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In this day and age it's seemingly impossible to be unaware of the latest news reports sounding the alarms about the heavy metals in our favorite snacks, toxins in our tap water, "forever chemicals" in our yoga pants, etc... AND it's enough to cause soo much anxiety and a feeling like NOTHING is safe anymore. It feels overwhelming, disheartening, maddening and enough to make you completely tune out and feel like "I just give up, everything is bad for you!!"
Yes I know, I feel this, especially as a mom! It can be downright scary to spiral down this rabbit hole and think about all the negative things about the state of our environment we live in ..BUT that is not the point of this article. I am here to help you put it in perspective, and help you feel empowered in your choices. Yes, we do live in a world full of toxins, but first I want you to take a deep breath. Living in stress and fear is not healthy either! Hear me when I say,
it's the overall toxic load that matters
Simply put, if you reduce your exposures + support your detoxification system with diet and lifestyle = your body is more resilient to toxins in the environment.
I would say I was kind of blissfully unaware of toxins in our environment before children. I mean I had heard of some things, but I definitely didn't understand the depth of this subject. Now when I purchase things for the baby, my family, or for my house, I am a million times more conscious of the products I choose. Making non-toxic lifestyle choices is SO important these days.
When I first learned of this concept, I had been researching new baby products when my daughter was a few months old, and found out I was using some of the WORST stuff and then I just felt awful about it (ie: I was using Dreft laundry detergent on my newborn laundry - its marketing says it's made for babies, but it has some of the worst ingredients and is rated an “F” on EWG's safe ingredient list). This caused me so so much anxiety, and I was really mad that companies are even able to create, market, and sell products that are bad for your health (especially babies)?! I can go on here, but I won't… I want to fast forward to the silver lining..
I am now a very aware and confident informed consumer, and I think collectively as a society we are all becoming much more conscious
There is such a push now for safer and more sustainable ingredients and companies, so I think we are headed in the right direction. You still have to be weary of the actual ingredients in products because marketing is SO misleading sometimes, so learning how to read labels is important too.
What is non-toxic living?
Non-toxic living is aiming to live a lifestyle free from harmful substances. Environmental toxins can be naturally occurring or human-made, and we are being exposed to them all the time- which can negatively impact our health and lead to disease. Our bodies naturally detox in multiple ways, they are designed to do this (skin, lymphatic system, lungs, liver) and its important we support our detoxification, like I said above through healthy diet and lifestyle practices, however constant exposure or over-exposure to any harmful substance adds up. In our modern world there are a lot of ways we are exposed to toxins, especially the man-made ones, so taking steps to protect yourself and your family is imperative!
Here are my 6 simple steps to inform, educate, and guide you on how to start on the road to living a less toxic lifestyle:
1. FILTER YOUR WATER: The number one thing you can easily start to implement is making sure you filter your tap water! Unfortunately, our tap water is NOT necessarily safe. There is a lot of information and research showing the concerning chemicals and contaminants that exist in our tap water, and the negative impact these have on our health like PFAS (forever chemicals), endocrine disrupting chemicals, pharmaceuticals, microplastics, etc. This article here goes in depth about the challenges we face with the growing contaminants in our drinking water. A good thing you can do is finding out what are the main contaminants affecting your particular local water supply by checking your local water municipality's annual water report. You can also check out the Environmental Working Group (EWG)'s tap water database here and see how your local zip code rates. Your mind will be blown when you see how many contaminants are in your local water, and just how many exceed recommended guidelines! So what do we do to mitigate this? Find a good quality water filter! There are many different types of filters out there and there are pros and cons to each of them. A simple water pitcher is an easy and affordable way to get started, and if you can invest in a whole house filter (our skin absorbs these contaminants too in our showers and baths), that is majorly helpful too. EWG also has a helpful guide on water filtration options here too if you are looking for more information.
My favorite water pitcher pick is Clearly Filtered! Clearly Filtered is third-party independently tested to comply with NSF/ANSI standards. It removes up to 99.9% of 365+ contaminants from tap water, including fluoride, lead, PFAS / PFOA, BPA, perchlorate, arsenic, microplastics, etc. It's affordable, easy to use, and filters out a huge range of contaminants. They are a transparent company too, you can view their performance data on their website!
For a more extensive water filtration, my favorite reverse osmosis pick is Aquatru! They have both countertop and under-the-sink versions, and its 4-stage purification technology has been third-party tested to rigorous NSF/ANSI standards to prove it reduces harmful contaminants. I have the countertop carafe!
2. FILTER YOUR AIR: What do you mean filtering air?! I too never really thought about this one before, but you would be surprised to find out that there is growing research that our indoor air actually can have more pollutants than outside air quality!! Check out this article here from the EPA. Indoor air pollution, whether its in your home or workplace, can trigger a wide variety of long-term health problems, including respiratory diseases, heart disease, cognitive issues, cancer, etc. Pollutants like dust, allergens, mold or VOC's (volatile organic compounds, which are chemicals that evaporate or off-gas into the air (ie: think "new furniture smell" or that "new car smell") can cause inflammation in airways and lungs, negatively impact the immune response, and reduce our overall blood's oxygen-carrying capacity. So what do we do here? One easy thing you can do is make sure to open your windows (yes even in the winter for a little bit), to get fresh air circulating! Yes that simple step does help! You can also invest in a good quality air filter (with hepa filtration) which I just recently did last year!
My favorite air filter pick is the Air Doctor. And yes, it's an investment to buy air filters, but when I saw the crazyyyy amount of dust completely covering the filter after just 2 months of use, I knew it was worth the investment. I do not have them in every single space I want yet either, but I have them in my bedrooms, which is a good starting place since we spend so many hours in our bedrooms sleeping!
