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It's not just about diet and exercise - your environment plays a massive role in your health. In this episode, Dr. Barrett breaks down the top five environmental factors quietly driving chronic illness: processed food, indoor air quality, plastics and endocrine disruptors, light exposure and circadian disruption, and noise/constant stimulation. Rather than overwhelming you with a total lifestyle overhaul, he gives one practical, doable action for each - so you can start lowering your toxic load this week.
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Watch the episode on YouTube here!
DISCLAIMER
This content is strictly the opinion of Dr. Barrett Deubert and is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide medical advice or to replace medical advice or treatment from a physician. All viewers of this content are advised to consult their doctors or qualified health professionals regarding health questions and concerns. Neither Dr. Deubert nor the Real Health Co. takes responsibility for possible health consequences of any person or persons reading or following the information in this educational content. All audience members, especially those taking prescription or over-the-counter medications, should consult their physicians before beginning any nutrition, supplement, or lifestyle program.
. . .
Watch the episode on YouTube here!
- (00:00) - Intro
- (02:04) - #1: Processed Foods
- (04:42) - #2: Indoor Air Quality
- (08:03) - #3: Plastics & Endocrine Disruptors
- (11:27) - #4: Light & Circadian Rhythm
- (13:09) - #5: Noise & Stimulation
- (16:34) - Recap
- (17:53) - Closing Thoughts
DISCLAIMER
This content is strictly the opinion of Dr. Barrett Deubert and is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide medical advice or to replace medical advice or treatment from a physician. All viewers of this content are advised to consult their doctors or qualified health professionals regarding health questions and concerns. Neither Dr. Deubert nor the Real Health Co. takes responsibility for possible health consequences of any person or persons reading or following the information in this educational content. All audience members, especially those taking prescription or over-the-counter medications, should consult their physicians before beginning any nutrition, supplement, or lifestyle program.
Creators and Guests
What is The Real Health Podcast?
On a mission to share practical solutions to improve your wellbeing, The Real Health Podcast will equip you with evidence-based recommendations essential to achieving a healthy lifestyle. Join Dr. Barrett Deubert as he shares his passion for educating, inspiring, and empowering individuals to achieve “real health for real people”. Breaking down health topics such as: immunity, stress, real food, natural living, and much more to provide you with actionable steps to improving your family’s health.
If you are eating processed foods on average, you're consuming about 500 additional calories per day. And a lot of people say, like, well, I'm not eating much. How am I gaining so much weight? And we have to look at the the, significant dense calorie content of processed foods. Welcome back to another episode of the Real Health Podcast.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:Today, we're gonna talk about the top five things in our environment that is making us sick and, and then what to do about them. So the top five biggest issues that I see environmentally so what's in our environment? What are we living in that we can absolutely make a make a change to that would directly improve our health outcome? And And so today's really just about environmental health, and I wanna make it really practical because when you hear things like mold or plastics or toxins or air pollution and processed foods, right, it can feel sometimes overwhelming to make all these changes, and just to, like, sell your house, go live in the woods, but that's not the goal. Right?
Dr. Barrett Deubert:We're not gonna live in a perfectly pure environment. It's impossible. So the goal today is just to identify those big rocks that we can get out of our backpack and help our bodies heal. Right? Like, it's what I talk about a lot is bioaccumulation.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:It's it's the the day in and day out accumulation of loads from heavy metals to plastic petroleum to, to environmental toxins to mold, that that adds up or stockpiles and becomes a burden that we can't process anymore. So we can start today. Pick one out of the five today that you can directly start to make an impact with, and and help turn turn your health around. So these are gonna be extremely practical. You may be doing some, maybe not all.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:Let's go through it. The first one, I think most of the listeners are doing this, but it is it is essential to communicate. You've gotta remove processed foods. The first and biggest environmental problem isn't what we're breathing, it's what we're eating. And when it comes to a food environment dominated by products engineered to make them incredibly easy to consume, non satiable, we want more.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:There are refined carbohydrates. Are added sugars. There's, industrially formulated foods that just make it hyperpalatable. Right? And these calories come at a cost.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:When we look at the National Institute of Health study, we see that people eating an ultra processed diet roughly consume 500 more calories per day and obviously gain significant more weight compared to those that ate same individuals who ate minimally processed foods. The variable was processed foods. Right? So if you are eating processed foods on average, you're consuming about 500 additional calories per day. And a lot of people say, like, well, I'm not eating much.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:How am I gaining so much weight? And we have to look at the the, significant dense calorie content of processed foods. And and we don't wanna necessarily, like, you know, strive for perfection because we're we're not gonna be perfect here, but I would start with one rule. And the one rule is eat food that looks like food. Right?
