A Clean Mommy & Baby with Alejandro Junger, M.D.

Welcome to Mama Goddess. I'm your host, Alexandra J. Johnson. This podcast is all about rocking your goddess life, creating vibrant health and celebrating motherhood and family life. It's about living an authentically awesome life. Let's have some fun.

Hello, I'm Alexander J. Johnson, and today's Amazing guest is Dr. Alejandro Junger. Dr. Junger is one of the world's leading functional medicine doctors and the author of Clean, which teaches us how to turn our detoxification systems on full speed while supporting our bodies to maximize their effectiveness. He also created the popular Clean Detox program that you can find@www.cleanprogram.com. welcome.

Hi.

So great to be chatting with you. I've definitely been inspired by your work and I'm so excited to tap into your wisdom around pregnancy and birth and nutrition and all of that. So thank you for being here.

Yes, my pleasure.

I'd love to start off just a little bit about your journey and what inspired you to become a doctor and then what led you to create the Clean program and do the work that you currently do.

I don't know what inspired me to become a doctor. I think it was my destiny. Ever since I remember being a little kid and when people asked me what I was going to do when I grew up, without a doubt, I always said, I want to be a doctor. One of the things that I was always inclined to is to help people, especially people that were suffering. And as a doctor, I realized I was able to do that a lot. So now that I look back, it was not just a coincidence. That was ingrained in me somehow. I studied medical school in Uruguay in South America. Then I moved to New York, and the change in lifestyle was so drastic that it started taking a toll on me. Mostly the greatest difference was the food that I was eating and of course, the food that I wasn't eating. I was eating from hospital cafeterias and vending machines. And when I had a free moment, I used to go to the supermarket and buy all things in boxes and jars and tubes and cans. And I started getting sick very soon after I arrived in New York and experiencing allergies. And then later on irritable bowel syndrome. And then I started really getting depressed. And I consulted an allergist, a gastroenterologist, and a psychiatrist. And I ended up with seven prescription medications to deal with my symptoms. And of course, me being a doctor, I knew already that none of these were directed to correct the dysfunction that was making the symptoms possible or causing the symptoms. They were just ways of killing the Symptoms. It was a little bit of like an insult to our biology. And I hadn't fallen into that realization until I was the one receiving the prescriptions. Because before that I was given prescriptions left, right and center. So the change in perception was so strong I couldn't go back to doing that even for my own patient. So I just quit and took off and went to India. And I lived in a monastery in India where I worked together with lots of practitioners from other modalities from all over the world. Chinese medicine, Ayurvedic medicine, chiropractors, hands on healers, and many, many other different ones. And they opened my mind to other ways of thinking about health. After that experience, I moved back to New York, sorry, to California and started working at three hospitals there and really did not enjoy going back into mainstream medicine and at the same time started getting sick again. So it wasn't until a patient of mine, a friend patient of mine, went to a detox center and came back 10 days later that I was just so blown away by his transformation. I decided to go and take a look at what they were doing there. And this was a holistic center called the We Care Spa in Desert Hot Springs near Palm Springs, where people do juice fasting and cleansing and detox and colonic hydrotherapy. And the transformation on this guy was so unbelievable that I decided to do the program myself. And by the tenth day of me doing the program, my symptoms completely disappeared. I lost 15 to 20 pounds. I looked and felt 10 years younger. So that really blew my mind. And I wanted to understand how that happened and how to recreate those results. And I dedicated the rest. I mean, I stopped working in hospitals and I really started researching and practicing and applying everything that I learned regarding cleansing and detox. And that's how eventually I came up with the clean program.

Amazing. I love your personal experience too. Not something that you just were studying and you've been healthy the whole time. I think I just love that you've kind of dug yourself out of illness and sickness and really are an example for us.

Well, the thing is, a lot of people say, oh, how great what you're doing and you wrote this book and, and they don't understand that this wasn't me just waking up one morning and saying, oh, I want to be a different kind of doctor and I want to go into alternative medicine because it's fashionable. That was far from my experience. I was just desperately looking for a solution for my own health issues that didn't include seven prescription medications and what I found was so powerful that everybody that saw me wanted to do the same thing. So I started learning about it and started using it as a tool for my medical practice. And it turned out to be really powerful.

And I'm just curious because a lot of times we think of cleansing and it's just a quick fix. I'm just curious about how long was it that you actually began to start noticing that your body was healing and you were healing from these symptoms?

The day that I started. By that night, things started changing. This is something that I hear from a lot of people. The changes are so, I mean, the worse you feel, the faster the changes are.

