Renew Your Mind: 6 Toxins to Let Go of for Sharper Memory and a Healthier Brain

Practical, heart-centered ways to support your brain, lower inflammation, and feel alive again.

As Ushikawa says in 1Q84:

“The drawers where you store memories get harder to open.”

If your memory feels worse lately, you’re not imagining it.

I feel like mine collapsed this year.

I’d forget the page I just read, lose words mid-sentence, and even struggle to pull up happy memories. It felt like my brain was dimming.

But once I removed a few sneaky toxins from my life, everything started waking back up. My memory, my focus, my mood — all sharper, brighter, lighter.

So what are we learning today?

The 6 everyday toxins that quietly inflame your brain — and how to clear them so your mind can heal the way it is designed to do.

By the end of this you might just feel like a genius….

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1. Highly-Processed Seed Oils

“Seed oils” is a weird term because not all of them are bad.

• Pumpkin seed oil? Amazing.

• Black cumin seed oil? A literal lifesaver.

• Macadamia nut oil? Elite for skin and salad dressings.

• Brands like Andreas Seed Oils? Superfood heaven.

Those aren’t the problem.

The issue is the industrial seed oils — the ones made in lab coats through a 79-step chemical engineering process.

These oils slide into your body and quietly inflame everything: your brain, your hormones, your energy, your ability to feel like yourself.

(I learned all of this through the book Dark Calories by Catherine Shanahan.)

Avoiding them is one of the fastest, simplest ways to upgrade your clarity and protect your brain.

Common Culprits:

Chick-fil-A waffle fries (peanut + canola blend)
Chipotle rice bran oil
Pringles, Doritos, Cheetos
Trader Joe’s Goddess Dressing
Dave’s Killer Bread English muffins
Halo Top (sunflower oil)
KIND bars
Annie’s honey mustard dressing
Starbucks pastries

Avoid:
❌ Canola oil
❌ Sunflower oil
❌ Soybean oil
❌ Safflower oil
❌ Corn oil
❌ “Vegetable oil blend”

Try these instead! (Here are some of my favorite resources)

✔ Extra-virgin olive oil
— Graza “Sizzle” + “Drizzle”
— Dr. Cowan’s Olive Oil
— The Olive Oil Hunter (T.J. Robinson)

✔ Grass-fed butter

✔ Grass-fed Tallow

✔ Coconut oil
— Dr. Bronner’s Organic Virgin Coconut Oil

(Watch out for Avocado oil, lots are still highly processed, try to find the highest quality Avocado oil.)

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2. Pesticides

Pesticides are another tough one because they’re basically everywhere.

Even when we think we’re doing the right thing—buying organic—many of those crops are still sprayed.

We don’t need to panic or hide from every apple.

We just need to do our best to reduce the load so our brain can function the way it’s meant to.

A great place to start is checking the EWG (Environmental Working Group) pesticide report — it shows which foods are the most sprayed and which are the safest. Super helpful for knowing where to focus your money and effort.

Common Culprits:
Conventional strawberries
Conventional spinach
Quaker Oats (glyphosate)
Cheerios
Nature Valley bars
Conventional grapes + wine
Non-organic apples
Ritz crackers
Wheat Thins

Avoid:
❌ Non-organic berries
❌ Cheap oats
❌ Cheap wine
❌ Non-organic greens
❌ Imported produce with no certifications

Replace with: Go to farmers market or grocery store.
✔ Organic berries
✔ Organic oats (One Degree Sprouted)
✔ Organic wine (Dry Farm Wines)
✔ Organic greens (Gotham Greens)

Clean your fruits + veggies:

Dr. Bronner’s Sal Suds (a tiny drop in a bowl of water goes a long way).

Small swaps. Big clarity. Your brain will thank you.

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3. Everyday Mold Toxins

Mold sends out toxins that act like tiny “brain stress signals,” slowing your thinking and wrecking your memory.

It over-activates your microglia — the brain’s cleanup crew — and makes them inflamed and reactive. I know this one personally. I dealt with black mold, and it hurt my brain more than anything else I’ve experienced.

Mold shows up in two places: your food and your air.

Here’s how to avoid both.

Common Culprits:
Cheap coffee beans
Old spices
Bulk-bin nuts
Stored flour + grains
Old HVAC filters
Hotel AC units
Damp apartments
Raisins + dried fruit (ochratoxin A)
Peanuts (aflatoxin risk)

Avoid:
❌ Cheap coffee
❌ Bulk-bin nuts
❌ Old spices
❌ Dried fruit
❌ Musty hotels
❌ Damp bathrooms

Replace with:
✔ Mold-tested coffee (Kion Coffee, Purity Coffee)
✔ Fresh organic spices (Simply Organic)
✔ Air filters (Jaspr Air Purifier, Air Doctor
✔ Thieves Essential Oil
✔ HEPA vacuum
✔ Mold testing (ERMI Test, MycoTOX Test)

If you want a full deep dive on mold — symptoms, testing, detoxing, home cleanup, and everything I personally went through — check out my mold article.

Got the Black Mold Touch?

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4. Heavy Metals

Unfortunately, this might mean skipping some sushi and a few of those fun fizzy drinks — but don’t worry. You can still enjoy life and have incredible brain power.

