I may or may not strike you as a “crunchy” mom. And you may or may not even know what that means (no worries if not, my own husband had no clue either). I’ve honestly myself never decided if I’m considered “crunchy” or not…so I guess I’ll just let you be the judge of that! I really don’t care either way 🙂
But what I do care about is toxic load and am passionate about low tox living! Now is it possible to shield ourselves of all toxins…nope, I personally don’t think so! But, I do believe that we are gatekeepers of our own homes. Something that we CAN control, is what we bring into our house…the products we use or don’t use, the foods we eat or don’t eat, the ingredients we watch out for, etc.
If you’ve been around here a while, or you’ve read my previous blog post, you know that my journey started with “candles and cleaners.” I was a first-time mom, in the middle of the pandemic, and I wanted to ditch my candles and cleaners for some safer options. You may be saying to yourself “yea Alli, you’re alwayssss talking about that…but what does that actually mean??”
Well. I’m about to tell you.
Over the course of the past 3 years, I’ve really been leaning into a more “holistic approach” to health – wellness and lifestyle changes, if you will. Am I perfect at it? Absolutely not! Do we still have toxins in our home? Definitely! But I’m of the firm belief that small changes add up, doing something is better than nothing, and that we truly can affect our overall health and wellbeing by being mindful of products and ingredients and what we bring into our homes.
So let’s dive into toxins. Simply put, toxins are chemicals/substances that are harmful to our bodies with a wide array of side effects. The good news is, we have many organs and systems in our bodies to help filter out toxins and keep us safe and healthy – especially our liver! The bad news is, our bodies are so overloaded with toxins, that it’s hard for our body (and liver) to filter out and excrete those toxins that it needs to in order for all of our systems to continue working properly. We’re just exposed to so much on a daily basis! From environmental toxins, to what we put on our bodies/skin, to what we wash our clothes in, it’s just a lot!
This toxin build up can lead to so many things…headaches, anxiety, depression, fatigue, weakened immune systems, eczema, respiratory issues, etc.
So let’s back up for a second. Where do these toxins come from? There’s about 80,000 chemicals on the market today…the EU bans approximately 1400 chemicals from being used in their personal care products, whereas the US only bans 30. Uhhh yikes??! That leaves quite a few chemicals out there that are harmful and toxic to our bodies. And since they aren’t banned or restricted, they end up in products that we use on a daily basis, and therefore expose ourselves to on a daily basis. The more we expose ourselves to, the more that toxic load on our body increases. You get the picture!
I always encourage people to do their own research – and find what hits the most home to them. But I will share with you some of what I’ve learned about these toxins and what ingredients I personally look out for, and have come to be leery of on this low tox journey I’m on.
Some of these you’ve probably heard of…but maybe some are new…so let’s dive in!
So fragrance is a biggie. Mostly because it’s an umbrella term that can hide a whole host of icky ingredients. Because of trade secret laws, companies don’t have to disclose exactly what is in their signature fragrance. Thus, a lot of not so great ingredients and chemicals can be hiding under that term and can be very harmful to our health! Parabens and Phthalates are two other biggies – phthalates are chemicals used in plastics and personal care products, and Parabens are chemicals used as preservatives. Both are hormone/endocrine disruptors, and parabens are also linked to cancer risks.
Sulfates – these are often found in cleaning agents (cleaners, detergents, shampoo) to create “suds” and are a skin irritant. Ammonia is found in all-purpose, window, and toilet bowl cleaners and is a respiratory, skin, and eye irritant. Petrochemicals are chemicals made from petroleum or natural gas and are used in plastics, soaps, detergents, fertilizers, etc and pose respiratory concern, cancer risk, and toxicity.
Alright – I think you get the picture. And I assure you, you can hop on google and the list will go on! But these are the types of things that are in our products – products that we use on our bodies, in our homes, on our clothes day in and day out. And this is where the build up and toxic load comes in…will a little bit hurt us? Probably not…but think about it this way…our skin is our largest organ…and on a daily basis we’re washing our face, putting on makeup, lathering up in lotion, washing our hands, cleaning our counters, our bathrooms, our floors, washing our clothes – wearing said clothes, washing out sheets – sleeping on said sheets…I think you get the picture. Sure, it may be just a little…but it’s a little in all those products day in and day out!
All the while, our health issues (in our culture as a whole) are abounding. Whether it be mental or physical health…specific issues or weakened immune systems…hormonal issues (PS this is where endocrine disruptors come in – which is something I didn’t understand for a while, but basically is when a chemical mimics or interferes with our hormones and hormone production), skin problems, or headaches. I’m absolutely no health expert – but I think it’s becoming more more well known, that a lot of environmental factors are affecting our health! And here’s the thing – this is where (at least for me) it gets overwhelming. Like what power do I have to change that?
Well – back to what I said in the beginning. We are the gatekeepers of our own homes. We can control what comes in, what products we use, what ingredients we avoid. That’s where I start! And to me, it then becomes less overwhelming.
One great place to start is simply with product ingredient labels! Start checking those out and becoming familiar with those ingredients you want to look out for, and what’s truly in your products. You really want to be mindful of company transparency as well – how transparent are manufactures as to what’s really in their products (sometimes their websites are helpful!).
Greenwashing is absolutely a thing – something can say “100% natural” on the label, but really could just be a part of the marketing, because there’s nothing actually regulating this statement. A super practical approach to this is to download the EWG Healthy Living App. Open up that app and start scanning bar codes – as long as the product is in the database, the app will pull up all of the individual ingredients and give you a rating on each ingredient and the product as a whole!
Another tip? Start small! It is absolutely not feasible to just ditch every product in your house and start over. I mean, I guess you could – but that would be very expensive and time consuming! If you don’t have it already, download my free “4 steps to reduce toxins” guide. This will give you 4 practical areas/steps to start switching. And start having the mindset of swapping one thing at a time…next time you run out of deodorant, swap it out for one with cleaner ingredients.
Oh – and be on the lookout for the remaining blog posts in this series where I will continue to break down areas of your home that you can lessen the toxic load and provide some product swap ideas to help you ditch those toxin laden products for those with safer, cleaner ingredients!
Like I mentioned before, I highly encourage you to do your own research…dig into what some of these chemicals do, and the research out there about their effects on our bodies! But in the meantime – I’ll leave you with a few links to kickstart your own research!
Cleaning Supplies and Household Chemicals
13 Chemicals in Laundry Detergent
Until Next Time…
Xoxo, Alli
*This blog post is based on personal opinion and belief. This is not intended as medical advice*