That's so great. That's awesome. So I'm curious, let's say a woman comes to you and wants to cleanse or wants to prepare to start a family. What would you advise her to do the clean program?

Well, definitely my knowledge of the issues related to conception and pregnancy is just from in the beginning, as an accident, as it were. Because what happened was a lot of women used to do the clean program and then come to me and say, I got pregnant and I couldn't get pregnant before. That was such a repeated common experience from so many women that I started actually advising women that couldn't get pregnant to do the clean program or something similar with incredible results. So that's how it opened my eyes to that association of cleansing and detox with. With the ability to conceive. So, yeah, I would tell if they want to go into something really detailed and organized, then do the clean program. And if they don't, if they just want to try the minimum, I would tell them to follow the elimination diet, just to eliminate the foods that are on the not allowed list of the clean elimination diet. And that is bread and pasta or anything with gluten, sugar, coffee, dairy products. For women that cannot get pregnant and want to get pregnant, especially eliminate all soy products in their diet for a while. Soy products have phytoestrogens or molecules that behave like estrogens, plant molecules. That's what's called phyto. The phytoestrogens kind of confuse the whole hormonal balance and many times prevent pregnancy, especially that. But coffee, alcohol, and when women do that, many times they get pregnant and sometimes they have to go a little further and do a cleansing and detox program like the clean program.

And then would you recommend that women prepare, like do this right before they get pregnant, or is this something that you'd recommend that they do three to six months before they're Thinking about starting a family. What is like the kind of ideal timeline?

Well, I'd say for anybody that lives in the modern world and is subject to, to the overload of toxins from the outside and also the deceleration of their detoxification systems. Because of the way that we eat three or four times a day, that slows down the detox process in our body. I'd say anybody, even if you don't want to get pregnant, even if you're a man program. Now, it happens that if somebody's looking to get pregnant and cannot, then I say do the clean program and then after that get pregnant. Don't try getting pregnant during the detox program. And if you get pregnant, stop cleansing and detoxing. Just eat from the clean elimination diet, Right?

So if someone is pregnant, then obviously we wouldn't recommend them to do the clean program with all the supplementation, but do the elimination diet and implement the smoothies and juices in the morning and evening. Would that be okay?

The bottom line is everybody should be on the elimination diet because most the foods that are on the no list of the elimination diet are what's keeping our society sick. Now, if you're pregnant, more of a reason to be on the elimination diet. So as a basis for any woman that's pregnant, going on the elimination diet is great. And some of the things that are on the list are very obvious, like sugar to avoid gestational diabetes and all its complications, and alcohol, of course, to avoid birth defects and other problems. But there's many other foods that are not going to benefit you in the best case scenario and harm you in the worst case scenario. So yeah, that's important. Now if you get pregnant or if you are breastfeeding, then no cleansing and detox programs. Just eat your regular three meals a day or whatever it is that you eat from the elimination diet, right?

So you are obviously genius at toxins and the knowledge around toxins. Can you just share a little bit about what is a toxin and how can this actually impact our health? Whether we are wanting to get pregnant or pregnant, which is whatever, how it actually influences our health.

A toxin is anything that disrupts the normal functioning of the body at any level. It could be a molecule that disrupts the molecular functioning of our cells, or it could be an idea that disrupts your intellectual function or an emotion. Anything that hinders the functioning of yourself is a toxin. Now there's lots of toxic chemicals that we are exposed to through our air, our water, our food, our cosmetics, our medications, our cleaning Utensils, our cleaning products. The list goes on and on. Modern life is very toxic. It's loaded with chemicals everywhere. And many of these chemicals we know have a direct effect on the reproductive system. In California, for example, after Proposition 65, hotels and restaurants that serve foods that contain chemicals that can harm your health and, and render you infertile need to be reported in the menus. I don't know if you know that.

Oh, that's amazing.

Yeah, I actually have a photocopy and I'm going to email it to you afterwards of the page in one of the five star hotels here in Santa Monica where it says, warning, chemicals that contain in our food can cause health issues like cancer and birth defects and infertility. And we know what chemicals these are like dioxins and stalates. And there's all kinds of toxic molecules that we are exposed to that end up in our bloodstream that can affect you and the baby.

Do you think that the toxins, as you were just saying, can. Because it seems like there is definitely a rise in infertility and challenges conceiving that the toxins and the toxic buildup in our bodies can actually cause infertility.

Listen, there's a big problem these days with infertility. There's more and more women and men not able to conceive. And the most cases exist in the most industrialized cities in the world. That's where the prevalence of these problems is at a peak. And so is cancer and all these other other chronic diseases of the modern world. The more industrialized the country, the more these health issues appear. So yeah, definitely.

