I've been slowly trying to evaluate the household products (including personal care items) that I use to determine my level of exposure to endocrine disruptors. It's been almost two months since I started doing the research and realized what was actually in the products I use (many for more than 10 years). Here's an update on what I've done so far. (For the record, none of these companies know I exist. These are just my own opinions about the products. I'm linking to the products I recommend so you can see what they look like and look at the ingredients for yourself, not because they are affiliates.)
Household products:
We had already switched to Method cleaners for our bathroom and kitchen surfaces awhile ago and we continue to like them for those purposes. With cleaning supplies, I'm mostly concerned about toxic fumes and residue, as these products aren't being applied to my body directly, so I am okay with some chemicals being in these products that I am spraying on my bathroom or kitchen counters. Method also has this handy list of disclosures about all possible ingredients in their products. I am always a big fan of companies that value transparency.
We just switched to Seventh Generation dishwasher detergent, and we've only done a few loads, but so far so good. I actually like that there isn't the strong fake scent of lemon coming out of the dishwasher after washing, and I did notice that my Camelbak didn't have that funky dishwasher smell after cleaning.
Beauty products:
The big three that I wanted to address for beauty products were deodorant, shower gel and shampoo, since I use those most frequently, especially at the rate I work out. I first compiled a list from my research of the big things I wanted to try to avoid. This is what I came up with:
perchlorate/chlorate
phthalates
DMDM hydantoin
imidazolidinyl urea
nitrates
phenol derivatives
PBDE
PEG
triclosan
triclocarban
TEA (triethanolamine)
sodium lauryl/laureth sulfate
parabens
thiocyanate
sulfates
benzyl salicylate
methylchlorosiothiazolinone
fragrances and dyes
aluminum (in deodorant)
Deodorant
I looked at the ingredients of several deodorants to try and choose one that might meet most of my criteria. I settled on Tom's of Maine Long Lasting Women's Deodorant in the Beautiful Earth scent. Well, it did its basic job, keeping odor away when I was sitting at work or at home in the air conditioning. But because it wasn't labeled an antiperspirant, I wasn't surprised when I noticed much more sweat than usual. This deodorant doesn't contain aluminum, which is the main antiperspirant ingredient in these types of products. So it worked when I wasn't concerned about wetness. But when I worked out for the first time with it? Fail - on both the odor and wetness fronts. Definitely not a product that was designed for heavy sweating, whether in hot weather or exercise (and definitely not hot weather exercise). So I will probably use this product from time to time, but it won't be a long-term solution for me for daily use.
Shampoo and shower gel
I was having major problems even finding a shampoo to try because so many of them are advertised as "natural" but only remove a few of the most toxic substances. That's good, but not good enough for me for the amount that I shower. I happened to read about the Honest Company from another blog and decided after looking at the list of ingredients and the breadth and depth of their product lines to take a chance and order the sampler pack of the Essentials. It came with hand soap, lotion, shampoo/shower gel, laundry detergent, and healing balm. I tried not to let myself simply be enchanted by their lovely graphic design and really test them out to see if they worked.
I immediately loved the shampoo/shower gel hybrid. It has a very faint orange/vanilla scent that doesn't linger long, but it is very clean. It also doesn't leave a film in my hair or on my skin. It's also kind of nice to use the same product in my hair and as a shower gel, since the scents don't compete with one another. It also has one of the cleanest ingredients lists I've found in any shampoo/shower gel.
The hand soap smells very clean as well, with a hint of lemongrass. When you use it, you don't feel like you've taken a bath in perfume. The lotion seemed like any other lotion, and the healing balm was particularly nice to use on my blistered right foot that has been battered by running this summer.
The laundry detergent is fragrance free, which is something I will have to get used to, since I've been a Tide girl since college. But the clothes still smell clean after use.
I am definitely a fan of all of the products I got in my sampler, so we decided to go ahead with a subscription. You can choose your delivery date for each shipment, everywhere from 4 to 8 weeks, and each time you choose 5 products from their very large line and can add up to three extra products at a 25% discount. Buying it in the bundles saves money off of the list price. In the first bundle I'll be getting some of the other beauty products, including some conditioning hair products that should hopefully help tame my humid weather frizz.
I should note that this is more money than I'm used to paying for cleaning or personal care items, even with the discount, but I'm impressed enough with the products that I'm willing to pay the extra cost. If I'm willing to pay more for healthy foods to put IN my body, I should be willing to pay more for safe products to put ON my body. I want the satisfaction of knowing I'm doing the best I can to limit my chemical exposure.
