When my daughter was a baby, I thought I was buying the best products for her. These products touted titles like “natural” and “organic”.
I had no idea how many harmful ingredients could be hiding in the products we were using everyday.
Did you know the average woman applies over 300 chemicals per day to her body through soaps, makeup, shampoos, and hair products?
The average man applies over 80.
According to the American Cancer Society, only 5-10% of all cancer cases are from gene defects. That means the other 90-95% are preventable and what we allow in our homes makes a difference!
Here is a list of some items to check on the ingredients list of your products. Although it is not exhaustive, it is a good place to start. Products to check are things like shampoo, conditioner, body wash, lotion, deodorant, sunscreen, cleaning products, etc.
What to look for:
- Parabens: This is any ingredient that ends with -paraben. Parabens mimic estrogen, reduce fertility, and are found in breast cancer tissue. Approximately 85% of health and beauty products contain them.
- Fragrance/Parfum: Have you ever heard of the fragrance loophole? Neither had I. This is how companies hide toxic ingredients without having to label them on the bottle. They claim that their fragrance is a “trade secret” and this is where you can find up to 3,000 plus other ingredients hidden. Fragrance is linked to asthma, brain fog, headaches, dizziness, kidney damage and cancer to name a few.
- Phalates: These cause endocrine disruption. Your endocrine system is responsible for producing hormones. These hormones regulate metabolism, weight, sexual function, reproduction, sleep, growth and development, mood, and more. Do you have issues with weight? Hormones? Mood? This can be such a big problem.
- Benzophenone/oxybenzone: If it ends in -benzone get rid of it. These chemicals are linked to cancer, endocrine disruption, and organ system toxicity. They are also toxic to the symbiotic algae that lives within coral and threaten coral reefs.
- Glycols: This is a moisturizing agent. It is an antifreeze solvent that causes kidney and liver abnormalities. Labeling on industrial bottles give warnings to avoid skin contact, yet it’s in face creams, shampoos, conditioners, toothpaste, sunscreen, deodorants, cosmetics, etc.
- Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (think foaming): Found in 90% of personal care and cleaning products. It is a skin, lung, and eye irritant. It interacts with other chemicals and becomes carcinogenic and causes kidney and respiratory issues as well.
If you are frantically pulling out bottles and checking ingredients……slow down. It can be scary when you first recognize the toxins that you have been unknowingly exposing yourself too.
I know that it can be expensive to throw away everything in your cabinet and start over.
Here is what I did.
I looked at the products that my daughter was using first. My thought process here was that her young, developing body is more sensitive than mine, so that is where I wanted to start.
Next, I looked at which of my products had the worst ratings. I will explain more about the ratings a little later. I replaced the worst products we had next to make sure that the things causing the most damage were gone.
After that, I did what I call “ditch and switch”. As I ran out of something, I replaced it with a clean product instead. It took some time, but our household has been able to remove all harmful toxins and be toxin free for 8 years now. This has made a tremendous difference in my personal health.
And if you can afford to get rid of everything at once and start fresh then by all means do so.
Now back to those ratings. One app that we found helpful in choosing what to get rid of first is called Think Dirty. You can scan the products in your home and see what kind of ratings they get. Products are given a rating from 1-10 with 10 being the worst and the ones you will want to replace first. You can also go to ewg.org and search for ratings on products there. And a newer app that many have been using is called Yuka.
I encourage you to look at your products even if the companies you are currently using claim to be natural, organic, or “clean” as we learned the hard way this doesn’t mean they are free from toxins.
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Cheers to removing toxins and continuing to heal!
Candace
