Thursday, October 11, 2007

Parabens: Cumulative Drip, Drip, Drip

Good Day Everyone,

In keeping with the purpose of this blog, to give you the facts and let YOU decide, I've been digging on the subject of parabens, which is being much debated in the skin care and cosmetic corners.

I am including the link to the USDA and it's official statement on parabens. see link (http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/cos-para.html). To sum up what they say: parabens are readily identifiable on any label and usually used in multiples. They are legal, and as far as the FDA says, they do not pose any health risk.

However, having said that, they do allow that parabens have been found in tumor tissue. YIKES!

Parabens are of the "ester" complex, as in estrogen. They are a xenohormone. English please, a phony hormone. The body does not know how to process them. To my mind, they're sort of like that phony fat, olestra, the body passes it on out the system - or so they say. At any rate, the body does not pass parabens out, but rather stuffs them aside in reproductive tissues. Kind of like when you and I are sorting papers on our desk and come across something we'll deal with later....Well, I don't know about you, but that "I'll - deal-with-it-later" pile of mind get huge. Because I never seem to deal with it, because I don't know what to do with it. If I did, I would have right then and there.

So imagine your body piling up xenohormones, which by the way, come in many, many products. For example, xenohormones lie dormant in your plastic water bottles. When the bottles heat up, like sitting in your car, they are passed into the water and you consume them. It is xenohormones that are passed into your food when you microwave in plastic. They are in countless products that we come in contact with daily.

So, the FDA says that in small amounts, as they are used in the cosmetics industry, that they are not harmful. But consider this, the drip, drip, drip and cumulative effect that all these different sources have to a body on a daily basis. You see if it were just the cosmetics, well perhaps. But also consider this. It is in your body lotion, it is in your eye cream, it is in your shave cream, it is in your shampoo, drip, drip, drip....

I'm coming to think in this way about the synthetic chemicals in our lives. They are in just about everything, our food, our drinks, our water, our lotions and potions, out soda pop, our clothes....drip, drip, drip. So my thinking is, if you can eliminate any of these synthetics from any place in your experience and either maintain the same standard of performance or improve, why wouldn't you?

For example, I love, truly love, lovely wine. I know I am getting chemicals when I enjoy a lovely bottle of wine. I choose to accept that, for now. There are few really good red wines out there that are organic and nitrate free. Perhaps that's coming, to be sure. But in that arena I choose ok. But I don't have to accept it where something better performing is being offered.

For example, this morning I ordered Swiss water processed organic decaf coffee. It's available, it's great coffee, why wouldn't I? Especially since it's something I consume DAILY.

So, think about all the places you are consuming in one form or another, the synthetics. How are you washing your clothes? What's in that dryer sachet? [ I think the smell alone would put everyone off, it did me.] What are you washing your dishes in? What's your food been grown in? What was fed to the cows, pigs, chicken or fish that you're consuming? Drip, drip, drip.

Be mindful. Pay attention. I think when you begin to notice, you'll begin to see how much one person gets in a day. And when you see that, you'll want to take the steps to eliminate synthetic chemicals whenever and wherever you can. The body is a wonderfully resilient machine. But I feel sure that there is no coincidence in the number of "immune" dis-eases and the huge amounts of synthetic chemicals we are exposed to and ingest by the drip, drip, drip system.

I don't advocate becoming paranoid and angry about it. I simply want you to become aware, and make the Pure, Safe, and Beneficial choices whenever you can. Common Sense. We all have it, let's use it.

Thanks for reading!

Kath

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Greenwashing and Spin

Good Day Everyone!

It's a glorious one up here in the Cuyamaca Mountains. Fall is upon us, at last.

Today I want to talk about the spin doctors of health and wellness. Yep. Sad to say, but everyone wants on the bandwagon of "green" but few, very few are willing to put their dollars into quality to deserve the credit.

We have to start with definitions, because the definitions are what have been muddied. Sigh.
So. Let's start with the word "natural". Natural by definition means that which exists in nature in its pure state. Man has nothing to do with how it got there. It is created and evolved in nature. Natural plants are the ones that have acclimatized to a region or area. They sprout up. OK. We're clear about natural. It is of , in and pertaining to nature without man's interference.

Now let's tackle "organic". First of all there is a course of study called "organic chemistry." I know because I suffered through one of those courses at Ohio State when I was a premed student. It followed human anatomy (real cadavers) and preceded microbiology. Now organic chemistry is pretty much the study of carbon-containing compounds, humans included. For the purposes of heath and wellness, though, this is not the definition of organic that applies. For in this definition, petroleum is an "organic" compound because it is the result of organic (carbon-containing matter) that has evolved over time from heat and pressure into oil.

Gosh, we're gonna get so smart, it's scary.

For the purposes of health and wellness products or all types and for food, the definition of "organic" is something that has been grown, propagated, raised, harvested and processed for market without any synthetic chemicals at any stage of the cycle. This includes the soils that the plants or animals are "grown" in. No steroids, no pesticides, no artificial fertilizers. I can tell you raising anything organically is bloody hard work, for most of the remedies are mechanical which pretty much translates into labor. So we're clear about the true definition of "organic". Now lots of folks grow organically and are not certified. I pretty much find that these people are true to their word, because growing organically is a life style choice and accompanies true hearts with the full intention of bringing only goodness to you.

Now, let's tackle "certified organic". Certified Organic means that an independent third party certifies that the produce, cow, product, formulation is exactly that. They have stringent guidelines that must be adhered to. They inspect and they promise you, sort of like Verisign, that "this is truly safe."

When something is certified organic, such as a skin care cream, shampoo, etc. It also means it meets other standards. Significantly that 95% of the composition of that product must be "organic matter" excluding the water and salt. Yep. Let me repeat that.....95% of the composition of that product is organic matter, which is alive, potent, nourishing and vital. This translates to good for you, all of it.

Now, what does it mean when you read a label in the health food store on a shampoo that says, "73% organic". This is a greenwashing technique. Here's what they do. They boil a vat of water. they throw in organic tea bags to impart the herbs into the water. Now they consider that the water is included in the organic composition, when really what is true is that it's about 3% organic. Then read the rest of the label to see what "fillers" and other synthetics have been added.

You can get perfectly wonderful organic items without it saying "certified organic", but you'd better be darn good at reading the labels and interpreting them. We'll cover this in my next blog.
For now, just know, that there's a brand new standard out there being set by some wonderfully visionary folks - and it's called "Certified Organic". It's a term that absolutely cannot be messed with, because it's absolute.

Won't it be fun to see how these few visionary people change entire industries? Lives?

I can't wait.

Thanks for reading!

Kath