Dr. Barrett Deubert:Eat god food, not man food. So meat, eggs, vegetables, fruits, rice, potatoes, nuts, seeds, healthy oils, whole foods. That is that is what we should center our nutrition around. And and so the challenge for the week is let's get into our pantry. Let's look at the processed foods that are in our pantry, and let's just let's just get anything that's over, you know, fifteen, twenty ingredients long.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:Right? Those are processed foods. Even if it's organic, even if it's gluten free, like when we're ten, fifteen, 20 ingredients in the list, that's an issue. That is a processed food item. You're like, but but I bought it from Whole Foods.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:It's processed, but but but it says organic. It's processed if it has that many ingredients. So so flip the labels around. Look at this week to see what foods you think are healthy that have been labeled healthy but are truly processed. If it's over if it's over a dozen ingredients, chances are it's not healthy, and it's a processed food.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:Number two. Alright. Indoor air. Air quality is of the utmost importance in in driving a healthy environment internally because we have more plastics in our environment and VOCs, volatile organic chemicals and compounds in our environment than ever before. Everything is made of glues, of plastics, of petroleum, of formaldehyde, cancer causing agents.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:It's in all of the furniture. It's in your bed. It's in the mattress, what you sleep on eight hours a night. It's in the sheets. It's in your clothes.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:It's in your air quality, especially if you're in the kind of the Knoxville area, the East Tennessee region. Right? As things get dampened, as you're in a in a basement setting, I mean, there's tons of mold exposure that we could potentially be breathing in. And so indoor air can contain particulate matter of like smoke and cooking emissions and allergens and excess moisture, mold related contaminants, volatile organic compounds, radon. Right?
Dr. Barrett Deubert:And we wanna make sure that we are ventilating our homes because our homes could be making us sick. One of the best ways to reduce the environmental burden of toxins is to start with your bedroom. And I mean, you spend nearly a third of your life in your bedroom if you sleep eight hours a night. Think about the practicality of of that. Right?
