I’ve been on a quest to remove as many chemicals from my body as possible — without completely turning my lifestyle upside down. We are so dependent on modern conveniences, that health risks are unavoidable. I can’t stop using a cell phone, but I can use a headset instead of keeping the phone next to my head.
So for the past few years, I’ve focused on food — eat less meat, watch out for fruits and vegetables high in pesticides, drink tea, take fish oil supplements, and maintain healthy eating habits.
Then my husband asked me to buy him a glass food container for his daily lunch. (He had been using plastic ones for years.) Even though the plastic ones we have don’t have BPA, he was still worried about all the other chemicals that are leaching into the food through the frig, microwave, and freezer. BPA was labeled safe for food. Now it’s not. As long as plastic is leaching into our food, it’s not safe for food.
So began a mission to remove plastic from our food. First was the obvious glass food containers. I picked one up at Bed Bath & Beyond for $10.99 (with 20% coupon). Pretty darn pricey. So looking online we found this set for a reasonable price. I learned the hard way that when they say “18 pieces” it means 9 containers and 9 lids. But good thing I found this exact set at Costco for $30!
My Mr. Coffee coffeemaker was the next problem. Hot water traveling through plastic every day…I guess I needed to find an alternative. It’s hard. No normal coffeemaker is plastic free. I had to go old-school and get this stovetop vacuum siphon coffeemaker. Seriously. It hasn’t arrived yet. I’ll let you know how the coffee is.
Sure, I could have gone with the French Press but I’m just not a fan. The coffee is thick, it’s got sludge at the bottom, and oftentimes the coffee grinds float up and get into the drink.
After I got the coffeemaker, I realized that I had another problem: straws. I drink my coffee with a straw. I learned this from my sister-in-law who suggested it prevented teeth stains. So not only am I using this plastic drinking vessel daily, but it’s for hot liquid. Not good. There aren’t a lot of options. There are straws made from corn, bamboo, stainless steel, and glass. Glass was my least favorite option, but turned out to be the best option. Corn is not a good, sustainable material. Bamboo is just weird, and I thought would be hard to clean (or know whether it was clean). Reviewers complained about tasting metal through the stainless steel ones. Glass, material wise, is really the no-brainer. Of course, the worst case scenario of drinking broken glass is pretty horrifying. However, Glass Dharma‘s got a great reputation and lifetime guarantee!
I thought I was done. I moved on to buying things for our upcoming White Water Rafting overnight trip. When I realized I needed to get sunblock, I almost picked up Coppertone because Costco had a coupon for it. Fortunately, I decided to do a little digging around on the best sunscreen ingredients. That started another long research project to get all my skin care products clean.
The ingredients in most common sunscreens are absolutely terrible for you. While effective at blocking UVA and UVB rays, they are toxins to your body. The only sunblock you should use is a physical sunblock, namely Zinc Oxide and Titanium Oxide. Nothing else. (There is some debate on whether nano-sized Zinc/Titanium Oxide is okay for you. The concern is that it can pass through your skin, but so far research has shown that the nano particles don’t get through. At this point, the factor is how much you can’t stand the white-ish coloring that Zinc will inevitably leave on your skin.) Some common sunscreens do have those two ingredients, but they are also loaded with the chemical sunscreens that you should never put on your skin again. The EWP has a sunscreen guide that was really helpful.
Without going into even more detail about this saga, I’ll just list the products that, after going through much, much research, I settled on. I’ve either purchased them, or have them as my “to try next” options. To pick these products, I didn’t just look them up on the Cosmetics Database for its “Hazard Score,” but I checked which ingredients is problematic, and also looked up reviews, because if I wasn’t going to like the texture or smell, I won’t use it, and it’d just be a big waste of money. Look up the score for the products in your cabinets. I was very surprised and then disturbed to discover that many of the popular “natural” products have terrible ingredients, too.
Sunblock
Badger Sunscreen SPF30 (water resistant, organic)
Living Naturals Organic SPF30 (water resistant, organic, vegan)
Moisturizer
SanRe Supple Sunshine (organic, SPF30)
SanRe Siesta Sunset (organic)
Pomega5 Green Tea Mattifying Moisturizer (0 hazard score)
100% Pure Organic Pomegranate Antioxidant Hydration (vegan, SPF20)
100% Pure Organic Acai Berry Antioxidant Facial Cream (vegetarian)
Face Wash
Gi’ovane Italy Organic Foam Cleanser (award winning)
Body Wash
Body Organic Pomegranate Love Body Wash (organic)
100% Pure Organic Tahiti Foaming Shower Gel (vegetarian)
Body Lotion
Body Organic Creamy Coconut Body Mist (organic)
*Hugo Naturals Unscented All-Over Lotion (organic, vegan)
100% Pure Organic Pomegranate Nourishing Body Cream (vegetarian)
Hair
Hugo Naturals Red Tea & Ylang Ylang Shampoo (organic, vegan)
Foundation
100% Pure Healthy Skin Foundation with Super Fruits SPF20
*Has vitamin A
Additional notes: Pregnant women should stay away from products containing vitamin A (and its derivatives like retinyl palmitate and retinol), products with soy (usually listed as lecithin, Phosphatidylcholine), as well as bergamot oil.
Vitamin A has been shown to cause birth defects (although it is only known that overconsumption of vitamin A taken orally causes the problem, it is not clear whether topically applied vitamin A causes the same problem, although studies do confirm that topically applied vitamin A does go into the bloodstream.) Soy products and bergamot oil have been implicated in worsening melasma during pregnancy.
Babycenter has a list of ingredients pregnant women should avoid. This is important because we use skin care products so regularly — many women wouldn’t even think twice about needing to change it during their pregnancy.
I looked up the corporate ladder and decided to get to the top another way. This is my journey there. Contact me: lynn [at] killeraces [dot] com