So I was amazed to find out from this super informative post that those tiny, sticky little produce labels actually contain surprisingly valuable information. Normally, all they do is annoy me because sometimes they are hard to peel off, not to mention I don’t really want to eat any remaining adhesive, but now I have a new appreciation for them.

Labels containing a four digit number mean that the food item was grown conventionally (with pesticides and petroleum based chemicals and/or fertilizers). Labels starting with an 8 plus a 4 digit number means the product is a GMO (genetically modified organism) which I like to avoid if at all possible. Lastly, if the label starts with a 9 plus a 4 digit number, that means the food was organically grown.

I decided to double check this with some produce that I had on hand. My conventional avocado does state “4225″, my conventional kiwi states “4030″, and my organic grapes state “94022″. That is all I can check for now since the rest I purchased locally from the farmers market.

I think this is pretty neat information in case you are ever unsure about how a particular fruit or vegetable was grown. And no more grumping on my part about these labels, since it turns out they can actually be very useful!

Photo By: Dawn

Essential oils are a very concentrated liquid extract of plant materials such as fruits, leaves, and roots. They can serve many purposes including aromatherapy, therapeutic uses, and even cleaning. Unfortunately, all essential oils are not created equal so depending on what you will be using them for, it is important to select one that is best produced for your needs.

In terms of production, there are a few different ways in which essential oil can be extracted. With distillation, plants are exposed to steam so that their oils evaporate and are passed through a pipe where they are then cooled and change back into a liquid. Cold pressing is usually used for citrus oils as rinds are separated from the fruit and then pressed to release the oils.

In the maceration process, plant matter is soaked and heated in oil (such as vegetable oil) so that the plant oil is absorbed into the original oil. Once completed, remaining plant matter is removed. Lastly, in solvent extraction (which can be used when a plant material is unable to tolerate the high heat of steam distillation), a solvent is added to the plant material to dissolve the oil. Some solvents include ether, ethanol, methanol, hexane, alcohol, and petroleum. Distillation is then used to filter and concentrate it. Finally, alcohol is used to extract the oil from the concentrate and once it evaporates the essential oil remains.

You can imagine that the solvent extracted essential oils are the ones that makes me most nervous in case any of the solvent remains after processing. In fact, one article states that 2-3% of the solvent can still remain in a finished bottled essential oil. Yuck!

If you are looking to an essential oil for healing powers, most say that the essential oils must be unadulterated and as pure as possible. Unfortunately, it is also stated that some essential oils can be diluted with other cheaper oils so price can really be an indicator of whether or not an essential oil was diluted or synthetically produced.

Careful research and selection of essential oils is important and contacting a company for additional information may even be necessary if not enough information is provided on the bottles. Often times, price will be a good indicator of the quality of an essential oil. If you’ve purchased any, you probably noticed that some are very cheap and others extremely expensive.

There are several reasons for the widely varying prices among essential oils:

• Some essential oils require more plant material to produce the same amount of extract. For example, citrus oils such as lemon and sweet orange are relatively inexpensive as they contain a large amount of oil. Lavender, on the other hand, requires a much greater amount of flowers as they simply contain less oil.
• The processing method used can be cheaper for some plant materials and more expensive for others (some plant materials cannot be exposed to much heat, etc.)
• The processing method can also directly relate to the quality of the finished essential oil as some oils are considered therapeutic and others are for perfume or smell only

The two essential oils considered the most adulterated are lavender and frankincense. Unfortunately, the lavender essential oil that is most widely available is a hybrid and cut with synthetic linolyl acetate to improve the scent. Frankincense takes at least 12 hours in the distillation process and is extremely expensive unless processed with solvents. Other common essential oil adulterations are listed here.

In my case, for housecleaning purposes, I generally choose essential oils that are the most economical (not organic or necessarily 100% pure) because I know that I will not be ingesting them or actually applying them to my skin. If price was not an issue, I would certainly always buy the best quality ones.

However, if I am using an oil specifically for aromatherapy purposes or to add scent to a homemade body product, I only use organic or 100% pure ones. Whatever your use is, it’s worth taking the time to research the safest oils for your purposes; even the 100% pure ones I sometimes use probably deserve another critical look.

http://www.essentialoils.co.za/maceration.htm

http://www.iamshaman.com/resins/howmade.htm

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-essential-oils.htm

http://www.cherylsherbs.com/Natural_standardized_synthetic.htm

http://www.therealessentials.com/mislabel.html

I was really amazed (and proud!) to see my local news channel call out possible health issues last month with high fructose corn syrup, a highly processed sweetener perhaps contributing to numerous health problems. The article and video noted the enormous increase in usage of HFCS (4000% percent in the last 40 years) as well as the corresponding increase in obesity, even in children.