This week was a big explosion of diversity in our produce share. Look at this goodness. I could barely fit it in the camera frame.
We already decided to make mint ice cream with the first fresh mint. The basil might go in a homemade pasta salad for my family reunion on Saturday. The lettuce will go in salads. Gotta figure out what type of lettuce these tiny little purple bundles are. Any ideas? Whatever it is, it's lovely.
New potatoes are yummy as well. They have to be stored in the fridge, and they cook quicker than mature potatoes. Our CSA email update told us that they aren't often sold in stores because they turn dark at room temperature and don't store well. So here's a treat you can't get in stores!
Someone at our pick up site didn't want their green onions and fennel, so we ended up with two of each. Not complaining! As soon as I saw this fennel, I thought of a great pasta recipe I have that uses fennel and sausage, which we have from our meat CSA! This fennel is honestly so large it could eat Carnegie. I had to fold the fronds back under the bulbs just to fit it in the frame, but they were easily 2 or 3 feet long!
The email also told us that green beans will appear next week as well as another of my summer favorites - BLUEBERRIES.
Those of you subscribing to CSAs, what did you find in your share this week?
We picked up our second meat share of the summer from Clarion River Organics yesterday, and we were really pleased to see some of our favorites, and some new stuff as well.
The chicken share is the same each time. Two whole roasting chickens and one stewing chicken. The roasting chickens were 4 and 4.5 pounds and the stewing chicken was almost 3 pounds.
The beef share had some interesting stuff in it this time too. In addition to the three pounds of delicious ground beef, we got a pack of beef short ribs, a T-bone, a Porterhouse, and some loin rib steaks. We are big steak fans at Next Gen House, so I'm already drooling thinking about that Porterhouse.
Definitely some new and exciting stuff in the pork share this month, which I'm probably the most excited about of the three. Two pounds of ground pork, two packages of pork chops, a big hunk of bacon, breakfast sausage links, sweet Italian sausage, hot Italian sausage and a pig heart. That pig heart will be a challenge, but we'll find something to do with it! I'm also thinking about a pasta sauce with the hot Italian sausage. Another round of dan dan mien noodles with the ground pork is in order as well. The next time I make it, I'll be sure to post it. It's fantastic when you want Chinese takeout but don't want to pay for it or eat a load of MSG!
We're really happy with the variety and quality of our meat shares so far. We are trying to commit to only eating the meat from our shares (with limited exceptions) to make sure we're taking advantage of all of this great stuff before the next round comes in August.
The extra day's wait for our CSA because of the holiday was worth it this week.
The most exciting news? THE FIRST TOMATO OF THE YEAR is here. (Granted, it's in the window sill in the kitchen, waiting to fully ripen.)
Ever since reading Tomatoland I haven't been one for tomatoes out of season. Florida tomatoes are tasteless and rock hard by the time they get to Pennsylvania. So the first tomato of the season has become one of my favorite things to look forward to in the summer. I can't wait for this one to ripen a little bit. It's a little early for tomatoes here, so I'm not surprised this one is green. Maybe it jumped off the vine and into our CSA box because it knew how badly I wanted it?
The lettuce is looking beautiful this week. Can't wait to make salad with this.
We also got more garlic scapes, so it's probably time for some pesto. I am pretty happy to see two zucchini as well this week. Zucchini in the grocery store looks so anemic in the winter - teeny tiny little shriveled things that cost $3.99 a pound. Pretty soon farmers will be begging for people to just take them away!
I might give kale chips another try. The last time I made them they were tasteless and sort of bitter, so I'm going to see if I can make them work this time. I've read massaging the leaves helps. Maybe it just needs some TLC.
Cabbage might make it into haluski or it might be a good time to try for some sauerkraut...
I sort of have an obsession with soft pretzel rolls. Growing up my family would often eat soft pretzels as a snack, and having always been someone who liked salty foods more than sweet, pretzels are a favorite of mine. Whole Foods' Bakery carries soft pretzel rolls and I usually have at least one weekly. Also, they've become my favorite pre-race/run carb. So I got to thinking - I should really make these myself.
Having the day off of work on July 4, I decided to have a go at a recipe I found online. I have always used this recipe for soft pretzel bites, and thought I'd give a different one a try that was specifically for rolls, in case the ratios needed to be different for rolls.
The rolls are just bread flour, yeast, water, sugar and salt. The oil is used to line the bowl where the dough rises, and the baking soda is for the boiling bath that the rolls get before baking.