And how do we protect ourselves from these chemicals for pregnant women and men and families? How do we actually be careful and learn about what's in our food so that we know that we're not.

Join the clean revolution, join the clean green movement. These are the choices in your life. Some of them are unavoidable. If you're walking on the street and the car's passing and exhausting their fumes, you're not going to be able to avoid unless you use a gas mask. But then if you don't put on sun protection creams with oil derivatives and other toxic chemicals, then you are avoiding and protecting yourself from these chemicals. And so it is with cosmetics and so it is with foods and with anything with household products. There are many, many ways of minimizing your exposure to chemicals. Water filtering the water in your house, air filters. I mean, there's so many options that we have today. Buying organic foods in season and the list goes on and on. Now for the chemicals that are unavoidable to end up in your bloodstream, then what you have to do, what we all have to do, is learn how to maximize the effect effectiveness of our already existing detox systems and support them so that the work is done optimally. And sometimes there's some tricks. For example, your own cleansing and detox systems cannot get rid of some heavy metals like lead and arsenic and mercury. So there's some tricks that you can use with supplementation and, and, or medications. So it's a combination of things, right?

Because it seems a little can be. Especially people listening to this can be overwhelming. It seems like we totally live in a toxic world. Is my baby going to totally be filled up with toxins? So is this something that we should definitely be highly concerned about? Can you just share a little bit on the fear of this toxic?

Well, Alexandra, you are being a little bit of a sensational, totally and really and highly concerned. No, I don't think you should be totally and really and highly concerned about anything because then you get paralyzed and you don't do anything. No, I think that one should educate oneself just like one educates oneself about so many other things. And it's a learning curve and it's going to grow and improve all your life. So you have to keep on reading and keep on listening and keep on asking questions and keep on looking for products that are natural and not toxic. I mean, there's so many things that we can do, not only individually, but as a society and politically, that we all need to be, you know, spreading the word, educating everybody else and looking for the best choices so that we can shift things and eventually they become the norm.

Awesome. Love it. So what would you define as clean nutrition for a pregnant woman? The elimination diet. Do you have any other advice or recommendations for a woman that's interested in eating a clean diet during her pregnancy?

If you were hired to run a zoo or to build and design a zoo, one of the first things you have to. One of the first people you have to hire is somebody that really understands what each species of animal that you're going to have in the zoo eat and how they live in the most natural conditions, because if you don't treat them that way, you're going to have a sick zoo. Now, we are animals just like all other animals. And we also have a design by nature. We were designed by nature with nature's intelligence inside of us. And when we are living in the conditions that nature designed, everything goes well, just like with the rest of the animals, animals in the wild don't get sick. So the only problem is that you can hire somebody that comes and tells you exactly how the baboon lives, because they've been studying the baboon in the wild for years and they've been filming them and photographing them what not. But there's nobody that lived with men as they were designed by nature, because they don't exist anymore. We have infected the whole planet. All the primitive cultures, we call them primitive, but cultures like aboriginals and Indians, we've modernized them, we've given them sugar, we've made them diabetics, we gave them tooth decay and all the diseases, including the habits that we have right now. When you look at the blue zones, which are the zones in the world where people live the longest and the happiest and the healthiest, then you see that those conditions I interpret or I understand that those conditions are probably the most closest to what nature designed us to experience. And when you look at them and you see what they eat, they eat mostly vegetables and some fruits and some grains and some nuts and seeds, and everything is in season and everything is organic. And they planted themselves and they harvested themselves and they prepared themselves. There's nothing in, in any container. There's no chemicals. And also there's no stress. There's a sense of purpose, there's a sense of community. So it's not only food, it's everything. Right? Food is only one of the realms that we need to turn into a more natural way, but not the only one.

So then you don't think it's not like vegetarian, it's not no meat, it's not paleo, vegan, it's just natural state. Does eat food in its natural state?

Yes, but what does that mean? I was looking at a chart yesterday comparing what chimpanzees eat in the wild, and chimpanzees have 99% of our genetic information, so are the closest things to us. And they eat mostly leaves and some fruit and some grains and some nuts and seeds, and maybe some of them maybe are a little wild and eat other animals, but it's very, very little percentage of their diet. And when you look at what we eat, it's all processed foods and all cooked foods and, and full of chemicals, and we eat a lot of meat. So there's more and more evidence that animal protein and animal fat is linked to so many diseases. So I don't really know exactly if we should be a vegetarian, vegan or What? But I know for sure that we should eat mostly vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds and without chemicals.

