  | What you put on your skin matters. It either feeds your body or contaminates it. There is help to know the difference at EWG's Skin Deep. |
Most often we forget that our skin is our largest organ and that it absorbs anything put on it. That means that everything put on your skin either feeds or contaminates your body. With the chemical content in our personal care products and foods at the highest levels ever, this is a major concern. You won't immediately see the effects necessarily, but over time, your body will begin to change. Those changes will be revealed in illness, pain and a multitude of conditions and diseases that you will never trace back to the source.
When we use products daily that are known carcinogens, hormone disruptors and contain heavy metals we are asking for trouble. It's pretty basic, if you poison yourself long enough, the body is going to suffer.
Cleaning up takes research and change. Using resource centers like Skin Deep, www.ewg.org/skindeep/, is a big help. EWG's Skin Deep is a cosmetics data base of over 70,000 products. Their focus is shampoo, sunscreen, moisturizers, make up, facial cleansers and foundation. Each is rated in cleanliness from 1-10. It is a quick and simple way to know how much toxicity you add to your body's workload every day.
Be sure to check ratings for all the products you buy from any one product line as they can vary greatly. Even the cleanest brands will carry items that are less clean. That mean, buying solely by brand does not always work. You really have to check each item.
Another sad bit of news is that Corporate America is buying brands you once trusted.
Trusting again means researching again.
If you are going to clean up your lifestyle there are a couple good rules to follow. First of all, if it comes with a coupon from a major corporation, it is likely not clean. Secondly, if you cannot pronounce the names of ingredients, they are also not likely your first choice for cleanliness. Don't be fooled by words like natural or the addition of an essential oil.
When we use products daily that are known carcinogens, hormone disruptors and contain heavy metals we are asking for trouble. It's pretty basic, if you poison yourself long enough, the body is going to suffer.
Cleaning up takes research and change. Using resource centers like Skin Deep, www.ewg.org/skindeep/, is a big help. EWG's Skin Deep is a cosmetics data base of over 70,000 products. Their focus is shampoo, sunscreen, moisturizers, make up, facial cleansers and foundation. Each is rated in cleanliness from 1-10. It is a quick and simple way to know how much toxicity you add to your body's workload every day.
Be sure to check ratings for all the products you buy from any one product line as they can vary greatly. Even the cleanest brands will carry items that are less clean. That mean, buying solely by brand does not always work. You really have to check each item.
Another sad bit of news is that Corporate America is buying brands you once trusted.
Trusting again means researching again.
If you are going to clean up your lifestyle there are a couple good rules to follow. First of all, if it comes with a coupon from a major corporation, it is likely not clean. Secondly, if you cannot pronounce the names of ingredients, they are also not likely your first choice for cleanliness. Don't be fooled by words like natural or the addition of an essential oil.