3. CLEAN UP YOUR DIET: I cannot stress enough about switching from a conventional Standard American Diet to adopting an organic whole foods based approach. The sterotypical Standard American Diet is wreaking havoc on our society and on our bodies. I won't go into this too much right now, but we know there is significant damage and inflammation that comes from eating a highly processed diet. Also, the ubiquitous use of pesticides in our agricultural system (like glyphosate) is another hazard with just massive amounts of growing evidence long-term exposure to these chemicals disrupt our hormones and cause diseases. There was a study done a few years back that measured urine samples taken from adults and children that showed a significant decrease in urinary pesticide metabolite excretion when switched to an organic diet within a few days. The food we eat is literally information for our cells in our bodies- it has the power to prevent and reverse disease, or conversely the power to fuel disease. Knowing labels is important too, marketing can be extremely misleading and there are so many hidden ingredients added to foods! When you look for organic, make sure the label is USDA organic certified (there are strict rules in place for the label to ensure certain harmful substances are not added into the food., and less processed foods is best (simply the less ingredients the better)! And I know life is especially expensive right now, we can't get over our grocery bill every week - but again focusing on the swaps you CAN make, questioning what is actually necessary to buy, and what you can cut out to be able to make it work. Also, not necessarily everything has to be organic if you cannot do that, you can check out EWG's Clean 15 and Dirty Dozen lists for a shopping guide on what produce is OK to buy conventionally.
4. DITCH the plastic: Get rid of that old plastic Tupperware and start using glass for food storage! Plastic leaches EDCs, endocrine disrupting chemicals, (think BPA, phthalates) and should be avoided. Glass is a healthier and safer material as it does not react with your food! Also, buying products in glass containers is a much better option as well as it decreases your overall plastic exposure. Bottled water? Same thing, ditch buying water in plastic bottles as those nasty checmicals also leech into plastic water bottles and swap to store your filtered water in a glass or 18/8 food-grade stainless steel bottle!
This is my favorite set of glass food storage containers from Pyrex! I never use plastic anymore. These are super convenient and stand the test of time!
My go-to glass water bottle pick is from Lifefactory. They come in super cute colors with silicone covers, and different sizes, my kids love them too!
Ok and my FAV stainless steel tumbler with a straw is hands-down this one from Hydroflask. Hydroflask uses high-quality 18/8 pro-grade stainless steel.
I also am a huge fan of this classic stainless steel water bottle by Kleen Kanteen, another great brand that uses high-quality stainless steel.
My kids loved these Kleen Kanteen sports bottles, which are great as they get a bit bigger and can handle a sports top.
I love their stainless steel straws as well, they come in fun colors for the whole family.
Lastly my go-to favorite pick for BABY is the Pura Stainless Kiki straw water bottle. This one has been amazing, all 3 of my kids used this one shortly after turning 1 years old. I love that Pura Stainless is a MADE SAFE certified water bottle, contains no plastic parts, and has a timeless bottle, that you can use over time by simply switching the tops as the child gets older!
5. SWAP your personal care & household products- look through those cabinets and take a good look at your personal care and household cleaning products! This is a huge area to undertake, but it's extremely important. It's time to read your labels and see what harmful preservatives, artificial fragrances and chemicals are actually in all of your products. They say women on average use 6-12 personal care products a day- think of how many products you use on your skin, body, and also around your home every day, and imagine the cumulative load of what you are being exposed to! It's time to switch to natural, plant- or mineral-based ingredients over artificial synthetic ones. As for personal care products, I love using EWG's Skin Deep Database to help rate the safety of products. It is such an informative and amazing resource to figuring out what those ingredients really mean! It rates products based on concerning toxic ingredients and assigns them a safety score. If you are looking for more on household items too, there is another guide by EWG on household cleaners here!
This topic is a whole other blog post I am working on, but here are my top favorite personal care products and household products to check out:
PERSONAL CARE:
Skin & hair care: Oliveda
Sunscreen: Sky & Sol
KIDS & BABY:
Body wash & shampoo: Babo Botanicals
Diaper cream: Earth Mama Organics
Wipes: Honest Comapny
Diapers: Cotiere, Bambo Diapers, Honest Overnight Diapers
HOUSEHOLD:
Dishwashing pods: Blueland
Toilet bowl cleaner: Blueland
All-purpose cleaners: Force of Nature, Branch Basics
6. SHOES OFF: Yes take those shoes off inside your home! This one is my favorite, and the easiest to do! I love a no-shoes-indoor-policy. First off, I was brought up to take my shoes off when we came home or when we went to a friend's house; it was more about not bringing in dirt and also a sign of respect! However, did you know shoes actually trek in so much more than just dirt inside your house.. like yucky pesticides, herbicides, bacteria and more! Check this article out here! Think about those little babies and kids crawling on the floors and putting hands in their mouths?? Nope, this one is simple and a no-brainer for me. It keeps out unwanted harmful chemicals we don't even realize we bring in, and it keeps floors cleaner too, a win- win!
I am continuously learning more and more about non-toxic living and I do have a true interest in this topic, not only as a holistic nurse who sees our environment as an extension of ourselves - but also as a mom, who wants to provide the safest environment for my family that I can within my control.
This article really is only the tip of the iceberg here! There is so much information about living a less toxic lifestyle and many other areas to dive into, but I do think these are a few first great steps to help get you started on making small sustainable changes for better and healthier living!
Comment below and let me know what you think! :)
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