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.

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.

After a camping trip this past weekend (and a long lapse since the previous cleaning!), the inside of my car was in pretty bad shape. I was determined to use natural solutions for the dirt, grime, and an unpleasant smell that was beginning to waft through the vehicle.

I decided to tackle my dirty windows first. Somehow in the process of going up and down, they had gotten sticky, almost rubbery black smears up and down the driver and passenger side windows. I’d tried a few tactics in the past to get rid of them including scraping and rubbing with no luck. Even my normal homemade glass cleaner would not do the trick.

Luckily, I came across an easy homemade window cleaner for cars that was tougher than anything I had tried- and it worked right away! I combined the below ingredients in a spray bottle (yes, extra spray bottles are always good to have on hand!) and gave it a good shake. I then sprayed it on a lint free cloth and scrubbed the windows, then buffed with another cloth. Soon all of the windows were gleaming and the black smears were gone!

• 1 cup filtered water
• 1/4 cup white vinegar
• 1/8 cup rubbing alcohol

After the windows were looking nice, I grabbed my delicate disinfectanct cleaner and an old dish towel for the rest of the detailing. I sprayed it on the dash, steering wheel, and used it on just about everything plastic in the car. It worked- and smelled- great. The dust and sticky messes disappeared.

Last, but not least, as it was getting dark I still needed to tackle the smell and vacuuming. I located a great recipe for freshening the carpet and sprinkled baking soda, cinnamon, and cloves on the carpet before vacuuming. Although I was initially weary of this idea, it actually ended up working very well. My car smelled fabulous and it vacuumed up perfectly!

Hopefully these little tricks work for you, too, and if you even decide to go with a natural cleaner for the outside, you can start with just some hot water and liquid castile soap. Happy car cleaning!

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.

Sarah had noted in a previous post that we learned from Karen Lubbers (Lubbers Family Farm) how to make homemade vanilla extract and I want to show you just how easy the recipe really is. All you need is a glass jar, organic vodka (I used the brand “Rain”), and three vanilla beans (I purchased bourbon beans from Beanilla).

Take the vanilla beans and cut them lengthwise (I also cut them in half after this) and place them in a pint jar (I only had a quart jar so that’s what I used). If you are using a pint jar, fill it to approximately 2/3 full with organic vodka over the beans. After some rough math, I ended up putting about 1 1/2 cups vodka in my quart jar (and the rest in the freezer for my next batch).

Then all you have to do is cover the jar and let it set for at least 6 weeks. I have left mine on my counter for four and the vodka is already dark from the beans as you can see in the lower left picture. After six weeks, you can use it as you would your previous vanilla extract- except this is homemade and safe!

You might think that mass-produced vanilla extract isn’t much to worry about, but what alerted me to the danger was the propylene glycol on the ingredients list of my imitation vanilla extract. It’s noted casually, almost as if I’d read right over it “water, propylene glycol, vanillin, caramel color”… wait a minute! PROPLYLENE GLYCOL?!? What in the world is that doing in my vanilla extract? And why is there more of that than of actual vanilla in it?

In case you’re not familiar with propylene glycol, it is a “cosmetic form of mineral oil found in automatic brake and hydraulic fluid and industrial antifreeze”. It is certainly NOT something that belongs in food! The Material & Safety Data Sheet even notes that this ingredient irritates the skin, causes damage to the kidneys, and contributes to liver problems; thus contact with the skin should be avoided (interestingly enough, I have found propylene glycol hiding in a number of mass-produced, name brand lotions & cosmetics). And if skin contact should be avoided, what about actually ingesting it?

Enough said- it’s better to make your own extract and be sure that it is pure and safe. Even if I only use it in my cooking once in a while, I can have the peace of mind that when I do I am not putting myself or others at risk of ingesting dangerous chemicals.

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.

Last summer when I saw this article on NaturalNews.com I was inspired to visit my local health food store and find a good haircare line with nothing to hide. This proved to be a tall order indeed. Not only did the store carry several of the brands named in the article above, but I spent the better part of an hour picking up a bottle, turning it around, scanning the ingredients label, and then returning it to the shelf. No lather, no rinse. Repeat.

As discouraging & scary as that was, my search finally ended and my efforts rewarded with Aubrey Organics. I started out with their Rosa Marquetta and Glycogen balancing formulas, and I have loved many things about them, but lately felt I was wanting more. Then I finally found my match when I noticed a new color on my store’s shelf this weekend: Blue. Blue-green, to be exact. The BGA Protein + Strengthening shampoo and cream rinse are already my all-time favorite shampoo and conditioner cream rinse, ever. Not only is the scent divinely invigorating, but it’s the perfect formula for my hair (oilé). With moderate use (about every other day), I am noticing my hair stays much better looking for much longer – usually it becomes weighed down by oils and its own length way too soon. But ~36 hours later, it still has lots of movement and shine. I use the cream rinse on my ends and they look healthier too.

I am so excited to have found such a great product that is reliable and safe too. I did a quick check in the Cosmetics Safety Database and these products had the safest scores. Aubrey Organics is also a vegan line and is not tested on animals.

