Do you consider “healthy” as eating veggies or non-processed foods, and exercising?
I do!
Does your definition include pesticide-free or eating organic?
What about chemical-free clothes, soaps, and dishes? Do those fit into your definition of healthy?
You may be living a toxic lifestyle and not even know it.
I certainly didn’t.
Until it affected my health in a way that I could not ignore.
The food, clothing, household items, personal care products, and building materials that I was buying were affecting my health in ways I would have never imagined.
I discovered, though, that there are ways to easily live an organic chemical-free lifestyle by making a few simple changes.
The first step is to become aware of *truly* what is in the products you are buying.
I’m not suggesting that you learn all 100k names of chemicals that exist. (1) Whew, would that be a task!
I’m saying to simply start paying attention to the products that are in your home.
Build Your Awareness of Chemicals in Everyday Products
Raising your awareness of products that may contain harmful chemicals is the first step in making a lifestyle change. It’s critical to know WHAT to change in order to MAKE the change. Here are three ways to easily start increasing your awareness:
- Skim the label. Skim one food label per week. How many of the ingredients are familiar to you? How many ingredients say “organic” before them (organic beans, organic spices, etc). If it’s not listed as organic, typically it isn’t… which means the ingredient likely contains pesticides or other chemicals.
- Spot specialty clothing. Are your clothes wrinkle free, stain resistant, easy care, or water resistant? These products typically have added chemical finishes.
- Pay attention to plastics. How many items that you own are made from plastic? Plastic is an oil byproduct, and typically contains other chemicals (chlorine, benzene and xylenes to name a few). (2)
As you will come to realize, there are likely many items in your home (and most people’s homes!) that are made with chemicals. It can be overwhelming… but it doesn’t have to be.
You can make this lifestyle change towards organic chemical-free living ONE.STEP.AT.A.TIME!
Becoming aware of the chemicals in our everyday products is the first step.
Celebrate achieving your first step!
Summary
Our definition of “healthy” typically does not take into consideration the chemicals that are in our common everyday products such as food, clothing, household items, personal care products and building materials. However, chemicals found in everyday products may be causing over 140 commonly found health conditions. As a first step in living an organic lifestyle, start increasing your awareness of the chemicals in your home by reading food labels for the word “organic”, paying attention to the number of clothes that are wrinkle-free, stain-resistant, easy-care, or water resistant, and realizing the number of products that are made from plastic.
It can be overwhelming to realize the large amount of products that may contain harmful chemicals; therefore it is so important to take it one step at a time when making a lifestyle change to living with fewer chemicals.
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References
(1) Center for Disease Control (CDC) – “Chemicals, Cancer and You”
