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| Art provided by Claudia Olivos at OlivosARTstudio |
1- Wine. I know wines are made with grapes and for the most part, the process is natural. But, it's not so natural if the grapes have been sprayed with pesticides. So, I'm trying to find some good organic wines that also do not have added sulfites.
2- Hair dye. As much as I love my hair colorist, the fact that I chemically dye my hair really bugs me. I have been going less often than recommended (and if you see my hair after a month, you'd agree). However, I can't help but cringe each time I smell the chemicals brushed onto my head. And, I can honestly feel the toxins getting right into my scalp and bloodstream - sometimes it burns. It's really been bothering me, so it's something I know I need to be changing.
3- Make-up. Although I have found alternatives for cleansers and moisturizers, I have yet to commit to mineral-based cosmetics - especially eye make-up. This is my next hunt.
4- Non-stick pans. I need to get rid of the Teflon pans once and for all. I am tired of reading how in high heat, these pans leach chemicals into my food that are linked to liver diseases and cancer. I know it, and I keep using them. Gotta go.
5- Toothpaste. While I have always used natural toothpastes for my son, I have yet to make the change for the adults in this house! Toothpastes contain flouride, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate and Sodium Lauroyl Sarcosinate which are all chemicals that get easily absorbed through the mouth and into the bloodstream. The last two items are what cause the foaming action in the mouth. (You know that's not naturally occurring, right?) And that sweet peppermint-y taste? Aspartame. Many ingredients in toothpaste are known skin irritants and carcinogens. I think this is going to be the easiest and first one to change.
What's on your "to-change" list?
Resources for you:
Flouride - Dr. Weil (article)
The Toxic Toothpaste - Dr. Mercola (article)
EWG'S Cosmetic Database (find out what's in your make-up)
Enjoy Wine Without the Toxins - The People's Chemist (video)
9 Non-Toxic Cookware Brands for Safe and Healthy Home Cooking (a great list I'm looking into!)
Great article!
ReplyDelete(and thank you for using my painting!)
I use Hennah for my hair...mehandi.com is a great source for everything Hennah!
For toothpaste: We tried TONS of natural toothpastes with bad taste/results..and finally found awesome Xylitiol toothpaste is the best! It is healthy and also acts as a tooth brightner :)
Our home changed to Stevia years ago before it was available in local stores... we have never looked back!
Taking your own bags to the grocery store (although not always because we do use plastic grocery bags for both trash and kitty poop).
We hang dry most of our clothes Spring to Fall.
Now..for deodorant... that is still a mystery: have tried the salt blocks, Tom's...you name it... still in search of one that works and is not toxic (I confess to sometimes still use the toxic one, but most of the time I try to use mineral oil mixed with lavender oil instead).
warm regards,
Claudia
Hi Claudia! Thanks for these suggestions. I'm going to look into this toothpaste for sure. Hennah, huh? I wonder if that's easy to apply. I wish the hair salon would make the change for me - I like being pampered from time to time (and I worry that I'd botch it up!)
DeleteGabriella this is a great blog post.
ReplyDeletePlease let me know if you come across a good organic wine. I can barely drink wine anymore, and I enjoy a glass once in a while. I have done a lot of detox and cleansings for my body and I feel that might have something to do with my tolerance level. Almost every time I drink a bit of wine my face will break out in big red blotches, and sometimes also on my neck... it's a really uncomfortable and scary feeling. So I'm pretty much not able to drink at all anymore. Which is not a bad thing probably.
Hair dye... I skip. I stick to the colour it wants to go to. I have almost no natural colour left in my hair, it's mostly grey... but I also don't mind it at all.
Makeup, well I spent over $100 last summer on a few makeup things because what I had was old and we were going to a family member's wedding. I felt sick knowing I had it on when I knew it was wrong for me. I couldn't wait to get it off. So it was not a good investment since it wasn't the healthy products. I bought it mindlessly and knew it was wrong for me when I bought it (lesson learned). Otherwise I don't wear makeup at all anymore. As I've aged I thought I might wear more makeup, instead it's almost never. And I feel so good about it too.
Toothpaste... I use the Thieves Toothpaste from Young Living, I'm a distributor with them. My family won't use it, so I buy the Jason toothpaste for them, unless they sneak in Colgate which I refuse to buy. I love Thieves Toothpaste and would never switch back even to what they are using.
I forget what my frying pans are, the recent ones are no longer Teflon that I know. I want to learn more about pots and pans... I have had the same set for 35 years or more and one day I would love a new set. I need to educate myself first before making a conscious purchase.
Deodorants I use the crystal or other natural deodorants. I believe the rest of my family uses as well most of the time.
My cleaning products are by Nature Clean, but my very favourite it Young Living Thieves Cleaner which I absolutely love the most. I use it on everything. I rarely use any cleaning product that is not natural anymore.
I also use a clothesline 95% of the time probably. I hang laundry outdoors as well as indoors in our furnace room. My husband set up 6 sections of clothesline on one wall, placed on an angle. And from the duct elbow off the side of the furnace he added a piece with a trap door that I can open and close so the air comes out and our clothes dry beautifully in the basement. I use it in the winter or when it's raining out. Someone gave me a tip to put towels or jeans in the dryer for 2-3 minutes then hang them up they won't have that stiffness when they dry naturally.
What I want most to change is the quality of water we have to drink. We are on town water which is treated chemically. We used to get bottled water to drink, but we stopped doing that last year sometime and now I replaced it with a Brita Filter for our drinking water. I didn't like the code number under the water bottles. I would love a water filtration system put in our home for our drinking water and also for shower, tub and at all the sinks. When my daughter showers she often comes out with her face all blotchy red from the water, she reacts the same way in a public swimming pool. I know it's the chemicals in the water.
In the next few years we are due to change our heating system, we will get away from using oil to heat our home. I would love for us to research so we can make a healthier choice there as well.
I will always continue making one change after another for our wellbeing... it's been on-going for a while now. For me there's been no stopping once I started. It's been wonderful. It also didn't happen overnight, but before we knew it so much had changed in our lives. I would never go back to where we were even 10 years ago.
WOW! Suzanne! Looks at all this valuable information. Thank you for your time in sharing all that you do and how far you've come. I love stories like this!
DeleteI'm not a doctor, but I also think that "blotchiness" sounds like some reaction to chemicals in water. Hmm... now you got me thinking about looking into my water filtration system a little more closely.
As for make-up and hair dye - I really admire you! It's not that I can't go make-up-less, it's just that I like to look a little more put-together some days. It's like a little gift to myself - lifts my spirits - especially playing around with hair color! It's not so much to hide the whites, but to explore other shades - for pure fun! I'd feel better about it if I do it completely naturally (which is why this made the list).
My biggest suggestion is use reusable shopping bags and don’t ever get the plastic bags grocery stores offer!!!
ReplyDeleteAnd my other big “hang up” is not to EVER buy water in water bottles. Did you know that it takes more water to produce a water bottle than actually contained in the bottle itself? And the plastic will be here long after I’m gone. We all use refillable water bottles (mine is made of glass) and all are BPH-free.
Lastly, I saw a comment regarding organic wine. Just drank a bottle of Sangria by Eppa. Found it at Whole Foods. It's a "super" sangria as it's made with blood oranges, acai, blueberries and one other "super" fruit. While it does have sulfites, it did not give me a headache as many wines do.