Eating to Maximise Glutathione Production

How much glutathione are you getting? If you're chronically sick, chances are that you aren't getting enough.

What is Glutathione?

Glutathione is the body's primary detox substance and is vital to every cell in your body. It recycles antioxidants, consumes free radicals and detoxes heavy metals and other substances. It also protects against radiation and environmental damage.

The body makes its own glutathione. It's not possible to take glutathione directly, as it would be digested before it could be used. However, it is possible to keep feeding the body's glutathione factories with the things they need to keep up glutathione production.

How does the body make Glutathione?

The body makes glutathione out of constituent parts:

glutamic acid + cysteine + glycine => glutathione

There are foods that contain high levels of these substances, which enable the body to create more glutathione. In addition to this, a few different vitamins and minerals are so helpful to glutathione production that it's worth including foods that contain these as well. There's a lot of crossover amongst these foods, many of which are hailed as superfoods.

SUBSTANCE	ACTION	DIETARY SOURCE
Glutamic acid	component of glutathione	all meats, poultry, fish, dairy, wheat protein
Cysteine	component of glutathione	pork, poultry, eggs, undenatured whey protein, yoghurt, red peppers, garlic, onions, broccoli, sprouts, oats, wheatgerm
Glycine	component of glutathione	meat, fish, dairy, beans, seaweed, seafood, soy
Vitamin E	enhances glutathione levels	vegetable oils, leafy greens, nuts, avocado, asparagus, kiwi fruit, broccoli, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, mangoes, tomatoes, papaya
Sulphur	increases glutathione levels	garlic, onions, leafy greens, broccoli, watercress, radish
Iodine	increases intrathyroidal glutathione	seaweed, seafood, sea fish, cranberries
Selenium	increases glutathione levels	brazil nuts, shellfish, liver, fish, sunflower seeds, bran, caviar, bacon and pork
Vitamin C	increases glutathione levels	rosehip, chilli pepper, blackcurrant, rowan berries, liver, broccoli, sprouts, potatoes, parsley, many more berries
Iron	regulates glutathione levels	liver, meat, beans, nuts, leafy greens, wholegrains
Betaine	enhances recycling of homocysteine for the generation of methionine	beetroot, spinach, quinoa, whole wheat

Some Final Thoughts

It's interesting to note that this diet is essentially that of a coastal Paleolithic hunter gatherer. It works best when carbohydrate intake is low compared with the Standard Western Diet.

The health benefits of this diet are supported through exercise and time spent in natural surroundings. Greater benefit will be felt if toxins such as smoking, alcohol and environmental toxins are avoided.

My Experience

I stumbled on this diet by accident. I'd become so electro-sensitive that I couldn't live in the electrosmog anymore, and was living on my boat, eating mostly fish and seaweed. I soon noticed that I had become less electro-sensitive. I later found out that glutathione is a treatment for radiation exposure.

I've been taking fly agaric mushrooms and snowdrops to increase my acetylcholine levels, because of residual dementia and chronic fatigue symptoms from Lyme disease. I haven't needed to take as much of these since maximising glutathione. This is I think because my mitochondria are now in better shape, and can now send the signals for acetylcholine production more easily.