Heavy metals act like little roadblocks in your brain, slowing energy production.
And when your brain runs low on energy, it can’t store or retrieve memories well.
It’s not you — it’s the metals clogging the system.

The good news? This one is fixable.

Clean water, clean cookware, and clean foods take a huge load off your brain.

Common Culprits:
Tuna packets
Swordfish & king mackerel
Canned tomatoes
Certain sea salts & Himalayan salts (lead)
Chocolate (Hershey’s, Lindt, TJ’s)
Protein powders (Orgain, Muscle Milk)
Tap water
Aluminum cookware
Non-organic rice
Imported spices

Reference: Mammavation’s heavy metal investigations (amazing resource)

Avoid:
❌ Tuna/swordfish
❌ Cheap chocolate
❌ Aluminum pans
❌ Tap water
❌ Canned acidic foods
❌ Cheap protein powders
❌ Cheap salt

Replace with:
✔ Cookware
— Our Place Ceramic Cookware
— All-Clad Stainless Steel

✔ Low-mercury fish
— Wild Planet Sardines
— Vital Choice Salmon

✔ Clean salts
— Redmond Real Salt
— Real Salt Shaker

✔ Clean chocolate
— Hu Kitchen Chocolate
— Honey Mama’s

✔ Protein powders
— Kion Clean Protein
— Momentous
— Truvani

✔ Clean water
— Berkey Water Filter
— RO Water (local)

✔ Infrared sauna
— Sunlighten Sauna

✔ Heavy metal reports
— Mammavation Investigations

6 Everyday Toxins You’re Still Living With (and How to Eliminate Them for Good)

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5. Airborne Chemicals

For the past two years, I’ve lived across the street from a new apartment development.

There was constant dust, debris, and construction particles blowing straight into my unit. When I finally ran blood work, I found all kinds of random airborne chemicals in my system.

No wonder I felt so off.

If the air around you isn’t clean, your brain has to fight all day — inflammation goes up, clarity goes down, and you don’t feel like you.

Here’s how I finally cleaned the air in my home and got my mind back.

Common Culprits:
Running by highways
Downtown traffic
Gas stoves without ventilation
Scented candles
Incense
Dusty apartments
Old HVAC filters
Closed windows
Fireplace smoke

Avoid:
❌ Running next to cars
❌ Cheap candles
❌ Cooking without ventilation
❌ Keeping windows closed
❌ Plug-in air fresheners

Replace with:
✔ Jasper air purifier
✔ Air Doctor
✔ Houseplants
✔ Open windows (low-ozone hours)
✔ HEPA vacuum
✔ Vent hood every time you cook

ADHD Optimization Guide: 8 Biohacking Strategies to Heal the Root Causes

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6. Gut Inflammation (Leaky Gut)

When your gut gets irritated, it leaks things into your bloodstream that travel straight to your brain.

That creates inflammation — the kind that slows your memory, dulls your mood, and makes your thinking feel heavy.

But here’s the part I want you to really hear:

Your tummy matters.

It deserves peace.
You deserve to eat food and feel good afterward — not sick, bloated, anxious, or foggy.

So many people think something is “wrong with them,” when really their gut is just overwhelmed and asking for support. And the beautiful part?

Fixing the gut is one of the simplest, kindest steps you can take to reduce inflammation and reclaim your clarity.

Fix the gut → fix the brain.
Your whole life feels lighter when your stomach feels safe.

Common Culprits:
Processed bread
Processed meat
Cheap cereal
Alcohol binges
Artificial sweeteners
Energy drinks
Antibiotic overuse
Kraft mac & cheese
Frozen meals with seed oils
Glyphosate-heavy crops

Avoid:
❌ Seed oils
❌ Alcohol binges
❌ Artificial sweeteners
❌ Processed snacks
❌ Gluten (if sensitive)
❌ Fast eating
❌ Antibiotic overuse

Replace with:
✔ Sauerkraut
✔ Kefir
✔ Spore-based probiotics
✔ MassZymes
✔ HCL + bitters
✔ Bone broth
✔ Resistant starch
✔ Post-meal walks
✔ Breathwork
✔ Fiber rotation

Here’s What Actually Fixed My Gut Health

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Bonus: How to Rebuild the Gut–Brain Connection

1. Cut irritants: Remove seed oils, refined sugar, and ultra-processed food for 30 days.

2. Feed your flora: Fiber, chia, flax, resistant starch → more SCFAs.

3. Support digestion: Enzymes, apple cider vinegar, bitters.

4. Repopulate: Sauerkraut, kefir, kimchi, spore probiotics.

5. Soothe the lining: L-glutamine, aloe, bone broth.

6. Move daily: Walks, yoga, vibration therapy.

7. Breathe deeper: Breathwork → vagus nerve → less inflammation.

7 Ways to Ruin Your Digestion (And How to Have a Gut That Actually Works)

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Closing Thoughts

If you follow the steps above, I’m confident you’ll feel your brain turn back on in ways you haven’t in years — not just with energy, but with clarity, presence, and a quiet love for yourself that’s been missing.

If you ever want to go deeper, hop on a call with me. We can easily weave all of this into your life — without it feeling like anything changed.

Me savoring my delicious, definitely-too-expensive Erewhon sundae.

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Suggested Reading

Toxic — Dr. Neil Nathan
Brain Maker — Dr. David Perlmutter
The Great Indoors — Emily Anthes