Parasites: What Is The Big Deal? Part 2

If you haven’t read Part 1 of Parasites: What Is The Big Deal, be sure to check that out, and then come here. I would like to arm and inform you with the best information. Today we will cover how to eat on a parasite cleanse. In part 3 we will cover the detox pathway of sweating.

How To Eat On A Parasite Cleanse

I talked about this a little bit in part one, but I really wanted to drive home the importance of this topic because there is a lot of propaganda, fear mongering, and truly wrong thinking when it comes to this topic. As a matter of fact, one of the brands of parasite cleanses that I really like and am an affiliate for speaks about eating in a completely opposite way than I do. When it comes to food I believe in longevity, nutrient density, sustainability, delicious flavor, and eating whole real foods. These standards should not change while on a parasite cleanse. The reason I say this is your body needs to be strong in order to cleanse. It shouldn’t be weakened or have whole food groups removed. That can backfire quickly.

What often is touted by some influencers and companies is going on a plant based diet when cleansing from parasites. I couldn’t disagree more. The reasoning behind this is we can get parasites from animals foods, but I really just think it’s more vegan propaganda that somehow got mixed up in parasite cleansing. For some reason in the wellness space we think plant foods are so glamorous, but the truth is that there’s just as many parasites and bacteria on plants. Foods like raw milk, red meat, organ meats, bone marrow, meat stock, butter/ghee, cheese, and eggs are powerhouses of nutrition. Our bodies need that nutrition to fuel us and give us the energy to let go of what no longer serves us, in this case an overgrowth of parasites. This all comes down to proper knowledge and knowing how to take care of our bodies on the daily.

In fact, what I’d recommend before cleansing is learning exactly how much nutrition your body actually needs. If you often skip meals, have no idea how much animal protein you are eating, or you don’t often consume animal based protein, then this is a great time to start rearranging those habits, and finding answers to these questions. You can find out what you need on your own, but it can be tricky sometimes with conflicting information. You can also hire a reputable animal based or traditional foods focused health coach or dietitian. I highly recommend the Weston A Price Foundation to begin learning about the best foods to consume. I cannot sing enough praises about the book, Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon Morell to learn even more.

I stress protein from animal sources because it is the most bio-available for our bodies, that means we absorb protein best from animal foods. Plant foods are wonderful, I’m not anti-plant, but I do not rely on it for my protein goals. Most individuals do well with a gram of protein per pound of ideal body weight. So if you weigh 125 pounds, then in a day, you’d shoot for 125 grams of animal based protein. A minimum to make a daily goal is 100 grams of daily protein intake then you can work up from there. Make 100 grams your daily goal though and don’t dip below it. Our body’s muscular system needs a dramatic amount of protein to keep us operating. Protein does so many important jobs in our bodies. If we do not fuel ourselves enough, we can experience muscle loss due to our body basically eating our muscle just to get the protein since our muscle is made from protein. Over time that creates big problems. This is much easier to figure out with an inexpensive kitchen scale. You don’t need to weigh your food forever, that’s not even practical. This can be a great way to introduce exactly how much you really do need. For 3-5 days, weigh/measure your protein on your plate. You may be very surprised at how much your body actually needs. I really feel like once we get our protein underway, the carbs and fat can often figure themselves out. Another great tool is the website or up Cronometer.com. You can see how much protein are in certain foods there.

This is not a post on weight-loss. Most people do not under eat fat or carbs though unless they are under misguided fear mongered information. I am of the camp that we need fat and carbs. I believe they should be whole and healthy as possible. I’ll discuss what to avoid below. We can overeat both healthy carbs and fat, but again, that’s not the focus today.

TIP: Say thank you, take a slow deep breath before you eat, eat protein first, and then the rest of the foods on your plate. Chew everything well. This combination of habits will often signal fullness, and will restrict over eating of the rest in most cases.

