there should be naturally. So it competes with your own estrogen. And they actually found with BPA specifically that that is very much linked to PCOS. So PCOS, polycystic ovarian syndrome, you know, this, this is the woman who struggles to have regular periods.
Jessica (05:45)
Mm -hmm.
Maritza Worthington, FDN-P, CHNC (06:06)
who has probably some fertility issues on top of that. It's become a very popular hormonal condition. And I just find it amazing that even something like that can be linked to having just too much BPA and plastic in the body.
Jessica (06:14)
Mm -hmm.
and when you say linked to it, you're talking to scientific studies that are now proving these types of situations Is that correct?
Maritza Worthington, FDN-P, CHNC (06:31)
Yeah, and PubMed, they have a study that correlates PCOS with having too much BPA. And that's because estrogen is too high, which means that progesterone is going to be lower. And in women, it actually also increases androgens, which is also the case with women that have PCOS.
Jessica (06:36)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.
Okay, so it's basically sending all the wrong signals to your body. And so how are you seeing it affect women in pregnancy?
Maritza Worthington, FDN-P, CHNC (07:01)
In pregnancy, you know, I feel like these women are so vulnerable to the whole plastic contamination because plastic ends up in the placenta. Scientists have found this to be true. It can pass in utero. It passes through breast milk. So I feel like if there's any time in a woman's life when they are just going to like start banning plastic for good, it should be in that trying to conceive journey and also in
Jessica (07:11)
Mm -hmm.
Maritza Worthington, FDN-P, CHNC (07:30)
pregnancy especially. And it could just be little swaps. I think that sometimes as women, we just like over complicate things or we say that is just way too hard. How am I supposed to live in a plastic free world? And that's where I really like to just simplify it and, you know, show people what's what's important. What are the little shifts that they can make that have the most impact? And, you know, we started off talking about bottled waters. That's a huge one.
Jessica (07:43)
Mm -hmm.
Maritza Worthington, FDN-P, CHNC (07:57)
That's something that people consume water every single day. Tap water also includes a lot of these plastic chemicals and heavy metals. So it's the number one place that I think everybody should be starting is the water.
Jessica (07:57)
Yeah.
-hmm.
Absolutely!
And I love putting Go Pure pods in my refillable water bottle so that if you're out and about and you run out of water you can find anywhere to fill your water bottle and it will within three minutes be very clean.
Maritza Worthington, FDN-P, CHNC (08:28)
There's a lot of tools these days that that we can use. And, you were talking about pregnant women, you know, pregnant women need to increase their water intake. So you can only imagine, if they're drinking tap water or constantly out of plastic bottles, that's probably not setting.
Jessica (08:34)
Mm -hmm.
Maritza Worthington, FDN-P, CHNC (08:45)
herself, you know, this woman isn't setting herself up in the best way for a breastfeeding journey, you know, because a lot of that's going to get passed on to the baby. And really it could be simple, like what we mentioned is like stainless steel bottles, It's just about making those swaps and, you know, little by little
Jessica (08:50)
Yes.
Mm -hmm.
Yeah.
Maritza Worthington, FDN-P, CHNC (09:03)
So, you know, we don't have to make it overly complicated, I think.
Jessica (09:07)
Yeah, that's very true. I started doing it for my health., and then I started realizing the impact that plastics were having on the environment, because
it literally never goes away, these chemicals that are leaching into the plastic water bottle, which are basically invisible,
Those are forever. Forever in the environment.
Maritza Worthington, FDN-P, CHNC (09:26)
especially the PFAS are forever chemicals, right? And that's also in your plastic. And when they say forever, literally that's what it is. I think that PFAS are the most difficult to detox from the body because they are so stubborn and they will stay in the body for a long time. So yeah, I would say that that one's probably the worst of the bunch.
Jessica (09:29)
Yep.
Literally.
Hmm.
Mm -hmm.
And so we'll get to detox journey, but I kind of want to backtrack just a little bit. And you talked about how they are affecting hormones and how that can affect fertility or pregnancy and the fetus. And then, of course, moving on to breastfeeding. So that's a lot of layers already. But how about the nutrient and mineral absorption? Where are we at on that?
