With a baby growing inside of you, you're eager to make sure you're getting the best nutrition. You're looking for prenatal vitamins that will build a strong body and healthy brain. And when you cook for yourself, you choose healthy, nourishing foods - nutrient-rich and organic as much as possible.

You know - as you gently rub your growing belly - whatever you eat goes right to the child developing inside of you.

But what if unbeknownst to you - no matter how cleanly you eat - you're also feeding your baby one of the world's most deadly toxins?

Scary thought. But unfortunately it could very well be the case.

A few years ago, women were horrified to find that despite careful dietary choices, their breast milk contained traces of several environmental toxins including dioxin.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), dioxin is an extremely toxic chemical. It has been linked to cancer, reproductive problems and immune problems. It disrupts hormones and interferes with healthy fetal development. And it's found throughout our food supply - particularly in meat, dairy, eggs, and seafood.

No mother is safe from this contaminant. While dioxin levels in breast milk have been decreasing in studies conducted in the European Union, the WHO found dioxin to be present in breast milk worldwide.

However, there are some things you can do to help minimize dioxin creeping into your body and contaminating the food you pass on to your child.

First, you can eat less animal products. Dioxin is persistent, hard to metabolize and get rid of. It accumulates in animal fats. So the higher you eat up the food chain, the more dioxin you'll get.

In one study conducted in South Africa, researchers were surprised to find black women had lower levels of dioxin than white women. They realized that because white women tended to be in a higher income bracket, they also ate more meat, dairy and eggs. Black South African women tended to eat a diet higher in grains and vegetables with less animal products. Hence, they consumed less dioxins in their diet.^[1] Similarly, German women who were vegetarian had lower dioxin levels than German women who were not.^[2]

Nonetheless, vegetarian women still find dioxin in their breast milk. And according to researchers, no level of dioxin is safe or healthy.

For that reason, all pregnant and breast-feeding women - both vegetarian and omnivore - should consider adding a special supplement to their prenatal vitamins . . . Chlorella.

In Japan, dioxin is of particular concern due to the high consumption of seafood, much of which is contaminated with it.

Concerned about the levels of dioxin passing to newborn infants, a group of Japanese researchers undertook studying how chlorella may help pregnant women as a prenatal supplement. The researchers measured dioxin levels of 44 pregnant women, looking at their placenta, cord blood, breast milk, blood and fat. Then they divided the women into two groups. One of the groups started supplementing with chlorella while pregnant.

They found that the women who supplemented with chlorella had 30% less dioxin in their breast milk than the women who didn't. And they had 26% less dioxin in their cord blood - the blood that flows between the mother and the baby via the umbilical cord.^[3]A second study yielded even more encouraging results . . .

Again a group of pregnant women was divided into two groups. Half of the women supplemented with 6 grams of chlorella each day for six months, starting during the 12^th to 16^th week of their pregnancy. They supplemented with chlorella at every meal.

In this study, not only did the women who took chlorella have close to 50% less dioxin and other contaminants in their breast milk compared to the control group, but they had an additional gift for their children. Their breast milk contained more of the antibody immunoglobulin A a key part of an infants' developing immune system - than the breast milk of the women who didn't supplement did.^[4]

High in protein, chlorophyll, B vitamins, lutein and other essential vitamins and minerals, chlorella provides an amazing spectrum of nutrition for a growing baby. But as these studies demonstrate, its prenatal benefits may be even bigger . . . As the researchers are finding, chlorella may help limit how much dioxin your body absorbs and help your body excrete it faster. And as a result, your baby will be exposed to less dioxin, too.

It's important to note, you won't get the full nutritional and detoxifying benefits from chlorella if its tough outer cell wall isn't broken down enough to make it digestible. The unique DYNO-mill process used by Sun Chlorella is the only method that has been proven to do this to ensure 85% digestibility. And better yet, because it doesn't use heat, chemicals or enzymes, you only get pure chlorella nutrition. Nothing else.

No matter what, health experts agree breast milk's nutritional and immunological benefits far outweigh the potential downsides of dioxin contamination. After some debate, experts generally conclude women should continue to breastfeed their children even with considerable exposure to dioxin.

Nonetheless, there is no question it's best to reduce your child's exposure to this toxin as much as possible. And that's where diet and chlorella can come in . . .

Not only does chlorella provide outstanding nutrition, it also helps your body get rid of the things in your food you don't want inside of you or your baby. When it comes to nourishing your baby and keeping her safe from harm, chlorella complements your prenatal vitamins perfectly.

About Dr. Mark Drucker, M.D. 
Dr. Mark Drucker earned his Medical degree and Bachelor of Sciences degree form the University of Tennessee. Dr. Drucker began his medical career 23 years ago specializing in nutritional and natural medicine. Dr. Drucker is co-host of the popular radio talk show ""Health Talk, A Second Opinion,"" is a distinguished speaker on natural health topics, and is the co-founder and Medical Director of the Center for Advanced Medicine. He is a certified member of the American Academy of Anti-Aging medicine, the American Academy of General Physicians, and a Diplomat Candidate of the American Board of Chelation Therapy, as well as a fellow member of the American College for the Advancement of Medicine. 

Attention: Readers, Publishers, Editors, Bloggers, Media, Webmasters and more...
We believe great content should be read and passed around. After all, knowledge IS power. If you'd like to share any of the insightful articles on SunChlorellaUSA.com, you may republish or syndicate it without charge. The only thing we ask is that you keep the article exactly as it was written and formatted. You also need to include an attribution statement and link to the article. "This information is proudly provided by Sun Chlorella. 

Sources: 
[1] Schecter, A., et al. Chlorinated Dioxins and Dibenzofurans in Human Tissue from General Populations: A Selective Review, Environmental Health Perspectives Supplements 1994; 102(Supple 1): p. 159-171. 
[2] Somogyi, A. Nuturing and Breast-feeding: Exposure to Chemicals in Breast Milk. Environmental Health Perspectives Journal 1993; 101(Suppl 2): p. 45-52. 
[3] Nakano S et al, Maternal-fetal distribution and transfer of dioxins in pregnant women in Japan, and attempts to reduce maternal transfer with Chlorella (Chlorella pyrenoidosa) supplements. Chemosphere. 2005 Dec;61(9):1244-55. Epub 2005 Jun 27.
[4] Nakano, S et al. Chlorella (Chlorella pyrenoidosa) supplementation decreases dioxin and increases immunoglobulin a concentrations in breast milk. J Med Food. 2007 Mar;10(1):134-42.