Why all these Products when Baking Soda Works Just Fine?

In today's day and age, there is a specialized product for everything. We have a multitude of products to help us keep our hygiene up and our houses clean which expose use to countless chemicals which are untested by the FDA and are thought to be dangerous to our health. Let me present baking soda, the miracle all-in-one product. Baking soda has the ability to neutralize products that are seen as either acidic or basic. Too add on to the fun, it does not contain harmful chemicals and endocrine disruptors that are harmful to the environment and our health like many hygiene and cleaning products do. Here is a nice post from the Care2 Be Green blog that highlights forty uses.

Here are some uses that I noticed that are particularly easy, useful, and still reduce exposure to chemicals:

2)To Freshen Your Mouth-Many mouthwashes contain alcohols that have lead to a increased risk of oral cancers of 900 percent (according to Australian Universities . This can be replaced by a safer alternative of mixing baking soda in water which kills odors without the increased risk of cancer.

5)Body Deodorant- Many deodorants contain parabens which have been known to mimic estrogen (endocrine disruptor). It is best to avoid as many of these estrogen mimics as possible and baking soda provides a great alternative that neutralizes odors much like its use as a mouth wash.

12-26) Anything in the cleaning section- All these uses simply call for mixing baking soda with water and help to prevent the use of harmful cleaners such as bleach, fabric softeners, etc. which contain a lot of phosphorus which leads to algae blooms and harms wildlife. These cleaners also contain other compounds such as ammonia, triclozan, naphthalene, phenol, sodium nitilotriacetate, and many other chemicals which have been linked to cancers, respiratory and skin irritations, hormone changes, and more.

27-36) Deodorizing off the body-From shoes to carpets and closets, just putting a box of baking soda or dashing it on a surface is enough to help neutralize just about any odor around the house

Baking Soda is versatile and easy to use just about anywhere around the house and even throughout the body. It is green and relatively cheap and reduces your exposure to harmful chemicals that surround us in our everyday lives.

Pesticide Rich Foods

Organic food is a growing trend. The idea of organic food is to exclude the use of synthetic materials in the production of agriculture such as fertilizers and pesticides. In this post, we are going to focus on the reduction of pesticides.

Pesticides damage the nervous system, reproductive system and other organs. They also lead to developmental and behavioral abnormalities, disruption of hormone function (endocrine disruptors) as well as immune dysfunction. These chemicals remain in the fat deposits of our body for weeks and months. There are several foods in particular that either have large amounts of pesticides applied to them or absorb pesticides particularly well. These include apples, strawberries, potatoes, and cherries. These are some of my favorite foods! With the organic food craze, this means that many of these foods can be bought at a comparable price organically and these foods do not have to be avoided in total. But even with that there are several foods that do not need to be purchased organically because they are pretty much pesticide free.

Here is a slide show from Daily Green that shows the 12 foods that should be eaten organic to avoid pesticide consumption.

Here is another slide show with 15 clean foods that do not need to be purchased organically.

Organic foods offer a safer alternative in many cases in terms of pesticides, but are not always necessary to protect your health.

Benefits of Going Vegetarian and Some Tips For Those Who Love Meat

I love meat just as much as the next guy. But I hate to say that going to a vegetarian diet is good for the environment and apparently a lot better for your health. Here is an article from Grist.com that points out that industrial meats are laced with toxic chemicals and antibiotics. By limiting intake of meats and dairy, pesticides and other toxic chemicals in the body dropped dramatically when urine samples were studied. One of the chemicals of concern are phalates which are considered the "other BPA" because of their prevalence in common consumer products and their effects on the body. We will leave phalates for another day.

A few tips to reduce exposure to chemicals and help the environment without having to go vegetarian:

Eat organic-Not nearly as many chemicals used and less exposure to pesticides
Limit red meat and processed foods-These foods have a much higher fat content which dissolve many of these chemicals. Not to mention, studies have shown that reducing these meats helps to reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease.
Try to buy meat with minimal packaging-The plastic that wraps around meats can seep in endocrine disruptors and chemicals that cause hormone changes. This will also help you go green.
Eat more fish-Although some fish have high levels of some chemicals (mercury, PCBs) fish have high levels of Omega-3 fatty acids that boost your heart health and other functions of the body

A vegetarian diet is a good idea, but is not ideal for all of us. Simply limiting your meat intake is a good idea for reducing exposure to chemicals and reducing you carbon footprint.