Maritza Worthington, FDN-P, CHNC (09:58)
Mm -hmm.
Jessica (10:22)
because again when you're preparing your body for pregnancy or you are pregnant or you are breastfeeding you need to be taking in and able to absorb nutrients and minerals from your food or maybe you're taking some supplements and if this is causing disruption in that process then I think this is really important for people to know.
Maritza Worthington, FDN-P, CHNC (10:46)
yeah, so I would say that plastics are very much intertwined with heavy metals. There's a lot of heavy metals that are in plastic, and so a lot of those heavy metals will displace minerals, and some of the top ones that I think about, like lead, arsenic, that's in your standard bottled water, that's gonna compete with your calcium, iron, and zinc.
Jessica (10:54)
Mm -hmm.
Maritza Worthington, FDN-P, CHNC (11:11)
And those three are very, very important, especially if a woman is looking to just be healthier, have more energy, and then maybe eventually prepare for something like pregnancy. Iron is a huge one because a lot of women become iron deficient when they become pregnant. So I do tend to see a lot of iron deficiency that is definitely popping up more and more in testing that I do.
Calcium, that can also be important for women, but I would say that that needs to be balanced with magnesium. But a lot of these heavy metals will deplete minerals and then women will wonder, why do I feel so burnt out? Why do I feel so exhausted? Why is my period irregular? Why am I having issues with trying to conceive? And it's just amazing that a lot of this can.
Jessica (11:46)
Mm -hmm.
Maritza Worthington, FDN-P, CHNC (12:07)
go back to, okay, what are the toxins that we need to remove from the body, but also what are the minerals that we need to bring back in? So it's kind of a check and balance of both of those things.
Jessica (12:19)
Yeah, there's so many different layers to this. And I do want to talk a little bit about some other products that women are using on their skin? I know that there are a lot of Yeah, so tell us what you know about that.
Maritza Worthington, FDN-P, CHNC (12:30)
That's another big one.
So second to the water are the makeup body care products that women use. And a lot of those have phthalates in them, but also, you know, BPA, a lot of hormone disruptors, and of course, even heavy metals, right? I would say that's all sort of packaged together with these body care products. And those are also considered Xenoestrogens. So again, your body can't really differentiate between your own estrogen.
and these estrogen mimickers that are out there. And so, you know, I would say that that is probably a second category that women really need to dive into, especially the makeup. Makeup can be extremely toxic. And so that is also another great place to really spend some time and, you know, little by little start auditing your makeup bag.
you know, trading out your lipsticks and it could be a process, but it's definitely something that I think most women should at least get started with.
Jessica (13:35)
yeah, it sounds like that's something that can take a little bit of time because you don't want to just throw away what you have. Maybe if you're pregnant or breastfeeding, you might not throw it away, but you might set it aside for a while. And you might do a full swap right now if you're listening and you're pregnant or breastfeeding. And if you want to return to those at a safer time to finish them out, if that's...
Maritza Worthington, FDN-P, CHNC (13:48)
Put it aside. Far, far away.
Yeah.
Jessica (14:02)
you know, something that you'd like to do to not be wasteful, then great. But I'd say definitely making the full transition if you are currently pregnant or breastfeeding would probably be advised. Yeah.
Maritza Worthington, FDN-P, CHNC (14:18)
Yeah, absolutely. You know, I think it's it's more about the baby at that point. And so of course, we all want to look beautiful and we can right we can with there are so many great clean beauty products. And I always think that just like a good mascara and lipstick.
Jessica (14:23)
Mm -hmm.
Mm -hmm.
Maritza Worthington, FDN-P, CHNC (14:35)
are really what matters and yeah, we don't need to always pack on so much. You know, sometimes less is more.
Jessica (14:42)
absolutely. even in the beauty creams So.
Maritza Worthington, FDN-P, CHNC (14:45)
Right? And fragrances, anything that is very fragrant that maybe isn't derived from something like essential oil, that could definitely be a red flag for phthalates.
Jessica (14:52)
-huh.
definitely. And if you're not familiar with any of these terms, don't worry because it takes some time and it takes some research and digging don't panic, don't worry.
there are just too many resources that you can lean on to get you to the right place.
