Minimizing Toxic Exposure In Your Environment
Most people these days understand the important of eating clean and reducing toxin overload. But where are all these toxins coming from? And what can we do to minimize how much of this gets into our bodies? Here is a list of just a FEW things we are exposed to on a daily basis… the list can definitely be much longer.
- chemicals from plastics that can cause endocrine (hormone) disruption
- Chemicals from pesticides/herbicides that are on foods we eat
- Toxic seed oils used for cooking, especially in fast food environments
- Chemicals from make-up, personal care products, sunscreens, etc
- Using scented candles, room sprays, plug-ins, and yes even perfume/cologne
Most people are exposed to the above list every single day. This is a big reason so many people are getting more and more sick and toxic in their bodies from the accumulation of these things and developing chronic inflammation that can lead to things like autoimmune conditions (various), diabetes, heart disease, adrenal fatigue, hormone imbalance, PCOS, etc; again the list can go on and on.
So what can we do to help ourselves live in the toxic soup we can sometimes find ourselves in?
Here are a few things you can do, and by no means is this list exhaustive… start doing your own research or visit a wellness center like Abundant Life and speak with practitioners who can help guide you on how to clean up your toxic environment…
- stop using plastic containers! Simple. Yes I know it may be somewhat inconvenient but our health is more important than convenience. Stop drinking out of plastic water bottles. Instead purchase a good glass or food-grade stainless steel water bottle. And never, ever, EVER microwave food in a plastic container. Ever. The plastic breaks down and chemicals leach into our foods then we eat it. No bueno.
- Eat organic as much as you can to minimize exposure to toxic chemicals from pesticides and herbicides on fruits and vegetables. Washing does not remove them from our foods. They can penetrate the skin and get into the flesh. Now there are some foods that are safer to eat that do not absolutely have to be organic like avocados and bananas. Check out EWG.org for their Clean 15 and Dirty Dozen list of foods.
- Never, ever, EVER use seed oils to cook with like sunflower, safflower, corn, soybean or canola oils. Our body does not know what these are when they are highly processed and are closer to plastics than to what the original food source was (i.e. sunflower seeds). Instead use coconut oil, cold-pressed olive oil or avocado oil or butter/ghee from grass-fed/pastured animals. Hint: most, if not all, fast food restaurants use seed oils because they are cheap. Same for most restaurants in general… Minimize how much fast food you consume, please.
- Much like chemicals from plastics, many of the same compounds can be found in make-up and personal care products like deodorant, shampoo and conditioner, lotions, sunscreens, etc… find cleaner products. Also on the EWG.org website you can find a list of the cleanest brands of all of these types of products. We also recommend products from the Rowe Casa Organics line that are all clean and free from all the chemicals found in traditional product lines. Also from Rowe Casa are cleaner household products like laundry detergent and household cleaning products.
- Just stop with the scented candles and the plug-ins and the room sprays like Glade and such… you’re just spraying your room with chemicals and then breathing it all in. Instead diffuse essential oils or use room sprays made with essential oils. You can find many of these at Rowe Casa Organics as well!
Now bear in mind, we can’t live in a bubble although a lot of us might like to… so the best we can do is to minimize. We can’t remove every single toxic thing in our environment but we can minimize as much as possible with things we can control like all the things I have mentioned above. Now… how do we get rid of all this stuff that is in our systems and may be building up? We will look at that in our next topic.