If you have trouble digesting animals foods, especially meats or dairy, it was worth working with a practitioner to have some testing done. Often times there is much needed gut healing that has to take place. Histamine intolerance is a common issue, which can be resolved. Low stomach acid is also very common. There can be nutritional deficiencies as well. We need certain minerals, like zinc for instance, to be able to process and digest red meat. Ironically, red meat is a food high in zinc. The test I recommend beginning with first, and may be the only test needed is the HTMA. That stands for hair tissue mineral analysis. You want to find a practitioner well versed in reading HTMAs because they are not a standard test taught how to interpret. Minerals are the power sparks of life in our bodies. It’s a process to begin getting the specific minerals needed and it’s not once size fits all. You always want to go food first, and if needed, use supplementation for a period of time. I don’t say this to make things more complicated, but to shed light.

What To Avoid Eating

To be honest, what we need to avoid is not any different than what normally should be avoided. I am an advocate for a Biblically based whole food diet. If you are not a follower of Yeshua or Scripture, you may not understand what that means or looks like. In fact even if you are a believer, you may not know what that looks like due to misunderstandings from reading and disordered teaching handed down over the years. That’s a whole other conversation. To keep it really simple and stick to the food, the Lord Yah, Yeshua, and Holy Spirit set forth what were considered food for humans. That included non-poisonous plants such as herbs, fruits, beans/legumes, vegetables, nuts, seeds, as well as ruminant animals (cows/bison, deer, antelope, goats, sheep), some birds (chicken, duck, turkey, quail), and fish with fins and scales. It’s a fairly wide variety. Animals eliminated are scavengers on land, air, and sea, shell fish, pig/boar, rodents, reptiles/amphibians, most insects. The insect part is debatable, when it comes to what was written in the Bible about John the Baptist and locusts. I’m choosing not to consume locusts, but that’s up to your own discernment. When you learn about parasite content of some of these animals, the way they digest their food,, and the fact that certain animals have very important jobs as clean up crews, you can begin to understand why it may not be best to eat them. In these modern times for health, we also want to eliminate ultra-processed foods, artificial colors, natural and artificial flavors, artificial sweeteners, and commercial seed oils.

Specifically, when it comes to meats, I want to say this, ground meats, especially beef is FANTASTIC! It is the least expensive cut typically, and full of nutrition. It is one of the easiest ways to eat nose to tail because there are so many ligaments and valuable parts of the animal in ground beef. Do not think you need expensive cuts to be healthy! If you can get it regenerative and grass finished from a local farmer, that’s tremendous. If that’s not in your budget, that’s okay! Even conventional beef is full of nutrient density.

When it comes to plant foods, organic practices is best. We just avoid so many nasty chemicals like glyphosate when we choose organic. As your farmers what their practices are and tell them you prefer organic practices even if they are not USDA certified. If organic is not an option for your budget, look into the Dirty Dozen and the Clean Fifteen. TIP: Frozen organic veggies and fruits are often less expensive at the store.

There are better and best ways to prepare or consume many of these foods, but I’m not getting too deep into that information here. I will say that during the parasite cleanse you want to be as kind to your gut and digestive system as possible. We want to stick to warmer cooked meals, soups, stews, and cooked veggies over raw. If you include beans/legumes, it’s preferred to soak dry ones overnight in filtered for 12-14 hours before cooking over canned. Raw lacto-fermented veggies are perfectly fine like sauerkraut and kimchi. if you don’t tolerate these, it’s generally due to a histamine intolerance and further needed gut healing. Stick to just the warm, cooked foods for now. Nuts and seeds are best in smaller amounts, and soaked/sprouted as well. Nut butters are not recommended regularly simply because there’s so many nuts in a serving and they aren’t often prepared properly.

I do not believe in general that everyone should be gluten free, but I wouldn’t include conventional wheat during a cleanse or not. It’s highly sprayed with glyphosate and other chemicals. White flour is completely devoid of nutrition and even with 100% whole wheat, it’s very hard to absorb the nutrition, and many unfavorable things go on today with the selling of flour in the bags on the shelves. If you don’t mill your organic whole grain flour and make your own bread, or consume authentic whole grain long fermented sourdough, then during the cleanse I would consider reducing or not consuming breads right now. I am not a fan of most gluten free flours and products. Many are full of unhealthy ingredients and glyphosate.