Maritza Worthington, FDN-P, CHNC (15:13)
So, you know, I like what you're saying. about, you know, not getting overly stressed about this, right? Because that's not great for hormones either. That's why I want to reiterate, you know, it is a journey, right? And I still kind of find myself, something might be in my makeup bag and I'm like, okay, that one's got to go. You know, it's okay, right? We need to give ourselves, I think, grace as women. And it's like any little micro step that you can take.
Jessica (15:14)
Mm -hmm.
Mm -hmm.
Mm -hmm.
Yeah.
Maritza Worthington, FDN-P, CHNC (15:41)
matters, it counts. Because it's just slowly decreasing that toxic load, right? And you're like gaining good credit in the body again. So yeah, I just kind of wanted to feed off of that.
Jessica (15:43)
Mm -hmm.
Mm -hmm.
if people are experiencing anything like infertility, what would the first step be when someone comes to you with an issue like that?
Maritza Worthington, FDN-P, CHNC (16:03)
So if you're looking to optimize fertility, also have more like peaceful regular periods, the first step would just be to set up a clarity call with me. That way we can just identify, okay, what are your goals? What are your body's needs? Because everybody is so different. So I like to really personalize that health journey for women.
I think that's what makes it so different than just going to the doctor and getting a 15 minute consult versus really spending that time to dive deeply, get to know these women individually, and then tailor a plan that is really conducive to what they're looking to accomplish because so much of this can be done naturally.
there's so much that we can do with functional medicine to really get to the root of the problem.
Jessica (16:57)
I don't want to overwhelm people with too much, and I also don't want it to feel like gloom and doom because there are definitely things that people can do. So what steps can someone take to start their plastic detox journey for achieving healthier hormones?
Maritza Worthington, FDN-P, CHNC (17:15)
Yes, I love this because there's always something that we can do about all of it. And that's why, you know, I love doing what I do. It's like, what's the point if we, you know, if I can't create change in people's lives. And the reality is, you know, you can start to take back control starting today after listening to this episode. And some of the things that you can start to do are just incorporating more cruciferous vegetables in your diet. So that helps to, you know, detox the body.
So it helps to bind out that excess estrogen. You can include some binders. You know, I would say probably work with a practitioner to get like a more tailored binder recommendation. But I would say chlorella is kind of like a nice place to start. If you are currently pregnant listening to this, you can also intake chlorella in your diet. So totally safe. Other things you can do are make sure that when you're exercising, bring yourself to the point of actually sweating.
That'll help clear out a little bit more plastic from the body. And then of course, you know, incorporating more stainless steel, glass, porcelain, slowly, little by little, swapping out your plastic containers for things like that.
Jessica (18:27)
Yes, that's a lot of great information Because if you had to start doing the research, I think it would take a while to get up to speed to figure out all these little hacks that you just gave.
I always like to just make sure that you're connecting with an expert like you to get the right advice and get on the right path.
Maritza Worthington, FDN-P, CHNC (18:48)
Absolutely, so it's always good to get more personalized in your health journey because that way we can really identify Okay, what are the things that we need to clear from the body? And what are the things that your body needs more of right and we can only really find that out through personalized testing and I use a lot of that within my practice So then we can identify. Okay. These are the minerals that are getting way too low in your body
these are the toxins that are reaching higher than normal levels, right? That way you're not worried about all the toxins out there. We're just worried about the ones that are getting a little too high. Okay, now we can identify those and start to clear it. So I think having that clarity can be just, can make a huge difference when it comes to the health journey. That way you're not just kind of shooting in the dark when it comes to supplements and you're not like guessing or.
over Googling, trying to figure it out, you can get more clear answers and then we can really tailor a plan that's based around that.
Jessica (19:53)
I think that's so important to point out because you can have three people with all the same symptoms but with different causes, right? Like different external circumstances and different lifestyle. so each person,
is going to have a totally different journey to get back to their health. And the only way to do that really is to work with a professional such as yourself and build that plan that is based on their particular story.
plastic is the one maybe common puzzle piece that everybody can probably take away and do so much better but.
all the other little things can be completely individualized
Maritza Worthington, FDN-P, CHNC (20:39)
Absolutely.