Fantastic. And then I read somewhere that you were just saying that your wife didn't eat any fish during her pregnancies for fear of mercury. Mercury and then also parasites. Can you just talk a little bit about that? For some people that may not know about that?

Yeah. There's a big mercury contamination in the oceans. And the bigger the fish, the more mercury they carry because they eat a lot of little fish which carry little mercury. So they accumulate. That's called bioaccumulation. It goes up the chain, the food chain. So the bigger the animal, the bigger the fish, the more exposed to mercury. That's one of the problems with fish. Another problem is when. When it's not cooked, when it's raw, like sushi, it can carry some parasites. The third problem with fish is that a lot of the fish that are sold in supermarkets around the United States are farmed fish, which are raised in completely unnatural conditions with chemicals and all kinds of things that are toxic. So these are toxic animals that. That are not good for our diet.

Cool. And then do you recommend. I think I read somewhere that you recommend people to take fish oils during pregnancy. Do you have some top supplements that you recommend pregnant women to take?

Well, yeah, my wife takes the minimum amount of supplements. So she asked me, what is the minimum combination that you would recommend? What I recommend is a good prenatal vitamin, multivitamin, fish oils, and a probiotic. That's what my wife is taking.

That's great. So just keeping it very simple.

But that's because my wife's diet is really, really good. We only buy organic. We try to buy everything in season, local. We have no foods with any chemicals whatsoever in the house. Every now and then you go to a restaurant, you go here. It's unavoidable. But for the most part, we eat a very, very clean diet.

And then what about. So would you recommend a woman who is listening to this and is like, my diet's not super clean. I'm just kind of getting started in it. Would you recommend the same things for her?

Well, it depends. Sometimes I would recommend people to take greens, like a good green supplement, because greens are so important and so many people are not taking enough greens or no greens at all. So that's another thing that I would add. A big part of our food is green salads and all kinds of greens. That's not something that I would tell my wife to take. But if somebody is not, then I would Definitely tell them to do that.

Right. And then can you just share the benefits of the fish oils and the probiotics?

Well, we are a nation depleted, let's put it this way. The most common depletions in our food are magnesium and fish oils and omega 3 fatty acids. So those are two things that people should always consider when creating their own supplement program. The lack of fish oil, the lack of omega 3 fatty acids puts the body in a state which is prone to inflammation. So that's the importance of omega 3 fatty acids.

Right. And then how much do you recommend? Just even a healthier somebody interested in their health. How much would you recommend them taking during your day? Because I've seen a lot of different. Some people say you need to take tons of them, some people say you shouldn't take that much of them. So do you have a daily dose recommendation?

Well, the thing is, some people need more than others and that can be determined through certain blood tests, like for example, the CRP or C reactive protein, which is an indirect marker of inflammation. But for the most part, I recommend just the basic dose. I don't really remember exactly how much it is right now.

Right. So the probiotics are just good for the good bacteria as well in the digestive system.

Yeah. One of the things that we are all suffering from because of the toxicity of the planet is the death of good bacteria in our gut. And I'm a firm believer that health and disease starts in the gut in the intestines. And a big important aspect of intestinal function is the intestinal flora. So upkeeping a good intestinal, healthy intestinal flora is very important. And there's a wear off because every time you say you take a shower and there's some chlorine in your water and that chlorine will end up in your bloodstream and eventually will end up killing some of the bacteria in your gut. So there's a shedding of bacteria which is constant. And also we don't eat the right things all the time. Even if we eat healthy things. The combination is weird because in nature you don't find so many things as we have availability for today. And in nature you also don't find these foods 24, 7. We used to, for thousands of years, we used to eat whenever we found food, and sometimes that was every other day or whatever. So eating three, four times a day is also not natural. So it depends on how you're eating now. Right, Right.

For the supplements, do you recommend, is there something that you say, don't take that Is there anything on your list of pregnant women do not take this supplement?

Well, my wife is much better informed to answer that question, but I know that too much vitamin A can harm the baby, so you got to be careful with that. There's a few things that I know that my wife avoids at all costs, but that's a much better question for her. Did you ask her?

No. That's really funny that you say that, because she was saying that your expertise was more in the nutrition. She's like, I'm not really a doctor, but obviously she's pregnant and has researched it, as we pregnant women do.

Yeah, definitely.

That's great. So anything about eating or drinking that you wouldn't like? Food, other than things that are not on the elimination diet, anything that you would recommend women not do, drink or eat?

No, I'm not that good at that either.

Just the elimination diet stuff.

That's as far as my experience goes.

That sounds good enough, that can be challenging enough for people.