First, get the water up to temp and add yeast. Pro tip. USE NEW YEAST. I used not quite expired but relatively old yeast. Why? Because I was too lazy to change out of my pajamas and leave the house. USE NEW YEAST.
Prepare the dry ingredients - bread flour, sugar and salt.
Add dry ingredients to the stand mixer and mix using the dough hook attachment.
About 6 minutes later, you have this monstrosity. So far, so good, right?
Pull the dough into a ball and place in a greased bowl, lightly rolling the ball so the oil coats the dough.
Cover and let it sit for 30-35 minutes. Theoretically, it should double in size. If you use old yeast, it gets bigger, but doesn't impress anyone. (USE NEW YEAST.)
After your dough rises (or fails to rise, as the case may be), cut it into pieces and shape them into oblong rolls. Put them on a tray to rise (or fail to rise) again.
Meanwhile, get water boiling and add baking soda.
Drop the rolls in a few at a time and let them boil on both sides. Pull from the water and salt, putting them back on the tray to bake. At this point you should have 8 misshapen rolls on your tray. The yeast gave me one last gasp in the hot water before dying, so these plumped up to at least resemble rolls. If you are me, salt generously.
Bake em for awhile, and they start to at least look like pretzels, lazy yeast and all.
Thankfully they taste okay and the inside texture is decent too and not like hockey pucks. So it seems that you CAN make pretzel rolls with lazy yeast, but I sure wouldn't if/when I make these again. They might even make interesting buns for burgers!
I've written before about why I won't consume sports drinks, even during long races. And it's pretty obvious to anyone that I'm not a fan or a consumer of processed foods in general. But this wasn't always the case. If you opened the cupboard door in my first apartment 8 years ago, you would see a vastly different array of products than in my pantry today. Boxed meals and processed snack foods, not much resembling a "whole food" at all. But what really stuck out, in my tiny galley kitchen, was the stack of Diet Coke cases against the wall.
I actually didn't drink a lot of pop growing up (and I obviously grew up where we called it pop and not soda). I didn't even like cola until I was a teenager. And when I started working at McDonalds and the only thing that was free was pop, I began to drink a lot of regular Coke. That only lasted for about a week, as I quickly overloaded on the sugar and decided to give the diet version a try. And from that day, for the next 10 years, I was addicted to Diet Coke.
When I say addicted, I'm not exaggerating. I drank the equivalent of 6-8 cans of Diet Coke a day, either at work from the fountain or in cans in my dorm room or later, apartment. I quickly became addicted to the caffeine, especially because I also took up a coffee habit in college. By graduate school, working and going to school at the same time, I was drinking 40 ounces of coffee and more than 72 ounces of Diet Coke every day. If I was thirsty, I drank Diet Coke. I rarely drank water.
When I'd randomly go on diets after gaining bits of weight here and there, Diet Coke was a staple. Zero calories! It was one thing I never had to "give up" and there were times I honestly craved feeling an icy cold can in my hand and hearing the click of the open tab and the bubbles. You know those commercials where someone opens a can of soda and a ton of fun starts? That's almost how I looked at it, as embarrassing as that is. I couldn't wait for the burn of the first cold sip.
Also during the time I was a heavy consumer of Diet Coke, I suffered from pretty severe migraines. I thought it was the stress of college, graduate school, work, etc. and I saw a neurologist regularly and was on special migraine medication. Never once did the doctor ask me about my eating or drinking habits. So I medicated rebound headaches which I attributed only to caffeine withdrawal, and I kept on glugging.
After we watched Food, Inc., Mark and I started changing our eating habits. We started sourcing meat, dairy and produce differently. We cooked more and more and we cut out processed foods and investigated nutrition labels closely before we made purchases. Except for Diet Coke. I just couldn't give that up. It was one thing I really wasn't willing to part with, justifying my consumption because it was calorie-free.
It might have been the studies linking diet soda and depression. Or the fact that aspartame, the sweetener in Diet Coke, has been linked to cancer and premature birth. It might have been the fact that we were spending a lot of money every week on Diet Coke (generic would not do). But one day, I just decided to stop. I replaced some of the caffeine with tea or coffee in the mornings, but not all. I started drinking water.
And I haven't suffered from a severe migraine since. After noticing a distinct rise in my energy levels and also a decrease of cravings for sweet foods, I cut out all artificial sweeteners entirely. I now look back and can't believe that a beverage had such a hold over my body (and my wallet). I was a marketer's dream come true and I played right into their hands, falling for all of their lies hook line and sinker.
