Sometimes, going out to eat may seem like an end to clean eating. 

However, we can still make healthy choices! In this episode, we go over the gold standards of eating out and how to navigate our menu options.

Watch the live show below:

The Gold Standards of Eating Out 

The first gold standard of eating out is making sure your meal is 100% organic. 

By this, I mean that every food item in that restaurant is organic. You should ask places when you go if their food is organic. Asking lets the owners know that organic food is important to us. This is achievable. 

Major companies look at trends and what’s bringing them money. So if we’re demanding a product with our words and money, we will start to see more of it. 

The second gold standard is ordering gluten-free food.

Gluten by itself isn’t necessarily bad for us. Gluten is a wheat protein, and hundreds of years ago we could digest it well because it was coming directly from the plant and had a short oxidation process. 

However, now most of us have been beating up our guts for years, leaving our gut health vulnerable. 

A lot of our population has developed some level of leaky gut, and now, we can’t break down the gluten molecular structure. Glutens get into our gut, seep through, and then rack havoc on the rest of our body. 

In a nutshell, gluten creates an inflammatory response for a minimum of thirty days, and this inflammation can last up to one hundred days.

The third gold standard of eating out is ensuring that your meal is canola-oil free and vegetable-oil free. 

Canola oil is a combination of different grape seeds. Our bodies can not process canola oil, meaning our guts don’t know what to do with it when it enters the body. Even if it’s organic canola oil, it still should be a pass.  

If it’s from nature, your bodies know how to digest it. Our fat cells increase in size for two reasons: to carry excess energy storage and to protect us from toxins. When we eat chemical-laden foods or foods that our guts can’t process, the toxins get stored in fat cells. 

When you go out to eat, watch out for the olive oil that you’re served. Normally organic olive oil is fine to eat. However, oftentimes restaurants will use a blend of oils. Make sure to ask if the oil they’re serving is a blend of oil olive and canola oil. 

These toxins are very difficult to get out of the gut and they cause things like fatty liver. 

The last gold standard of eating out is a soy-free meal. 

Soy, like canola oil, is another food that cooks sneak into ingredients. Soy can be good for you, but only if it’s organic. However, now in our country, close to 95% of soy farms are using GMOs. 

Soy is a phytoestrogen, which means that the soy spikes our estrogen levels. When you eat soy, E2 is spiked, and this is the estrogen that is predominant in breast cancer. 

Soy also downregulates thyroid function. 

Local Produced Compared to Organic 

The USDA organic certification process takes a lot of time and money. Most local farmers simply don’t have the resources to go through that process. 

So this means that you won’t know if your local farmer’s food is organic unless you have a relationship with him or her. 

At farmers markets, they will often tell you if their produce and meats are organic. So if a package says “local” in a supermarket, it doesn’t mean that it’s organic. 

The True Cost of Food 

The cost of healthy food is the true cost of food, and the cost of chemical-laden, toxic food is the cost of cheap food. 

We’ve been manipulated by marketing to think that the toxic food with GMOs, which can be produced at a cheaper price, is the normal cost of food. 

The amazing thing about getting healthier is that you don’t need to eat as much food because your food is nourishing you. 

What Do Organic and GMO Mean? 

 It starts with the soil and how the food is farmed. When you buy organic food, the farm that it comes from uses no pesticides, no herbicides, and no chemicals to grow their food. 

We don’t want our products to absorb chemicals. 

GMO foods are genetically modified. Food scientists manipulate the seeds so that they’re herbicide-resistant. In other words, the chemical is bred into the actual seed. If we eat GMOs, then we consume glyphosate daily, which is the chemical in the pesticide Roundup.

Gluten and Hypothyroidism 

Gluten is a protein that our guts attack when it enters our bodies, creating inflammation. When eating out, a gluten-free option is going to be healthier. If we’re not mindful of how much gluten is in our lives, it can cause a leaky gut. 

This is especially important for women who struggle with hypothyroidism. 

The gluten structure looks also identical to the structure of your thyroid hormones. Your immune system attacks gluten structures, but then also attacks thyroid hormones. 

Luckily, eating gluten-free food has never been easier. More and more restaurants are offering gluten-free alternatives because people have demanded them. 

While you should always watch for gluten in your bread, gluten is often hidden in other foods when you eat out. Many salad dressings have gluten and MSGs in them.

What if You Can’t Meet the Gold Standards? 

Bring a digestive enzyme with you!

I use Zypan. It adds hydrochloric acid to your stomach and helps you break down things your body usually has trouble processing. By having the additional stomach support, you’re changing the whole game. Zypan helps you absorb collagen and vitamin B better as well. I usually take two right before the meal or during the meal. 

Also, if you order water, get lemon with it. Lemon is bitter that awakens your digestive system.

Questions from the Audience 

What’s the best way to heal a leaky gut? How long does it take to heal? 

Until proven otherwise, everyone has a leaky gut. If you haven’t been eating organic your entire life, you have some kind of leaky gut. Likewise, if you’ve ever been on antibiotics, you have a leaky gut. Chemicals get into our systems and start beating down the gut microbiome. 

There’s not a simple answer to healing a leaky gut. However, if you change your gut health you will change your life. 

I am living proof of this. I used to think that feeling bloated after I ate was normal. It took me a while to heal my gut because I was learning as I was going. Strategies to heal leaky gut have only been around for the last 6-8 years. 

To heal a leaky gut, it will take a minimum of six months to a year, but you will start to feel so much better in as soon as 30 days. 

I usually purchase free-range eggs that are vegetarian-fed. What qualifiers are the most important when it comes to eggs? 

The highest standard for eggs is organic, pasture-raised eggs.

Those are the most important. Unfortunately, cage-free just means that they’ve lived in a barn their whole life and most likely never saw the light of day. A lot of the time, farmers feed chickens very low-quality food that is even mixed with feces. 

What is one action that we can take today after this episode to move us toward becoming superhuman?

Continue to raise the bar. Raise your own bar. Then, continue to share this information, spread the love, and help others raise the bar as well.

Dr. Bart Precourt

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