For a lot of people, it's almost impossible.

Yeah, totally. So I don't know if this is. You have thoughts on it or your expertise. I'm not sure, but just on cravings and morning sickness and weight gain and things like that during pregnancy. Is that. Do you think it's toxicity thing that women have so many of these symptoms, if you will, during pregnancy?

Yeah, I think that's just pregnancy. I mean, yeah, if you're toxic and you don't have the necessary nutrients for your body to function, you may have more of this or that. But I know women that are super healthy, eat super well, have no problem whatsoever and get. Get morning sickness like crazy. I think it's just a way of nature to slow women down so that they don't lose their baby. So to assure survival.

Right. And that's probably a good thing for us modern women to slow down. That's probably one of the biggest things for women in our culture and people in our culture. Right. To actually slow down and take care of ourselves.

Yes, that's exactly right.

Do you have any tips for how we can do that as a society? To slow down?

You know, it's easy for me now, at 48 years old, to realize what slowed me down. Right. And I can say it now. But I'll tell you one thing that time and experience in life will teach you a lot about that. For example, what it taught me is that in the end, nothing is that important. That you give it the ability or the power to ruin your day or a moment. But that came to Me, even though I heard it a thousand times before, it came to me after experiencing so many things in my life that at the moment I thought they were going to ruin my life. And then some years later. I think it's a great lesson. But if you want to accelerate the chances that you will fall into these realizations, I think that the most powerful thing one can do is to establish a meditation practice. And when I say that, a lot of people get scared. Well, I can't meditate. It's not for me. I tried it. Or it sounds scary, so they don't even try it, or they associate it with some religion or cult or whatever. But it can be a simple five minute meditation in which you sit down and you don't even need to close your eyes, but you start putting your attention in different parts of your body and you do that for five minutes. I actually have online a five minute guided meditation. I'll send you the link later so that you can post it with this. But it can be as simple as that. And then there's many, many techniques and schools of meditation that have great value. So if you're interested, as I always say, seek and you shall find. Put it in your mind as something that you want to do. Start asking, start reading, start trying things and you will find what works for you.

That's awesome. I love that. And I think it's such a beautiful thing too, for pregnant women. I meditate every day and I just imagine the baby being saturated in the meditation. And it's just such a beautiful rhythm to get into when you're pregnant, right?

Well, the thing is, imagine, think about this. What is being pregnant? A life is being created inside of you. A life is forming itself inside of you. There's such a powerful activity of cell nature will. I don't really know how to talk about these things, but something very special is happening at that time. And it gives women the opportunity to really go deep inside and be connected to that natural process, to nature, to life. And even if it's just for that, it's worth doing. Forget about the baby for a minute, but for yourself, for your own spiritual growth. The state of pregnancy is an incredible opportunity for people to grow spiritually and emotionally and in many other ways. So even if it's for a selfish reason, because how many times are most women pregnant? The Octomom and The mom with 19 kids, those happen once in a while. So. So for most people that will be listening to this, they'll be pregnant once, twice, three times. The crazier One, four or five. But it's only very few opportunities to be in that state. And I've heard incredible experiences. My wife has these dreams and these just downloading of understanding, if you will, of wisdom that then she brings into our relationship and to taking care of our kids. It's beautiful.

Wow. Amazing. Goosebumps. That was beautiful. All of us women need to hear that. That was awesome. Yeah. Yes. Second that. Amazing. I think it's so great, too. Like you said, whether it's for the baby or just for ourselves, it's such a right time for a woman to step into her womanhood and become an amazing goddess. And you have life in you. I know. I'm in awe.

Let me tell you, Alexandra, I am actually a little jealous of my wife and the experience that she's having. I would love to be pregnant myself to be able to have that experience, but I leave it for my next lifetime.

Right. That's awesome. So, as a man, how would you recommend men who will be listening to this about how they support their woman, their wife, their partner in this process of pregnancy and bringing life into the world? Do you have any recommendations of how to.

I have so many, but I don't think we're going to have time enough. But I'll tell you the most important ones that I've learned for myself. Number one, your wife is not the same person when she's pregnant and when she's not. So you have to allow the space for that difference to exist without annoying you, scaring you, or making you jump ship. You know, some women have extreme moods or they experience an extreme sense of smell, so they don't let you sleep in the bed with them or eat certain foods or use cologne or certain toothpaste or whatever. Right. So when that happens, don't get annoyed, don't judge, just do it. Just change your toothpaste or go sleep in the living room or whatever it is. It's not such a big deal. It's only a few months and it's worth it. Right?

Right.