Dr. Barrett Deubert:How much time are you spending in your home versus your bedroom? So in our bedrooms, we we ventilate. We filter. We literally have a a a a filtration unit running all night long. It's also kind of our natural sound machine, and as we ventilate and filter and control moisture, we remove these sources of toxins.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:And so a few practical changes is use a properly sized HEPA air filter. I think a hair purifier, I think you can just start the basics. A HEPA air purifier is fantastic. Make sure you're changing your HVAC air filters on monthly basis. I think there's we we have a unit called a Molekule, which is an air purifier, and it it addresses more of the VOCs and chemicals.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:You can look at getting a little bit more of, a fancier upgrade to your air purifier, but most people would just benefit from a HEPA in their rooms and changing their HVAC air filters on a regular basis. Control the moisture, and those three things would add a lot of value to your air purification. And then just keep an eye out for any water damage because that is sneaky as that builds a lot of sickness in patients with if you have chronic sinusitis, chronic asthma like symptoms, chronic allergy like symptoms, eczema, we should be very mindful that there may be high mold environments in our home. Number three, plastics and endocrine disruptors. Like, endocrine disrupting chemicals and plastics are a major issue, and this is the category I think most more families should understand without necessarily being afraid of everything around them.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:But when we look at food packaging, plastics, pesticides, cosmetics, personal care products, our household items, what we sleep on, what we put on our bodies, right, it's these are all endocrine disrupting chemicals, hormone disrupting chemicals that are affecting us at hormonal cellular level, and we wanna be mindful that these cancer causing agents that we're living in. And so does that mean drinking out of a plastic water bottle once every few weeks is causing significant damage? No. But if we're drinking out of plastic, heating up in plastic, putting on plastic clothing items, sleeping in plastic, right, that burden elevates over time, and we wanna we wanna make it practical and minimize and eliminate where we can. So one of the biggest rule of thumbs, and I know most of you aren't doing this, but if you're doing this, you have to stop immediately.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:You know, right now, today. Cannot heat up any items that that are in plastic. Alright? Do not do not even put do not even, you know, strain hot something, right, boiling water in in a plastic strainer. Do not put hot food items on plastic, quote unquote, plates or disposable plates.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:Do not consume hot items with plastic silverware. Heat plus plastic is something you really wanna minimize. If you were to do anything, just avoid heat and plastic. That's where we get a ton more, exposure to plastic in our environment. Don't microwave food in plastic.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:Store hot things in glass and Pyrex. Use glass and Pyrex when you can, or or stainless steel, grade eighteen eight stainless steel when you drink your water. Don't leave plastic water bottles cooking in a hot car and then drink that. You're like giving your kids like, here's a water bottle, and they're sitting at the soccer game or baseball game. It's just sitting in their bag, and it's a 105 heat index, and they're just drinking out of that plastic.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:I mean, it's a major endocrine disruptor. Put it in a big Stanley. Put it in a big YETI. Right? Like, fill up their water bottles and and use stainless steel or glass when you can.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:Replace heavily worn, like, plastic food containers. You know, I'm not gonna say don't have any plastic food containers. I would encourage it, but if you still have it, at least make sure that it's cold. And reduce unnecessary fragrances. Fragrances are major endocrine disruptors.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:So a lot of the cosmetics and beauty items, we gotta make sure aren't full of plastics, petroleum, parabens, as they can they can be detrimental to to your, hormonal system. So don't necessarily go home and throw everything out and be like, hey, listen to this podcast, but these are things to be mindful of and start making, upgrades as you slowly replace your home. Number four is the environmental toxin is light. We obviously live in a generation now that we can get light from any sources, flip on a switch, right, turn a dial, and we've got instant light that disrupts our circadian rhythm, and light is not an issue. Light at the wrong time is the issue.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:And human biology evolved around an extremely predictable environmental signal, the sun. Right? Light during the day, dark during the evening. Now we wake up indoors, work indoors, barely see the sunlight, stare at screens into the evening, get blue light exposure all the way in through the evening, and then turn every light on in the house at 9PM, and then wonder why obviously we're not sleeping well or waking up with energy. So light, based on your circadian biology is essential to upgrading your sleep and overall performance.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:It's not about claiming that your iPhone is poisoning you. It's about respecting just simple circadian biology. Hey, when it's supposed to be light, have the lights on. When it's supposed be dark, turn the turn the lights off. Right?