The article specifically cites a study done by Princeton University showing that high fructose corn syrup causes more weight gain than sugar. Even if consuming the same amount of calories, the rats with access to HFCS gained more weight than rats with access to sugar. Furthermore, the rats with access to HFCS were actually becoming obese.

In fact, in one of the experiments rats eating a diet loaded with HFCS showed warning signs of the dangerous metabolic syndrome in humans which can increase risk of stroke, diabetes, and heart disease. The signs were said to include “abnormal weight gain, significant increases in circulating triglycerides and augmented fat deposition, especially visceral fat around the belly”. The conclusion was that the rats on the HFCS diet (instead of regular chow) exhibited 48% more weight gain.

What I thought was especially neat about the news report was that the crew made a point of actually visiting a local grocery store and searching out random items containing HFCS. As most of you might guess, finding a number of these products was not hard to do. Many processed foods including salad dressings, sauces, canned goods, and snack foods contain some level of HFCS. Even so-called health products such as yogurt and soup often have it near the top of the ingredients list.

Also, the fact that kids were mentioned to possibly be greatly affected by the excessive consumption of HFCS sadly does not surprise me at all. Think of the number of candies, juices (fresh and frozen), crackers, and even breads that are loaded with this sneaky ingredient. Many of these are foods that kids eat daily!

My hope is that this news report served as a great eye opener to people that don’t normally read labels so that they can be aware of this lurking and potentially dangerous ingredient. The reporters were straight forward in stating that avoiding HFCS would take commitment and not be easy to avoid, but in my opinion it may be very worthwhile.

MSG (monosodium glutamate) is bad news and there’s no two ways around it. MSG is a known neurotoxin and is used as a flavor enhancer (seemingly unnecessary, right?) often found in soups, sauces/dressings, processed snack foods, and processed meat products. A couple of weeks ago I actually saw MSG for sale in the spice aisle of my local grocery store for about $1.50. I was appalled.

I kept thinking, do people really add this to their home cooking? I know that Chinese food (the American takeout kind, anyway) is normally pretty loaded with this stuff, but it was beyond belief that this could be used in home cooking on a regular basis. And then, wouldn’t you believe, I was looking through one of my mom’s old cookbooks/Oster blender manual from the early ’80s and there it was- 1 tsp MSG called for in guacamole dip. And then again for 2 tsp in an oriental seasoning sauce. While I’ve seen it listed on products at the store, I had never seen it in recipes before!

Despite seeing it in the cookbook, my guess is that it is not added so much to home recipes (at least anymore), but is consumed most widely in the many processed foods of the SAD (Standard American Diet). The worst part is that MSG isn’t always clearly labeled and can be hidden in descriptions such as natural flavor, hydrolyzed protein, and many others.

MSG is absorbed quickly into our bodies and large amounts cause excitotoxicity (this occurs when nerve cells are overstimulated and then permanently damaged or killed). Unfortunately, only some people feel correlations such as headaches when consuming MSG, telling them to avoid it, but all of us still experience the impact of MSG.

Natural News actually cites animal studies, stating “MSG creates a lesion in the hypothalamus that correlates with abnormal development, including obesity, short stature and sexual reproduction problems.” If that’s not enough to make someone want to avoid it, I don’t know what is. Even if, for whatever reason, you disagree with the dangers of MSG, is the potential for such damage really worth a little extra flavor in your food?

My personal belief is that MSG is a real hidden danger so it is important to analyze food labels carefully and to buy food that is “real” or unprocessed and as close to it’s natural state as possible. If you can make soup, broths, dressings, and your own homemade snacks you will have much better chances of avoiding MSG.

Although I drink my whole milk raw from a local farm that I trust, I sometimes find myself purchasing extra cream and other pasteurized (heated) dairy products at the store. I accept that these items are only available to be purchased pasteurized at this time, even at health stores, but I’ve recently learned about ultra-pasteurization of some dairy products that just seems so unnatural.

Natural News posted an interesting interview with Sally Fallon (co-author of the wonderful Nourishing Traditions cookbook) that touches on the pasteurization subject. She states that there are a couple of different ways to pasteurize which include the “holder technique” and “flash pasteurization”. With the holder technique, milk is heated slower and held at the desired temperature for 15-3o minutes. Flash pasteurization, however, is when the milk is heated quickly and the temperature is held for only a few seconds.

