A Journey to Low-Tox Living: The Products I Am Loving
November 14, 2024
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Make some small changes that have a big impact by switching out some of your products in your home. I have been on this low-tox journey for some time and while I am no where near toxin free, I am reducing the amount of toxins in my home.
What is Low-Tox?
“Low-tox” is short for low toxicity, meaning fewer toxins in a product, place, or lifestyle. Today, there’s growing transparency about the toxins we encounter daily. For instance, you might have noticed “BPA-free” labels on plastic kitchenware—BPA is a toxin that can mimic estrogen in the body, disrupting the endocrine system. You may also see “phthalate-free” on shampoos; phthalates have been linked to endocrine disruption and reproductive cancers. And food dyes? These are increasingly recognized for their potential cancer risks and effects on the body. Given all this, it’s no surprise the U.S. is one of the world’s unhealthiest nations. Sadly, in the pursuit of profit, safer alternatives are often sidelined because they cost more. But that’s a topic for another day.
Today I would just like to share some great products to help you on your road to low-tox living. And one thing to keep in mind, while these are products I know to be safe right now, you should always do your research, especially because the mega companies like Bayer, will often buy the little companies and change ingredients without notice. If you know any of these to be a problem right now please share in the comments. We all need to help each other stay safe.
My first change that I really started looking into was deodorant. There was very little connection to the health risks at the time but there was some talk about it. I definitely wanted to find better alternatives for my kids when they started wearing deodorant. I looked and found thai crystal deodorant. It is made from natural mineral salt. I tried it and it actually worked. Unlike antiperspirant, you don’t feel dry when you are sweating but that is not normal anyway. You do have to get slightly used to feeling a little wet when you are hot and sweating.
I know everyone loves a great smelling hand soap, well not everyone, especially not pregnant women. Even a beloved smell ends up being nauseating. Having been pregnant 8 times in my life- with 6 babies earth-side, I looked for a great non scented hand soap for years. And a few years ago, I realized it also needed to be low-tox. Yaya Maria’s came in with the win! It feels just like regular hand soap and unscented has no weird smell. It also only has 5 ingredients and castor oil is one of them which I LOVE. It leaves your hands feeling moisturized and bonus, I have gotten the scented versions now and I love that too.
Since I have already mentioned castor oil, I will make that the next item! I have talked about it before but I use castor oil not only to try to help my hair grow but also to remove my makeup, wash my face, moisturize my and my kids’ skin and on my eyelashes. But not only that, I use it in a castor oil pack- which is placed on the skin overnight. It helps to detox your liver and intestines. It also breaks down scar tissue, and some people say it dissolves the floaty little things that you can see in your eyes. I never noticed those for me until after having eye surgery and I use it now to get rid of them. It is a clean product and has so many benefits.
Moving a bit to another way to eliminate toxins in your food, of course organic, local food is best. Things with as little plastic packaging as possible and even knowing what kind of plastic is being used is helpful. But also what we know about plastic is that it leaches chemicals, toxic chemicals into your food when it is warm or hot. One way to avoid that at home is to have glass dishes. I moved to all glass dishes a year ago or so. I still use a microwave although that comes with its own problems too, but when I do use it I don’t want to be heating up plastic dishes. The only glass dishes that I know to be safe from toxins and heavy metals are the white Corelle Vitrelle dishes. When you start adding designs and colors you can be sure that a heavy metal was used so you want to avoid that also. These dishes have held up well, with no chips and we haven’t broken one either. And as I mentioned, I have five littles so that is exceptional!
Water Filter
We can’t talk about food without talking about water. Water is our most essential resource. Many people living within the Midwest though are being poisoned by water. Atrazine, a weed killer, has been found in many wells across the Midwest. Atrazine has been shown in lab studies to change hormones. You can look up the studies- it’s wild! Not to mention chlorine, fluoride and more chemicals added to city water. We have a personal well and we have an in home water filtration system with a reverse osmosis drinking tap. Obviously that is a large scale update but you can research home water filtration systems that just go under your sink, maybe just in the kitchen. The @hormonespecialist on instagram has a highlight for those looking to clean their water. He says that a simple charcoal filter can clean hormone disrupting chemicals. Don’t forget though that reverse osmosis cleans everything- including trace minerals. If you go that route make a plan to add that back to your diet somewhere!
If I was worried about hand soap then it stands to reason that I should also be worried about other soaps. And you’re right, I am! Everything that you wear and put on your body, should be evaluated. It’s hard to switch everything all at once. I follow someone else’s advice here and use what I have until it’s gone. Then switch to something clean. Laundry soap was one of the very first things I changed. I was sickened by the smell of all the laundry soap when I was pregnant. Not one was out there that didn’t have a horrible scent to me. They all smelled like chemicals. I searched for a long time to find one that didn’t have horrible ingredients and a nasty smell. I finally found Truly Free through Instagram. I try not to be influenced by influencers, but this was a win! It is a clean product and it smells amazing. They have a subscription option and it gets delivered automatically. It took me a couple tries to get what I needed for my family correct but I have it nailed down now. I don’t feel like it is more expensive than the chemical laden junk is that you get at the store. I also get our dishwasher soap and dish soap from there.
Shampoo and conditioner are also important if you are wanting to be low-tox. Most shampoo and conditioners are full of scents that are endocrine disruptors. Not to mention chemicals that have no place on your body. I have been struggling with hair loss since having my babies. I do not want to impede my hair growth in any way so what I put on my scalp has been extremely important. I love Plaine Products. I have the shampoo, conditioner and hair gel. They work extremely well and smell amazing! I am planning on getting the body wash as well. I feel really good about using it on my whole family. It is aloe based which is even better.
One thing that I have also tried to do is limit that amount of EMF exposure that my family gets. We all live with Wi-Fi on all the time. There is 5G all over the place. We do not know the effects of this on our bodies. There is evidence that it affects our body in negative ways. I try to shut our Wi-Fi off as much as possible. And I also have EMF protection stickers on all our devices. Aulterra also has whole home EMF neutralizers that work just by plugging them in. They are peer-reviewed and have independent studies showing that they don’t block EMF but they neutralize the effects on the human body. I am hoping to give my children the type of life without all these added environmental stressors on their bodies, as much as possible.
There it is! There are so many more items that I am also trying to switch out. Things such as make-up, skincare, and even work out clothes. I can report back on those at a later date.
Have you switched anything out for lox-tox items? Let me know in the comments!
These are so good! Definitely looking up a few. I’ve been working on switching for a while too and love to learn about a new product. My current big switch was a mattress (because I desperately needed a new one) and as you know that came with hours of searching. Looking up the emf blockers!