I write this especially for the men and women who are who are either trying to conceive a child, or those who may consider doing so sometime in their life. I also write this for parents, because we need to protect our children.
The following is taken directly from a recent post at Mercola.com:
“The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) requires that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency compile and keep a current list of chemical substances manufactured or processed in the U.S. That list1 currently includes about 85,000 chemicals.
Among them are 10,000 chemicals allowed to be added to food and food-contact materials in the U.S., either directly or indirectly, yet few have been properly tested for safety.
An evaluation of nearly 4,000 additives intentionally added to food revealed 80 percent lacked enough information to determine how much could be safely eaten and only 6.7 percent had reproductive toxicology data.2 And that’s just food chemicals.
In recent years, researchers and scientists have raised warnings about mounting toxic exposures, leading to efforts to rein in the use of chemicals known to be hazardous to human health. Unfortunately, many companies are still failing in this regard.”
The above information focuses on the 10,000 chemicals added to food. Of the 75,000 chemicals left, some are added to body care products, cleaning products, livestock, furniture, clothing, plastics; basically, everything we touch.
Chemicals are everywhere, and even if the FDA or some other government agency has determined that a certain chemical is not harmful in certain doses, what is often overlooked is that with all of the exposure, we have no idea what dose any of us are consuming or exposed to.
So, to protect your health, and those of your born or unborn children, here is what you need to do:
Eat a diet focused on locally grown, organic (or at least non-GMO foods). Avoid processed and packaged foods. Learn to look for foods that are only minimally processed with no additives.
Include meat and dairy from grass raised,sources, wild caught or sustainably raised fish, organic-pasture raised eggs. Focus on wild, organic and/or non-GMO.
Buy products in glass bottles, store in glass,use glass baby bottles. Avoid plastic containers and plastic wrap to avoid leaching of chemicals into your products.
Avoid non-stick pans. Focus on using ceramic, glass or stainless steel without coating
Drink filtered water, stored in glass is the best, or stainless steel
Switch to organic toiletries such as shampoo,soap, lotions, toothpaste, deodorant, cosmetics. Check out the following site for safe or safer products: Environmental Working Group Skin Deep
Switch to non-toxic cleaning products including laundry detergents. There are many available, think about Branch Basics for cleaning, and Molly Suds for laundry. You can make your own cleaning products very easily and cheaply.
Look for fragrance free products. Scenting with 100% essential oils is OK but educate yourself.
When buying furniture, mattresses, carpeting,paint, toys, clothing, look for earth friendly, non-toxic products, preferably natural products, avoid plastic and look for naturally flame-retardant materials.
This list is not all inclusive, but if you work on these, you will significantly limit exposure to chemicals. Consider this a gift to yourself and our future generations.
If you would like to read the entire article from Dr. Mercola that I mentioned above, here is the link:
MercolaArticle on Toxic Chemicals
Take care, Ann + Emily