I’m not a huge fan of pasteurization as it is, and ultra-pasteurization, in my opinion, is at a totally different level. In this process, chilled milk is heated higher than the boiling point in less than two seconds. Sally Fallon states that you cannot do this in your kitchen because you will reach the boiling point of milk and and not be able to go higher than 212 degrees. However, with ultra-pasteurization, equipment is capable of getting the milk to reach temperatures up to 230 degrees. The reason this is done commercially is to extend the shelf life and try to rid the milk of bacteria that has become heat resistant.

But, remember, clean, fresh milk from pastured cows that are treated well and given good living conditions (of course, also free of hormones and antibiotics) contains enzymes and vitamins in the milk which make it a “live” product and good for us in many ways. In the past raw milk has even been used for medicinal purposes. Sally Fallon goes on to make another good point about ultra-pasteurization- if we are going to kill everything good in the milk, why bother to grass feed and raise cows organically to begin with?

If you would like to avoid ultra-pasteurized products, I recommend looking for this description on the ingredients list and general packaging of the item you are looking to purchase. Local, organic dairy products may also be a better option as some may use slower heating techniques and possibly not homogenize the milk as well. Kelly the Kitchen Cop also offers some milk recommendations and good brands to look for if you are buying from the store.

http://realmilk.com/what.html

Photo By: Chris69

If you are like most people who’ve experienced a natural health awakening over the past few years, (or maybe you’re still in yours – after all, education is a lifelong process!), you are aware of the dangers of fluoride, and you have  taken steps to remove it from your water supply.

To recap, sodium fluoride (not calcium fluoride, which is naturally occurring and remarkably safe) is an industrial toxic waste product that is regularly (and legally) dumped into U.S. public water supply. In other words, a chemical that must be handled with gloves and extreme caution in the lab is freely ingested by millions of people every day.  This realization is quite alarming when you consider that sodium fluoride contributes to “fluoridosis” (a grisly degeneration of the bones), several cancers, and the typical zombie-like, apathetic mindstate of the general population.

So you know you don’t want fluoride in your water. You avoid bottled water (basically packaged & sold tap water), you certainly never drink from the tap, and you’ve installed a home water-filtration system to ensure fluoride is out of sight, out of mind. But is it?

Consider this: if you are eating virtually any processed food or beverage, you are still ingesting fluoride (among a cocktail of other dangerous chemicals, including high fructose corn syrup, food colorings, “natural flavoring”, and more). Water is used to create a variety of processed products – and you can be sure that the company isn’t as strict about its water purity as you are.  From the link above, here are common foods that contain fluoride, and how much:

• Minute Maid OJ, 0.98 – 1.20mg/l
• Gerber’s Graduate Berry Juice, 3.0mg/l
• Classic Coca Cola, 0.82-0.98mg/l
• Diet Coke, 1.12mg/l
• Snapple, 0.29mg/l
• Lipton Ice Tea, 0.56 mg/l
• Kellogg’s Fruit Loops, 2.1mg/kg

Even fruits and vegetables can have fluoride content, if they are watered with water that contains fluoride. Of course, how do you know? An apple at the big box grocery store is thousands of miles from whence it came. This is another situation in which asking the manager won’t help, either.

Once again, the safe solution is to intimately know the source of your food, and don’t eat it if you don’t trust it. Buy from a farmer’s market, where you can ask questions directly to the grower. (That’s what I love about the dairy farm – they use well water, so there’s no fluoride on the property, and more importantly, my milk and eggs :) )

Invest in a quality portable water container and don’t leave the house without it. Extreme, maybe, but you can take it in steps. Just remember – there IS a war for your mind, body and soul, and you gain significant advantage by rightly taking control over what you put into your body. (The same way you can and should control your thoughts to improve your mental state naturally, not with drugs).

The more you can choose whole, fresh foods, and avoid choosing factory foods, the more confidence you can feel that fluoride and other deleterious chemicals are out of your life, for good.

If you’re looking for more information on fluoride in food and water, please check out our follow-up post on this topic.

I’ve been more than a little disgusted lately at all of the products I’ve seen hoarding parabens. While I notice them frequently (near the end of most ingredient lists) in lotions, etc, I have also seen them in what companies are claiming as “natural” products (for example, Lush lip balm). Worse yet, at a craft show this past weekend, a seller of homemade beauty products had used parabens in lotions, fragrances, and more! I was appalled…

To give you a little background, there are a number of different kinds of parabens (methylparaben, propylparaben, butylparaben, etc) used as preservatives in all sorts of cosmetic products. Clearly, they are unnecessary ingredients as a wide variety of truly organic and natural creams, lotions, hair care products, makeup, and lip balms are made without them! Of course, it costs more to get products without parabens, since they are a cheap and effective means of preservation.