So I'm telling you the things that helped me from my own experience.

That's great.

Yeah. The other thing is women. Nature designed its animals to get pregnant and conceive and bring a baby to term when the conditions are right, when there's enough nutrients in the soil where they're eating and there's no predators around a certain time of the year when it's warm or whatever it is. Right. So in a way, the man is kind of the responsible one to make the conditions of the nest the best possible. That's what I try to do. And it's simple things. For example, I always check my wife's car gas tank and see where it is. And if it's half full, I just, just, honey, I'm coming in five minutes. I go to the gas station, fill her tank so she doesn't have to go and smell the fumes which make her nauseous. So I always keep her gas tank full and little things like that that are so important for a woman to feel safe contained and have a better pregnancy.

And I will speak from the pregnant woman whose husband gets gas for the car. And it's amazing. Those simple things. Totally. It's just like you feel loved and appreciated. I never have to put gas in. He just takes care of it. So yes, men fill up the gas tanks for the ladies. That's awesome.

Yeah. And wash their cars every now and then or take it to the car wash.

That's so awesome. I love it. Very cool. Well, Carla is very lucky as I interviewed her as well. She's lucky and you're very lucky because she's amazing.

I'm the lucky one.

Yeah. I love her.

She puts up with you.

She puts up with you. That's so great. You also create amazing children as well. Your son is gorgeous and so present and amazing as well.

I have to agree with that totally.

It's really funny. This is a little side note, but Brian and I were talking about recently, in the last year, you guys had a party that we were at and all they wanted to do was hang out with Judah. Oh my gosh.

And you haven't met my daughter. I have a six year old daughter who is as incredible.

That's so great. Amazing. I love it.

Cool.

So, so many things I want to ask you. I want to ask about switching gears a little bit. How to green our home. How do we prepare for the little ones arrival? Is there recommendations that you have for us?

Yeah, yeah. Also I can talk on the two more. But I'll tell you a few things that I, I put water filters around my whole house. I put a drinking water filter in the kitchen, which is a reverse osmosis filter. So all the water in my house, even the water with which I water, I just put a vegetable garden in my house and we have cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchinis, melons, green beans, I mean all kinds of produce that we're growing. And even the water that we water these with is filtered. So that's one thing. An air filter is really good. A Humidifier is really important, especially when you have a little one. Then all the furniture that we buy, we make sure that if it's wood, it's not treated and reclaimed. And the carpets are non toxic. When we clean the floor, we use a mixture of, of vinegar and Dr. Bronner's magic soap. And every product that you find in my house is non toxic. 7th generation or good Planet. There's many brands in the organic markets now that fit the criteria of being non toxic. And a very important thing is the mattress in which you are sleeping and the baby is sleeping. One of the things that was discovered in New Zealand was that SIDS Sudden Infant Death Syndrome was associated with the fire retardant that certain mattresses are treated with. So just remember, your baby is going to be sleeping on a mattress for years and the fumes that emanate from that mattress can actually kill him or her. Organic mattresses are very important in general. Cosmetics, toothpaste without fluoride and other chemicals. Sunscreen without toxic chemicals. The list goes on and on. But just remember, anything that you put on your skin, you should be able to eat practically because whatever you put on your skin, some of it will be absorbed into your bloodstream. Not as much as when you put it inside your mouth and intestines, but when you put it in your skin, some of it will be absorbed. So you have to be careful with that. And then of course, the kitchen is so important, right? The food that you stock up and you bring into your house, make sure it's clean and free of chemicals. I mean, the list goes on and on, but those are some of the basic important things.

Awesome. Fantastic. That was a long list. Very cool, very helpful. And then I would love to hear your thoughts on, and if you want to share, if you feel open to sharing, kind of why you chose to birth your child the way you did. And any recommendations for people to prepare for birth.

You know you were asking me about things to tell the man. Of course, I experience the whole thing as a man. And I can say this. There are times that it's scary when your wife is pregnant. You're thinking about the responsibility of a baby and the economic responsibility and otherwise. And it may be scary. And don't feel bad if that happens at times it is a scary thing. And even when the baby is born, a lot of men feel guilty that they're not attached immediately and they hold the baby for five, 10 minutes and they're done. That's actually pretty normal. I've encountered lots of my friends that only start really getting bonded with the babies, actually, once they start speaking and communicating. So if you're a man and you're experiencing that, don't feel weird or guilty. Sometimes it's a process. And then with your wife and with your kids and with everything in life, actually, it's the quality of your attention that counts. Many times we, when we're with our kids, we try to teach them things and correct them and make them smarter or whatever. You say this like this and this like that. Sometimes it's important to just pay attention to them. Raw attention. No comments, no helping, just looking at them. And actually, we do that all the time. We let the kid be and we just watch him. And we watch him really with intention. And he loves that. And that's something that we learned from the Waldorf schools, following the teachings of Rudolf Steiner. They're very, very interesting. And if you're interested in that kind of thing, I highly recommend that you take a look into his work and into the schools that he. With his methods.