If you regularly do dairy, it’s a wonderful source of protein and healthy fat. Keep it raw if possible and you have access. Raw milk is a super-food. If not, and you purchase store bought pasteurized dairy, keep it organic and A2 casein (casein is one of the proteins in dairy). A2 protein is the same dairy protein as human breast milk, so our bodies digest it much better. It can be hard to find, but vat-pasteurized, non-homogenized dairy from the store is best when it comes to pasteurized. If you see low temp pasteurized that’s good too. You get brownie points if you can find it in glass, but if not, it will be okay. Foods bought in glass, especially liquids, most definitely fat based liquids, are always better in glass. You could even pour it into large glass mason jars upon getting home, I do this sometimes with my raw milk, but otherwise, just pray over your food. The last thing I want to do is make you stressed out about your milk container. I also like giving as much information as possible, and then you can do with it as you are able and have bandwidth for in your life if that makes sense. Raw cheeses are optimal as well. Organic store-bought pasteurized yogurts are fine. We want to stick to unflavored (there’s way too much sugar in the flavored ones), again A2 casein if you can find it, grass finished or regenerative. The brand Alexandre Farms is really good, so is Pastureland Sisters. Yogurt is not typically homogenized and is easier to digest. I love kefir, but if you are buying it for the probiotics, it’s really best homemade from actual kefir grains. The amount of probiotics in store-bought kefir is very minimal. It also isn’t cultured using grains, it’s using a powder, and at that rate you might as well just get yogurt. I just don’t want you to waste your money. Of course it’s still a great addition for bio-available protein, so you make the call there.

The best fats to cook with are ghee, butter, tallow, and organic coconut oil. I like to buy them from Azure Standard. I have cooked with olive oil, and still do, but I try not to very often because even though it has a 400 degree smoke point, the composition of that particular fat changes when heated. High quality authentic olive oil is also very expensive. So it pains me to use a lot of it at once. Oliveoillovers.com is a wonderful source to learn more about olive oil. It’s better to use it over foods, for dipping, and in dressings. You will hear debate on that, but that’s where I stand. I stopped cooking with avocado oil years ago because most was tested to be rancid or cut with commercial seed oils. I don’t avoid it when out, but I don’t purchase bottles of it.

Salt is such an important part of our diet. Sadly, I still hear people say today that salt is bad. So it’s a mixed message because some salt really is bad, like standard table salt. Many salts have been stripped of minerals, bleached (yes with chlorine), and has anti-caking chemicals added to it. It’s an anti-health food. However, real unrefined sea salt is a gift from God. Did you realize in scripture that we as believers are considered salt and light? Matthew 5:48 says,”You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” Salt adds flavor and it purifies. Spiritually, we are to show what is good and keep it holy and pure. Sea salt is full and rich with much needed minerals keeping us hydrated and more. Sea salt added to our foods supports healthy stomach acid, which is so important. We want to make sure the sea salt we use is free from microplastics. Microplastics are a huge problem in the oceans today with the amount of plastic disposed of in our waterways. We have a variety of natural salts in our home. My favorite is Baja Gold. Use the discount code: KHW to save 10% off your purchase. When making lacto-fermentations with vegetables though, I really like Jacobsens. We are also fans of Crucial Four, you can use our first time customer discount code: KHWCRUCIAL10.

One last avoid that comes to mind during this time is alcohol. It is common knowledge that alcohol is a stress to the liver. During this time we want our liver fully supported. So while cleansing I’d consider abstaining.

Conclusion

If you stuck with me this far, thank you! I hope it does not seem overly complicated. If you are used to more of a standard American diet, and these whole food concepts, and food preparations, and suggestions are all new to you, it’s okay. At the end of the day, we want to be eating, whole real foods. I hope these suggestions are helpful. You should be well nourished during a parasite cleanse, if that is something you and your practitioner decide is best for you. There are affiliate links throughout the blog. You are never required to purchase through them, but if you do, I thank you in advance for supporting my work! I get a small percentage back from that company if you decide to make a purchase and it’s at no extra cost to you.