While the FDA basically says that parabens are okay in the quantities currently used, the risks truly seem quite alarming. Since parabens act similarly to estrogen, it would make sense that this could have a big impact on the human body- male or female. Parabens have been linked by studies to breast cancer; a study in particular showed parabens in breast cancer tissue of 19/20 women. Scary!!! You can also see how this estrogen “mimicker” could be especially dangerous to males, for example, baby boys who become more susceptible to birth defects (it makes sense that this could affect the male reproductive system).

According to Natural News, parabens can also lead to reduced muscle mass, breast growth, and excess storage of fat. In addition, another article states that parabens penetrate the skin and can be found in the blood only minutes after applied. Worse yet, since the parabens in cosmetics enter the body without going through the digestive system, the chemicals stay in the tissue.

Now, there are many, many companies guilty of adding parabens to their products, but I was recently sent an article on the cancer risks of Avon products of which many contain parabens. It states that laboratory tests show that parabens stimulate the growth of breast cancer cells. Late this summer, Avon and the National Cancer Institute (of course, a government agency) stated their collaboration in order to “develop a computerized initiative to recruit and study women in order to improve the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of breast cancer”.

Hmmm, let’s step back a minute. How about, for the prevention portion, Avon takes some initiative to get rid of parabens in their products?! How could that not be step one here? While Avon keeps their prices very low, I have to believe that many women would pay more for products that are less likely to cause them breast cancer and other issues someday! Another frightening note in the article is that not only are parabens quickly absorbed through the skin of “immature female rodents”, but they also stimulate premature uterine growth. I can only then assume how this might affect our female youth using such products.

Overall, I recommend staying away from products with parabens whenever possible. It’s better safe than sorry, and I certainly don’t trust companies and government agencies to determine what quantities are acceptable in my body when profits tend to be a deciding factor. Once again, knowledge is power, and only with it can we make informed decisions to protect our bodies.

Although I think we’ve made it pretty clear how we feel about soda, I want to delve a bit deeper into the dangers of diet pop. If you’re thinking the word “diet” makes a Coke or Pepsi (or any other pop for that matter) a “healthier” option, think again. Sure, you can escape from the health problems posed by high fructose corn syrup, but you are now subjecting your body to yet another disturbing ingredient- aspartame.

Aspartame is commonly marketed and used as a low calorie sweetener (200 times sweeter than sugar) in soda and prepared foods. It is also found in powder from such as Nutrasweet and Equal, which are often added to drinks. You will also see it in the flavored Crystal Light packets that are added to bottled water.

Even though aspartame has been cited for causing nearly 100 different side effects (which were acknowledged by the FDA), it is still readily consumed in our daily lives. Even with conflicting studies, the FDA approved aspartame (only discovered in 1965) for mass consumption in 1981. In addition to its normal health risks to humans, aspartame has also been declared especially dangerous for those with diabetes.

There are 3 ingredients that make up aspartame: aspartic acid, phenylalanine, and methanol (already these don’t sound very natural…). While aspartic acid (or aspartate) works as a neurotransmitter in the human brain, too much of it allows a flood of calcium into brain cells. As a result, an excessive number of free radicals are triggered and they kill the cells, causing nerve cell damage. Since aspartate causes such damage, it is referred to as an excitotoxin. Long term excitotoxin exposure has been linked to problems such as multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, brain lesions, and more.

If that’s not scary enough, in 1971, Dr. John Olney (neuroscientist and excitotoxin expert) notified G.D. Searle (pharmaceutical company) that his studies of aspartic acid showed the creation of holes in the brains of mice. However, this information was not shared with the FDA until after the 1981 approval of aspartame.

The phenylalanine in aspartame is also normally found in the brain, but as an amino acid. Testing has revealed that continuous consumers of aspartame have higher levels of it in the blood. This is a problem as too much phenylalanine in the brain can cause a decrease in serotonin levels. Depression, schizophrenia, and an increased susceptibility to seizures can arise from this.

Last, but certainly not least, is methanol, which has been stated as a “cumulative poison” by the EPA since once it is absorbed into the body, only a very small amount leaves. The body changes methanol to formic acid and formaldehyde (both considered toxic) once it reaches 86 degrees Farenheit.

The National Cancer Institute says it best with “in 1995, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) concluded that formaldehyde is a probable human carcinogen. However, in a reevaluation of existing data in June 2004, the IARC reclassified formaldehyde as a known human carcinogen (2).”