Dr. Barrett Deubert:Do blue light blocking glasses work? Yeah. They can if if you're grinding at night and and you truly do have to get something done, a project. Even if your kids are doing homework and it's it's 07:30 at night or 08:00 at night, don't disrupt their sleep by letting them grind on an iPad or a computer. Dim the screen down, take the blue light off, put the blue glasses on, and let them let them continue to roll.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:I think it, right, it's not perfection. It's making improvements. Make it practical. Right? Getting outside, and seeing the sun.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:If you're if you're if you're used to working indoors or your mom that's indoors a lot, right, like homeschooling and and and get outside. See the sunlight. It helps reset circadian biology. And before buying another just sleep supplement, consider resetting your circadian health by making sure you're cleaning up light environmental toxins. Number five, the last one is noise and constant simulation.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:It's funny how when we look at this list, two of which are technology. Right? Light and noise. But I do think that we are so used to being constantly stimulated. This is kind of like the sleeper on the list.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:You probably didn't think I was gonna say noise, but we're surrounded by stimulation, traffic, honks and horns, notifications, podcasts, music, TV, right? Phones, kids' devices, dings and alerts and notifications and work messages and emails, right? Like, there's just constant noise, constant noise, and many people rarely experience actual quiet. I mean, get caught up in that. Right?
Dr. Barrett Deubert:Like, even in my morning prayer time, I've got worship music on, and I'm I'm praying and and worshiping at the same time, but do I take time to embrace the quiets, embrace the moment of silence? And most of us, environmental noise, it's not just something that's annoying. Actually, the World Health Organization identifies excessive noise as a health risk associated with sleep disturbances and adverse cardiovascular, metabolic, and psychological outcomes. Research points to noise as being toxic to our biology. And I would broaden the practical conversation beyond just decibels to something I call nervous system load.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:Your nervous system can only process so much stimulation before it just doesn't it can't regulate anymore. Make it like super simple here. Okay? Let's make it super practical for you. Let's try just ten minutes once a day to be in complete quiet.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:That'd be a goal. Maybe maybe you don't know what it's like to be in your in your quiet. Right? And when you start to try to get quiet, your mind starts racing. It's because you haven't trained the quiet, the stillness of the soul.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:And I I would just encourage you, no podcast, no music, no scrolling, no television, just sit and be, right? If you got a place outside in your backyard, just sit and be ten minutes, pray, you know, breathe, sit quietly, meditate on on a scripture. I think letting your nervous system experience stillness is so important to removing or improving the threshold by which you can function on a day to day basis. You know, body has a total load, and we wanna make sure we're not stockpiling that burden, that load to a point where we're then having an inability to adapt and be resilient anymore, right? So it's not about one one issue.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:Right? It's cumulative factors, and and so it's poor food quality, poor air quality, chemical exposure, circadian disruption, to our biology, chronic noise and stimulation all add in to making us sicker. Our technology's great. Most of us can't control it well, and it's biting us in the rear. Technology with food, technology with lights, technology with noise and stimulation, technology in creating, substances that we're putting in our home, all of these, are a major factor in our health crisis that we're experiencing.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:So these are my top five. I would say some very practical just over the next week, a seven day Real Health Podcast environmental change. Number one, food. Make at least 80 of what you eat less than 10 ingredients or, on a box, on a bag, or in the fridge. Try to be as whole food as as possible.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:80% of the food you eat this week are 10 ingredients or less in a single item. Number two, air quality. Go home, check your HVAC air filters, change them if it's been a while, and go get a HEPA air filter and put it in your bedroom. Number three, stop heating. Heating.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:So plastic, stop heating plastic up. That's it. Put don't put anything warm in anything that's plastic. Number four, I want you to see the sun and walk outside. Even if it's cloudy, you still get the benefit.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:K? Ten minutes a day. Be outside ten minutes a day seeing the sun. Number five, take ten minutes, and this could be working together, four and five, ten minutes and be still and quiet. Maybe pick one, maybe pick two, maybe even pick three things of that five list and start applying today, and I guarantee it'll upgrade your health if we do it consistently.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:What we do consistently is who we are becoming today. What we do consistently is who we are becoming tomorrow. Let's get consistent in our health disciplines, and let's make it super practical. It's not about peptides. It's not about injections.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:It's not about hormones. It's not about supplements. It's about practical living. Do the basic things well. It'll upgrade your health in the long run.
Dr. Barrett Deubert:Thanks for listening to another episode of The Real Health Podcast.