The best ingredients in the BGA formulas include:

• Organic blue green algae (amino acid proteins)
• Organic aloe vera
• Extracts of: chamomile, red algae, fennel, hops, balm mint, mistletoe & yarrow
• Vitamins A, C, & E
  

There are a few ingredients that seem a little iffy, but they still appear to be relatively harmless:

• Coconut oil-Corn oil soap
• Lavender water

I don’t have a problem with either of these two per se, but both of these “ingredients” imply they have ingredients of their own. So really, they are compounds and should probably be broken down. What is in the soap? What is in the water?

• Hydrolized soy protein
  

According to truthinlabeling.org, this is code for MSG, which can cause a reaction in some people. But, I haven’t completely given up Chinese food yet either, so I’m not going to worry about it now. In fact, time to relax in a hot shower! A great, easy source of negative ions, by the way.

Although I spent a small fortune browsing Etsy.com (a fabulous site for buying & selling handmade items), I bought my favorite health products yet- Erzulie natural makeup (liquid foundation, blush, lipstick, & concealer), eye-makeup remover, and a 4-step acne kit. I even received a free stick of under eye depuffer with my order!

Erzulie makeup and holistic skincare items are sold on Etsy even though they can also be purchased from a direct website. The products are all-natural and the makeup is non-comedogenic (it won’t clog pores). Erzulie also states that their items are “free of talc, chemicals, parabens, carmine, PEGs, glycols, acrylates, synthetic silicones, phthalates (plastic esters), BHT, petroleum by-products, and bismuth oxychloride”.

The organic ingredients that are used are clearly listed on the websites and some products even list the purpose each ingredient  serves. The “New To Minerals” section of their website even offers additional specific information on the ingredients. The products are also hand-blended so this adds another level of comfort and trust to the products since an actual person is making them.

I had never tried truly natural makeup before and I have found that it is absolutely wonderful. The liquid foundation matches my skin perfectly and blends like a dream (I am not exaggerating!). It is super creamy and glides on almost like a lotion. I like applying it with the the makeup sponge that came with it rather than my fingers so I can avoid getting anything but makeup on my face. With the foundation and couple dabs of concealer, I’m good to go skin-wise. I also had great results with the lip gloss as it stays on for a long time (even when eating) and the lipstick works the same way. Some of the products also have multiple uses- the cream blush I bought can also be used as a lipstick!

The eye makeup remover was only $5 and I already know I will buy it again. I just squirt a little on my finger and rub it on my eyelids/lashes to wipe away makeup. The biggest perk is that it does not sting or burn my eyes!  Nearly all of the previous chemical-based removers have stung my eyes and cost more! When looking at the organic ingredients in the Erzulie remover, it’s no surprise it doesn’t sting. The list is as follows: green tea extract, distilled water, grapeseed oil, olive oil, jojoba oil, vegetable glycerin, castor oil, sunflower oil, emulsifying wax, grapefruit seed extract, lavender essential oil, and potassium sorbate.

My experience so far with the 4-step acne kit has also been better than the many store-bought kits I’ve previously tried. Before my healthier days, I had used acne products so nasty they bleached my clothes if my face dripped on them when I washed it. I feel much better about the all-natural kit and it seems to be clearing up my blemishes without excessively drying my skin. This helps me fight the acne and at the same time cover any remaining redness with natural makeup. I’ll report back in a few weeks on how my skin is looking overall and if the blemishes stay away once cleared up.

If you have found any other natural makeup products that you love, please share where they are from or how they can be purchased. I want to help build awareness that healthy cosmetic products do exist, they just have to be searched out.  Natural cosmetics give us an opportunity to eliminate chemicals from our daily lives and can offer assurance that what is absorbed daily into our skin, eyes, and mouth is healthy and safe.

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.

Hand sanitizers should not be considered a replacement for soap and water, but can be a convenient way to get peace of mind in the grocery store, on vacation, and even for spritzing door handles in public facilities.

However, reports about bugs growing resistant to the market’s current antibacterial soaps and hand sanitizers; inclusion of chemically-questionable ingredients like triclosan; and even one shocking account of a hand sanitizer’s toxic effect on children, throw into question the point of having one at all.

Yes, some hand sanitizing products may be inexpensive and quick, but at these and further unknown costs to our health, it is worth searching out an alternative option. Green Living Now offers a Biodynamic (better than organic) grape alcohol and essential oil blend, and Clean Well Today makes an alcohol-free safe for kids version.

And if you’re like us, you may also decide to make it yourself. This natural hand sanitizer recipe from a massage therapist is perfect because it contains essential oils, which have been shown to not cause resistant bacteria, and offer the benefits of aromatherapy too!

Just mix into a bowl*:

2 parts aloe vera gel

1 part distilled water

1 part grain alcohol – vodka

4-5 drops essential oil(s) of choice -    Tea Tree, Lemon, Eucalyptus, and Lavender are all naturally anti microbial

*Note – do not use a metal bowl or utensil when working with this as it could interact with the essential oils

A good tip I found is to also add a few drops of grapefruit seed extract.

Stir it all up and funnel into mini spray bottles (glass or plastic). Keep one in your purse and give a few bottles away! This natural hand sanitizer has a pleasant scent and good performance. If you’re still carrying around a synthetic chemical based hand sanitizer, why not make the switch today?

Tip – remember to shake before use. Soon to come – this safe, quality product and many more directly available from us at openeyehealth.com in 2009. Happy New Year!