There is endless information on the web regarding aspartame if you are looking for more, but this is enough for me to stay far, far away from it. There are other options, and if you still crave that taste of pop try a GuS or make your own tasty carbonated drink.

About a month ago, I began writing this post to inform you that I don’t think there’s ever been an ingredient so sneaky and nasty as high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Now I’m writing not just to tell you, but to plead to you- avoid HFCS at all costs!

This will be a difficult task to do, but let me give you some incentive (and then you may need to watch the calming video that Sarah posted).  Although HFCS has already been linked to obesity and a slew of other health problems, there have been recent studies finding mercury in high fructose corn syrup.

Mercury poses a number of health risks to humans which include (according to the sources linked below) neurological disorders, loss of hair, teeth, nails, and kidney function, muscle weakness, mood swings, memory impairment, headaches, confusion, and even death in severe situations. In other words, tons of negative impacts you want to avoid!

The mercury contamination into HFCS occurs when factories process corn into the syrup using a method that can easily leave mercury in the finished product. More specifically, Natural News states that the contamination happens when caustic soda is created and used to break down the corn.  The soda is created “by exposing raw materials to pools of electrified mercury in a large vat. Through this process, the caustic soda gets contaminated with mercury, and when corn kernels are exposed to this caustic soda to break them down, that contamination is passed through to the HFCS.”

And then this dangerous product is passed on into many widely available foods that you likely consume on a daily basis! In fact, according to Natural News, the average American ingests twelve teaspoons of HFCS every single day!

If you look closely at the ingredients labels at on foods at the grocery store, you will quickly see why the amount of HFCS consumed is so easily done. Below is a list of a number of foods (some shocking) that contain what some are calling the  “silent killer”. I can only imagine there are hundreds more…

• Pop
• Juice (Bottles & Frozen concentrate)*
• Bread
• Cereal
• Yogurt
• Canned Beans
• Sauces, Dressings, & Marinades
• Drink Mixes
• Alcoholic Beverages
• Pickles
• Maraschino Cherries
• Chocolate Syrup

*Juice deserved a special star because I am outright disgusted when I see juice advertisements convincing mothers that their brand of juice is healthy for children when it contains large amounts of ingredients such as HFCS! I urge you to look carefully at juice in particular because it is a very common drink for children and one that has been very wrongly considered healthy in terms of HFCS. There are healthier options, you may just need to look at a few different brands to find one.

HFCS has snuck into tons of food and if you only read the front of the package you may be fooled into thinking a product is healthy. An advertisement or label claiming to be whole grain, healthy, all natural, or 100% whatever may be misleading you. You can take charge of your health by reading the ingredients and knowing what is actually in the food you eat.

If you are anything like me, you probably have a wide variety of body care products claiming space in your bathroom. From facial soaps and lotions to nail polish and makeup, I’ve been guilty of using a variety of brands whose ingredients I did not fully question until now.

Once you begin reading the fine print on your bottles, it is likely that you will locate highly questionable ingredients that could be negatively affecting your health (especially long-term). For example, whatever lotion you apply is being absorbed directly into your skin and most hair products are not rinsed out and stay on your head all day and perhaps night.

If you find questionable ingredients on your products and would like to see what they could mean for your health, check out this Cosmetics Database to search out specific products and view their health ratings. This site has safey ratings on over 40,000 cosmetic products. These thousands of product ratings include makeup, skin care, hair care, eye care, nail care, baby care, oral care, and fragrance. Every product that I’ve searched from my bathroom (other than local and farmers market purchases) has been on the site and provided me with a clear and fact-based health rating.

The Costmetics Database uses the following rating system for the products: 0-2 are “low hazard” products, 3-6 are “moderate hazard” products, and 7-10 are “high hazard” products. It also will tell you if the ingredients in your product are linked to cancer, development and reproductive toxicity, restrictions, warnings, and more. In case you do not own the product you are looking at, it lists all of the ingredients on the product label as well as any directions and warnings. It even breaks down which ingredients are the most hazardous and gives them an individual rating!

Also, if you click on a heading just to see a list of products in a category (for example, in hair care or skin care), the database will give you a list all of the products starting with the lowest hazard ones. This makes it easier to locate safer alternatives if your current products prove to be dangerous to your health.

Overall, I have found this cosmetics database to be a great tool in evaluating the products that I use in my everyday life which could potentially harm my body. I hope you find it useful in evaluating your current products and speculating on new ones. It has been a great help to me in determining what products should be allowed in my bathroom and on my body. And yes- believe it or not, the picture shown above is my post-cleanout picture, with only a few potentially bad bottles left that I just couldn’t bear to get rid of yet.