Health Helps
There are many things that you can do to improve your health and reduce your chemical exposure that isn’t food or food related. Often times, what you use in your household to store your food, clean with, bathe with, or put in contact with your skin can have a significant impact on your health.
The Bathroom
Commercial toothpastes contain chemicals such as fluoride, glycerine, triclosan (a
registered pesticide), dyes of many types, sodium lauryl sulphate, among other chemicals.
Using a chemical-
It was once thought that what we absorbed very little of what we place on our skin. We now know that is not true, however the myth that personal care products have little impact on chemical exposure still persists. Coconut oil is a wonderful moisturizer, personal lubricant, and makes a wonderful base for homemade deodorants and other body products. This allows you to avoid the multitude of petroleum derived chemicals in skin care products and personal lubricants.
There are few people who haven’t heard about the connection between aluminum in antiperspirants and breast cancer. But few know that another study found that another common antiperspirant deodorant ingredient, parabens, existed in all tumor samples taken in the study. There are also studies that connect aluminum to Alzheimer's and other neurological disorders. Deodorants and antiperspirants also contain propolyene glycol, which is a chemical designed to penetrate your skin and carry other chemicals into your body. Eliminating commercial antiperspirants and deodorants eliminates these exposure risks and reduces your body burden.
The Kitchen
There are many simple things that can be done in the kitchen to reduce your chemical exposure.
- Buy organic where your budget will allow.
- Use parchment or butcher paper instead of wax paper.
- Use glass instead of plastic.
- Wash all produce, organic or not, with a veggie wash.
- Do not use Teflon. Preferred cooking vessles include corningware, pyrex, Corningware Visions Cookware
, stainless steel, cast iron and stonewear.
The Laundry Room
Making your own laundry soap or buying Free and Clear versions of laundry soap, and using white vinegar instead of fabric softener can significantly decrease your chemical exposure. Fabric softener sheets are particularly toxic. Cleaners are also laden with many chemicals, and sometimes don’t do as good of a job as baking soda, vinegar, castille soap, washing soda, borax and essential oils. Our Cleaning Recipes page can help you with recipes to make your own laundry soap, dishwasher power, dish liquid, and cleaners.
More coming soon!