Right. Wow. That's amazing. Fantastic. I love that you are empowering the men and sharing wisdom from the man side. It's so great. It's so great to hear, too. So I appreciate that. Thank you.

Yeah. And for Men, a really, really good book. And I know it's a little controversial and some people may think it's a little simplistic or whatever, but the work of David Data is really, really interesting. And his book the Way of the Superior man has taught me so much and given me so many tools to be the best that I can be in my relationship with my woman.

So beautiful. Yeah, I love that. I've read that book as well, and it's so great for men. And just appreciating men who like yourself, like my husband, that really want to become a better man is so inspiring for us women, and it helps us flourish as well. So it's a beautiful gift all around.

Yeah. I'm just following my dad's example. My dad was such an incredible man, and that's what I saw in my house. That's what I want to be.

Yeah. That's so beautiful. Amazing.

Cool.

So I have a few more questions for you. One would be on the nutrition for babies, for instance, and starting off with the first food, breastfeeding, breast milk. Why is breast milk so important? Do you recommend that women breastfeed? What's your thought on that?

That's something that's so well known these days, that breastfeeding is the way to go. The best Way to go. Some women cannot do it. And if that happens, you shouldn't feel bad about it or guilty. But as much as you can, try to make it happen for at least a year, nine months, a year. The reason why is because that's how nature designed it to be. That's how mammals all over the planet do it. And they're doing it right. And when you see people doing it, you see that the kids are better off for it because milk has immune system. Babies are not born with fully developed immune system. So the mother's immunity is being transferred through immunoglobulins in the milk. That's a very important issue. A second important issue is your intestinal flora. And the whole functioning of your gut is going to develop and grow better with its natural sustenance, which is milk. Now, of course, we talk about milk, breast milk, and not milk from cows in a bottle. So those are my thoughts on breastfeeding. It's very, very important and very beneficial, both for the kid and the mother.

Right. And you were talking about immunity. So I'm just curious on vaccination. What's your thought on the vaccination? Do you think that that helps with the immunity? I'd love to hear your opinion on that.

Vaccination and the whole issue of vaccination is not something that I am absolutely sure about. I have my doubts. I'm learning, I'm researching, I'm reading about it. I'll tell you what I decided with my kid. He got no vaccinations. He's 18 months and he doesn't have any vaccinations yet. Yet. Now, we eventually will give him a few, but only when he's a little older, at least until 3. We're not going to give him anything and hopefully not until he's six. And then after that, maybe we'll give him diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis dpt. And maybe at some point I will give him the polio vaccine, but I'm not sure yet that's what we are doing. One of the reasons why we did that is because my wife was committed to breastfeeding at least for a year and a few months, almost 18 months, which is what she did. Even when she got pregnant while breastfeeding, she kept on breastfeeding until two weeks ago. She was seven, eight months pregnant and still breastfeeding. Our first son. She was committed to that. And if you're not committed to that, then I would have given vaccination a better thought or more thought. And Maybe a lower threshold to vaccinate. But, you know, I've heard horror stories of women that, you know, families that took their kids, and the next day after vaccination, they went into a state of autism suddenly. So I'm definitely convinced that there's a relationship between that and other problems with vaccination that one has to watch. And one of the most important things, in my opinion, is waiting until the child's immune system is a little more developed to give it such a challenge.

Right. So that's why you waited for. That's why you want to wait till three to six years old.

Yeah, a very. And I'm thinking after our interview, I'm going to send you a few links that you can post in the comments or whatever. One of them is a website that shows you it goes room by room in your household, telling you everything that can be toxic and giving you alternatives, what products bring in, what toxins and what health issues they're related to. Another website is a website that my child's pediatrician put up in which he explains the issue of vaccination from his point of view. He's an amazing pediatrician, and he actually was in Anderson Cooper today talking about attachment parenting. His name is Jay Gordon. You can actually Google him. But I'll send you the link to this little course. You pay three or four dollars and you can hear the whole thing.

Oh, that would be amazing. Fantastic. I have his book, Something Nighttime Sleeping, something on sleeping with your infant.

Jay Gordon is an incredible doctor. I love him.

That's awesome. Very cool.