It didn't help me lose weight. In fact, I've lost more weight since I gave up soda and artificial sweeteners than I ever did when I was addicted to Diet Coke. It gave me headaches and gave me cavities. (Thank goodness I didn't get to this point. Warning - it's disgusting.) And I was consuming something with questionable health risks. Was drinking Diet Coke now worth developing cancer later? Of course if I'm someday diagnosed with cancer, I won't necessarily know what caused it. But I can at least have the peace of knowing I eliminated a known risk factor.
If you are a regular consumer of diet soda (or really any soda), I'd challenge you to give it up, even for just a few weeks. I would venture to guess you'll notice a change in how your body feels (and you'll save yourself some money too).
I’ve written about GMOs before and explained why I subscribe to the “harmful until proven safe” mentality as opposed to “safe until proven harmful” when it comes to my foods. This is one reason why I support mandatory labeling of GMO products. An interesting study was released recently which sheds more light on problematic GMOs.
Headlines appeared everywhere, calling the new study “alarming” and “groundbreaking.” The basic conclusion of the study? Pigs fed a diet of GMO grains were more likely to suffer from stomach inflammation and had heavier uteri, which is a sign of conditions that could affect their fertility. Anti-GMO groups hailed this as one of the studies they’d been waiting for that showed an adverse health effect on animals that we consume and not just animals in laboratories like rats. Industry leaders were quick to denounce the study and its research methodology. So who’s right?
Well, both. First of all, the scientific journal that reported the study is called the Journal of Organic Systems. One of their sponsors is the Organic Federation of Australia. Organic producers are often looked at as the “good guys” in agriculture, and I definitely am grateful for their contributions, as our family eats as organic as possible. However, organic producers are often corporations whose primary motivation is profit, not the health of consumers. So it’s in the best interest of organic food producers to have studies that show that GMOs are harmful. Since no GMO ingredients are allowed to be in any product labeled certified organic, they have a vested monetary interest in supporting labeling efforts and fighting GMOs. Because of this, research they sponsor is as tainted by suspicions of bias as the research that Monsanto backs saying GMOs are truly safe. The editorial boards of scientific journals are often made up of individuals who have a corporate interest on one side or the other.
The fact remains that there are very few studies (and virtually no long-term studies) on the health effects of GMOs at all, let alone truly independent, third-party studies. Why? Because the producers of these GMO seeds (ahem, Monsanto) have such strict patents on the technology that they are unobtainable for outside research. Growers are made to sign contracts stating that they won’t perform any research on seeds. So when someone wants to do a study, they have to buy retail products made from GMO plants and can’t directly grow their own.
Because companies like Monsanto have those intellectual property rights and are only required to do voluntary safety consultations on their products, there is currently no real or independent safety testing on GMOs. And there’s where the problem is. We need independent safety testing and we need long-term studies to begin. Because right now, when you eat a product that contains GMO ingredients, the safety testing is being performed on you as a consumer without your informed consent.
And this is why labeling is so vitally important. Let Monsanto grow all the GMO products it wants. Let the consumers be informed and make decisions about what they eat. Tell consumers the truth. Right now, we don’t know if GMOs are truly dangerous or unsafe. And until Monsanto stops hiding behind intellectual property laws and opens up their seeds for independent testing, we won’t know.
I’ve even thought that a label similar to the one that appears on dairy products would be appropriate. If a company wants to label their milk rBGH-free, they also run a disclaimer saying that the government has found no difference between milk from cows treated with rBGH and those that weren’t. I appreciate the information, and choose as a consumer to not consume dairy with rBGH in it anyway. Because it’s my right.
GMO labeling initiatives are starting to make headway in America as many states have bills up for consideration in their legislatures. Here in Pennsylvania, a bill was introduced in the Pa. Senate in March called “An Act Requiring the Labeling of Genetically Engineered Food” (SB653). It is now in the Agricultural & Rural Affairs Committee. Surprisingly enough, PA is third in the nation for organic agriculture production, so I’m hoping that enough of a push exists to protect that industry that this bill will make it for full consideration. I plan on contacting my senators again on this one.
Here are some resources on the fight for mandatory GMO labeling:
GMO Free PA: Resources on the fight in Pennsylvania
Twitter @GMOFreePA
Right to Know GMO: Resources for each state
Twitter @RighttoKnowGMO
Just Label It: National campaign for GMO labeling
Twitter @Justlabelit
