Small Steps, Sensible Choices, Superior Health.

Are Toxins In Your Home ?

I doubt you would consciously rub toxins on your skin, eat toxic food or clean with toxic products in your home.

But you may be surprised at how many toxins can be found in your kitchen pantry, your bathroom cabinet or under your sink.

 Many people think just because a product is on a store shelf, it must be safe or they wouldn't sell it.  

Today, we are bombarded with more toxicity than at any other time in history.

In addition to air and water pollution, we've got all the electronic gadgets and wi-fi constantly exposing our body to electromagnetic waves. Our foods are loaded with toxic GMO's.

Even our personal care products like soaps and shampoos can have harmful chemicals in them. To see if your products are safe you can look them up on the EWG Skin Deep Data Base.

We can't control everything, but many areas are within our control. Whenever possible seek out natural, healthier choices for your home.

Whether it's a natural organic handmade soap or non toxic cleaning products, every little bit helps when it comes to minimizing your chemical exposure.

Check out your household products on the EWG Cleaning Products Data Base.

Toxins in Foods

Foods toxins are one of the first culprits that come to mind. Any number of unhealthy toxins and chemicals could be disguised and packaged in such a way that you’d never believe they could harm you.

Preservatives found in canned fruit, fruit juice, soft drinks and canned vegetables such as sodium sorbate (preservative 201) and can be responsible for the causes for headaches, stomach pains and other various maladies.

On the list of toxins two of the common "King-Pins" are

Aspartame (nutrasweet) found in diet soda and many of "sugar free" foods.

MSG or monosodium glutamate found in most packaged foods from snack chips to soups and usually disguised with many other names.

Both are known as "excito-toxins". They over excite brain cells until they basically burnout and die.

In other words, each serving of MSG or Aspartame causes a little bit of brain damage every time it's ingested.

Unfortunately this creates a cumulative effect and can lead to neurological diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

And there is the old "toxic" stand by, artificial food color dyes.

Toxic Food Wrappings

Be aware of bisphenol A BPA in plastic bottles, look for and use bottles with the Numbers 1,2,4,5 in the triangle on the bottom.

Also of concern are the PFCs (perfluorinated chemicals) which are found in fast-food wrappers, microwave popcorn bags and boxes for home-cooked pizzas.

These chemicals are linked to increased rates of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, stroke and impaired fetal development.

They also adversely affect the liver, thyroid gland and immune system. More reasons to avoid prepared and packaged food!

Several fast food companies like Burger King and Wendy's, have already discontinued using PFCs, but others still use them in packaging.

Household Cleaners

The average home today uses more chemicals than were found in typical chemistry lab at the turn of the 20th century. Those labs were subject to strict health and safety code, yet we use these same chemicals now without restriction.

Some of the more well know types of poisons are:

• chlorine bleach
• spot removers
• corrosive oven cleaners
• toilet cleaners
• drain openers

Drain cleaners are some of the worst types of chemicals to have in your house because when mixed together (in the form of chlorine and ammonia) they can cause toxic chlorine gas.

Some are even flammable! Do your homework and seek out the safer cleaners and green options that are available.

What Do Those Labels Mean?

You will want to get rid of poisonous products like these or at the very least be more cautious with them.

Check labels for these proven carcinogens..... aerosols, alcohol & ammonia, fluoride, formaldehyde & fragrances, mineral oil, talc, just to name a few. Are any of these in your home right now?

Are you wondering, how you could possibly live without these products? There are safer alternatives if you want to live in a home that is free of toxins.

A Toxic Environment

The most obvious types of toxins in the environment are air pollution and car exhaust fumes in the form of carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide.

They can be extremely harmful to your respiratory system and be absorbed into your body, traveling through your blood to many other organs.

Regulatory Approval Doesn't Mean "Safe"

We can't rely on governmental agencies to decide whether or not products we buy are safe to eat and use. While that may have been the original intention, it isn't anymore.

There is always a battle between the federal regulators and product companies requesting approval.

Although product companies may not want to purposefully harm a consumer, getting their product on the shelves is the primary goal because that puts profit in their pockets.

Many products have received FDA & EPA approval because the level of toxicity is low enough so as not to cause any danger.

But what we don't realize is the danger that exists when you consume and use numerous products all containing low levels of toxicity.

They start to add up and before you know it your body is constantly being exposed to a very high level of toxins every day!

Toxins are very harmful to your health. We as consumers have to take responsibility and make healthy choices in the products we use.

We hope we have raised your awareness enough so you will want to educate yourself and make healthy choices in your diet and your environment.

Once you begin to do your own research, you'll wonder why some things ever make it to the market, unfortunately those questions can only be answered by following the money trail.

Let your dollars send a message.  

Additional Resources

Safe Water

BPA Containers

MSG, The Hidden Food Toxin

Food Color Dyes in Foods and Cleaning Products

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