Cool.

Thank you. Yeah, the links would be amazing, and I know everybody else would appreciate them as well. Very cool. One last question. As just nutrition for toddlers, what should their first food be? And how do we keep our children's immune systems strong so they're not getting the colds and the sore throats and the fevers and the ear infections.

Well, some infections are inevitable. And actually they're good because when they come in contact with them is when their immune systems will start building their defenses. So some of them are not even necessary to avoid. Right. But the question is big in terms of food. What we did with our kid is we just breastfed him until he was about, I think, five months or six months old, exclusively with breast milk. And then after that, we just let him try stuff that we were eating. We started with. Some people say we start with soft foods and don't give them allergenic foods like strawberries or this or that. We disregarded everything and we let him Experiment by himself. We actually. The first time that he had chicken, for example, he just grabbed a chicken leg and started gnawing at it at his own pace. And he learned how to swallow. Some parents are concerned about their kids choking, but if from a small age, you just let them do whatever they naturally feel inclined to do, they usually don't make any mistakes. So that's what we did with our kid. And from what we eat, we gave him whatever he was interested in. And it happened to be. He's interested in all good stuff. He's the first kid I've ever seen that, at 18 months old, eats a full plate of green salad and loves it.

And do you think that's because Carl ate so many salads that he had that in the womb? That was just part of his.

Listen, little monkeys will do what their monkey mothers do, and little kids will do what their mothers do. You know.

That'S so great.

It doesn't go only for food. It goes for everything. How you treat people, how you treat each other, everything. They will copy you. I mean, my kid is like a little copycat. Everything I do, he's. He's trying to do.

That's good. It's got to be one of the best mindful practices ever, right? I mean, just to be mindful and aware of what you're doing and what you're saying.

Another good point. Another great opportunity, having kids to be mindful of what you say and how you act and how you behave. You know, one time I saw on Oprah this woman, Morrison. What's her name? This elderly black poet. I think her name is Morrison. Amazing woman. Maya Angelou. Sorry, Maya Angelou. And so Oprah asked her about what is the most important thing with kids? And she said, I make sure that when kids look at me, they see a peaceful, smiling, loving face. Sometimes we come and we're pissed with this or with that, and we're angry with whoever, your boss, the cleaner, whoever it is. And the kid is just watching there and us completely oblivious to that. We bitch and. And we criticize and we complain. And as you say, having a kid and being mindful of not doing the things that you yourself would teach your kid not to do, that would be incredible, an incredible opportunity.

Totally. I know you're friends with Gabriel Rose. In an interview that I did with her, she was saying a lot of people would go to India to find a guru and different things. And she's like, I had a child, that my child is my guru. I always think that's so inspiring.

Gabrielle is my fairy godmother.

She is a beautiful, wise woman. Indeed.

Indeed beautiful.

Well, thank you so much for all of your wisdom. Could you share with us where we can find more about you and where we can find out about the Clean Program and buy your book and just learn all about your goodness?

Well, my book is out there. The revolutionary program to restore your body's natural ability to heal itself. You can get it on Amazon or any other bookstore and you can download it as well. We have a clean website with our store where we the clean program can be done just by the book. We have recipes there. If you prepare your food and your juices and your liquid foods, then you can do it that way. Or if you don't have time for that, you can buy a kit that we provide. A shake for breakfast and a shake for dinner, and all the supplements that will allow the process of cleansing and detox and also of gut repair. Go deeper. That is in our website, www.cleanprogram.com. and there also is our community, which is like the Facebook of cleansing and detoxification. We have over 41,000 people from all over the world who are sharing their experience and blogging daily on their cleanse and asking questions in these forums. And there's a whole video collection, I mean, many of the videos I made myself, teaching people some of the principles of cleansing and detox and walking them through the process. It's an incredible website. It's an incredible community and it's supported by one of the best teams that I've known in my life, which is the Clean Team. We have wellness coaches and people that will guide you through and answer your questions and answer the phone and call you back. And the level of care is just incredible. And then I have a couple of Facebook pages and I have a Twitter account, doctoryunger, so those are a few ways. And also you can go to Enceo's Academy and listen to my course on cleansing and detoxification, which I thought was pretty cool.

Yes, it was a great, amazing class at the Nzeos Academy. That's awesome. Fantastic. Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. And you shared such amazing wisdom. I know I personally got a lot out of it and I know a lot of people are going to be taking a lot of notes. So thank you. Thank you.

All right, my pleasure. And anytime, Alexandra.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Mama Goddess. Sending you lots of love and blessings. If you'd like to connect more, go to mamagoddess.

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