BPA: Watchout, its Everywhere

The other day I posted about endocrine disruptors. Today I would like to introduce you to the most famous of the common endocrine disruptors, BPA.

As you have probably seen, BPA has gotten a lot of bad press recently and it is well deserved. Two years ago, the "BPA scare" came about. After years of research suggesting that this chemical is an estrogen mimic, the first major consumer product was taken off the shelves. Nalgene, under pressure from consumer groups, decided to pull their famous bottles from production (the same bottles that everyone who considered themselves green had). It was now in the public eye that BPA, contained in most plastic products, has effects on many hormone systems.

BPA leeches out of plastics over time and increases rapidly if exposed to heat, direct sunlight, or powerful detergents(soap). It dissolves readily into liquids and foods undetected. Alternatives are viable and economically feasible, but still clear plastic, single use beverage bottles have it, magazines and receipts are covered with it, and cans are lined with it. Even if you try to switch to glass containers, it is in the caps that keep them sealed. Just about everywhere you go, you will run into something that has BPA in or around it.

Studies have shown that the dangers of BPA are widespread. The most dangerous hormone changes were found in fetal development. As of only a few decades ago, the placenta barrier was thought to protect the fetus from most chemicals. But research has found that false. Endocrine disruptors affect hormones that control fetal development and are very sensitive to BPA. In fetal development, even a change of a few parts per TRILLION of a hormone could cause significant developmental changes. Research has shown that even minimal levels of BPA were found to interact with hormone receptors (especially those of estrogen and insulin) and lead to higher rates of adult onset diabetes, aggression, and growth problems in offspring. In addition, BPA alters the DNA composition of offspring and increases asthma rates. Below is an article that helps you see just how little BPA is needed to create problems in cells and organisms.

BPA Levels and Effects

Outside of the womb it is thought that BPA exposure can increase the risk of breast cancer and maybe a factor in the decrease of the average age of puberty among girls. BPA slows the rate that synapses are created in the brain leading to a decrease in brain power. In males, it is thought to lead to fertility problems dealing with sperm development. The effects of BPA go on and on, but often correlate with trends in the general population of the US. Below is another article showing the correlation between increases in disease in lab animals treated with BPA and general trends in the human population.

BPA and the Rise in Animal and Human Disease

BPA is a scary chemical that is unlike many conventional chemicals. It has the ability to create significant changes at very low levels of exposure across the whole body and surrounds our everyday lives making it nearly impossible to completely avoid. The good news is that BPA clears out of your system quickly, within a few hours. The bad new is that in most people, the level remains relatively constant because it is in plastic bottles that store our drinks and the cans that store our food. BPA is a chemical of concern that needs to be regulated and reduced to allow our endocrine systems to regulate themselves naturally.

The Endocrine Age

Since the 1940's, 80,000 different chemicals have been produced by the private sector that make our lives easier. Pesticides to prevent our crops from being eaten. Fragrances to make ourselves smell nice. Hand products to kill 99.9% of bacteria. But what is often forgotten about these chemicals is that they have negative effects on the body. The FDA is too overwhelmed to regulate these chemicals because so many new chemicals come out each year. They are under manned and under funded to carry out the research necessary to analyze these chemicals. Most of the active chemicals (and some of the inactive ones) researched by independent groups have been found to be endocrine disruptors. These endocrine disruptors often either mimic or block hormones in your body. Hormones are important for the regulation of many bodily functions. They regulate your blood sugar levels, your growth, your sleep, and much more. Because of hormone disruption, endocrine disruptors have been seen to create a variety of problems including, but not limited to adult onset diseases, cancer, fertility problems, early puberty in girls, and behavioral problems. Even at levels that are barely detectable, these chemicals are having profound effects on most of the US population.

Here is a website by the National Institutes of Environmental Health Services that has an overview of endocrine disruptors and many different studies that have investegated the effects of some of the major endocrine disruptors of concern.

NIEHS on Endocrine Disruptors

Here is another website with tips on how to avoid endocrine disruptors even when we are surrounded by them.

Avoiding Endocrine Disruptors