Jessica (20:40)
I know that you do a clarity call to help people, so how does that work?
Maritza Worthington, FDN-P, CHNC (20:45)
So the clarity call is there if you want to just connect and see if this could be a really good fit. And just so I can get to know you and what are your health goals and how can I specifically help your unique needs. So the clarity call is there for that. And it's just a quick 15, 20 minute call. And the way to set that up is through either my Instagram, @Hormonealchemist, or you can find me on hormonalchemist .com. And there's a button there that you can push.
So you could set up a clarity call with me and then that way we can just chat and figure out how to best target any sort of hormone imbalance issues that you're going through, period problems, and also just how to optimize fertility. So all of that is available on my website.
Jessica (21:32)
Yes, which it is a beautiful website. And you also have your guide. I love your guide. And talk a little bit about that because that's another wonderful resource for people if they're not quite sure what's happening or if they want to reach out to you for a clarity call just at this time. But I really love that resource.
Maritza Worthington, FDN-P, CHNC (21:36)
Thank you.
Absolutely. So the path to peaceful periods is my free guide on the website. And you know, I like to think of a woman's period as like a menstrual report card that really informs us so much about our overall health. Because a woman's period is tied to her energy. It's tied to her fertility. It's tied to just so many functions in the body, right? So if you're curious to know if your period is actually healthy,
normal, quote unquote normal, what is normal anyway, then you want to make sure that you opt in for that guide so that you can go through the checklist and see what it is that you need to work on versus what might be already working for you. So I have a lot of women who have found it to be very eye -opening because a lot of things that we have been told are normal aren't actually normal, like things like PMS that we've sort of.
accepted as a society, you know, is not actually normal, right? That is the body saying there's something up here. And a lot of that can also be linked to things like mineral deficiencies. So make sure you check that out if you're curious to know more.
Jessica (23:06)
And you have a Facebook group.
Maritza Worthington, FDN-P, CHNC (23:08)
Yeah, so it's called the Body Literate Babe Collective and it's a free Facebook group. So if you opt in for the Path to Peaceful Periods Guide, you'll also get automatic access into the group where I do free trainings. I also do occasional free master classes. So that's a great way to challenge yourself and really start to take some positive steps towards detoxing and balancing your hormones naturally.
So I hope if there's any like big takeaway from our chat today, it's that, you know, if you're listening to this and you're a woman who just wants to take positive action, like hopefully you feel confident to do so, you feel empowered to do so. And also, you know, I want to make sure that we don't have any worry and fear around, my God, I have so much plastic. Maybe you're like looking around your house as you're listening to this and you're like, I have so many plastic items. Like, what am I going to do?
Well, you know, that's why resources are here and I think available to tap into. And I know that Jessica has also such a great resource with her free ebook where she gives you links to products that you can start to look into. I know I found it very valuable as a new mother. So I was really looking at the part where you were talking about baby toys and things like that. So it's like it applies to any woman, whether you're a mother or you're not.
Jessica (24:32)
Mm -hmm.
Maritza Worthington, FDN-P, CHNC (24:33)
you're going through menopause, no matter where you're at in your journey, you know, you could definitely pull inspiration from that resource.
Jessica (24:40)
Aw, thank you so much. I appreciate that. And that's why I made it.
I felt like making a resource like...
that would take away a lot of that stress and overwhelm to do the research. So yeah, that's why I did that. And also that's part of what inspired me to even start this podcast was to give a resource that people can turn to for finding out about how to live a healthier life.
in alignment with Mother Nature as well. So I think sustainability and wellness are directly connected.
Maritza Worthington, FDN-P, CHNC (25:12)
Absolutely. And I think, you know, similar to the hormone health journey, we need to constantly tell ourselves progress over perfection, right?
Jessica (25:20)
That is the message.
so that it doesn't hold you back from doing something. So I love that you made that point
Maritza Worthington, FDN-P, CHNC (25:26)
100%. Well, thank you so much for having me. It's been an absolute pleasure talking to all things plastic and hormone health with you.
Jessica (25:27)
Yes.
I loved this conversation. Thank you for joining me. And for everyone who wants to have links for how to connect with Maritza, they will be in the show notes as well as a link to my guide. So thank you for joining me on this episode.