How to Reduce Toxic Chemicals In Your Body and Your Home Without Compromising Your Lifestyle

Do you want to protect yourself from toxic chemicals exposure, avoid diseases and live a cleaner, more natural lifestyle? That requires reducing toxic chemicals in the different products you use.

Every day, you are exposed to a huge number of toxic chemicals. They are in the air, your food, your household, and your personal care products. You breathe them, you ingest them, you absorb them through the skin.

Some estimates put the number of harmful substances you come into daily contact with as high as 700, 000. Although individually these substances are present in small amounts that are relatively safe, it’s the gradual accumulation in our bodies that is worrisome.

I don’t know whether the number 70, 000 is accurate. But the fact that we are surrounded by an excessive amount of toxins is undeniable.

So what can you do to protect yourself?

Well, here are some different ways you can reduce chemicals, including in your cleaning products, skincare products, and even your food.

Avoid Toxic Chemicals In Your Personal Care

Those pretty-looking bottles and tubs aesthetically lined up in your bathroom could be actually bad for you.

Because chemicals in many personal care products, cosmetics, and toiletries are directly absorbed into your body through the skin.

In other words, we’re talking over 100 toxic substances making their way into your system on your average day. Some of them are carcinogens, mutagens (causing genetic mutations), and allergens.

That doesn’t sound like stuff you’d want to have in your body, does it?

Therefore, when buying your personal care supplies, it’s important to be able to discern products that contain as few insidious elements as possible. And, of course, as many good ones as one can possibly stuff into a little pot.

But don’t get easily seduced by the label.

Be aware that just because a label claims the product is ‘organic’ or ‘natural’ doesn’t mean it’s good for you.

Because many substances considered harmful to your body aren’t necessarily manufactured and, therefore, they are perfectly natural.

This means that the label may be correct, and the ingredients may be natural but they may cause as much damage as, say, arsenic.

Tip: Always check the certification and the ingredients. If you can, select brands that have been approved by third-party certification agencies, such as:

• USDA
• COSOMOS
• ECOCERT

Toxic Chemicals In Fragrance

One of the easiest ways to reduce the amount of unnecessary chemicals in your day-to-day life is by getting rid of fragrance.

Altouhgh, it really isn’t always necessary. Think of all the products you use each day that contain fragrance. The artificial fragrance does nothing more than make things smell a little better for a very short period of time. Do you really need them?

For example, the spray you use to dust your wood furniture probably smells like lemon or orange. This is an added ingredient that is likely not natural, and also not necessary.

The fragrance is often found in skincare products, cleaning products, laundry detergent, and so many other items that don’t need fragrance.

Especially, if they can be replaced by natural fragrances like essential oils.

Check For Toxic Chemicals In Your Makeup and Skincare Products

Similarly, look at the ingredients of your makeup, hair, skincare, and beauty products.

These might also contain some added toxins or chemicals. Chemicals which are completely unnecessary because they do nothing for you. Apart from poisoning you, that is.

To put it another way, exposing your body to such harmful elements frequently will allow them to accumulate and cause all sorts of health problems. Not to mention premature aging. Which is what we want to slow down and not encourage.

Indeed, the most common ingredients to look for include sodium Laureth sulfate and parabens. Below I provided the list of most common offenders. These are not going to improve your skin and hair.

So, ditch any products that contain toxic chemicals and look for certified alternatives. Nowadays, a lot of companies make more natural and organic products. Here is quite a comprehensive list of brands you might want to try.

List of the Best Natural Personal Care Brands

100% Pure

Alpyn Beauty

Beautycounter

Biossance

Buttah

Caudalie

Cocokind Natural Skincare

CosmosCut Le Crap

Eminence

EWG Verified

Farmacy

Follain

Herbivore Botanicals

Indie Lee

Josh Rosebrook

Juice Beauty Skincare

Klur

Kopari

Kypris

Madesafe

Monastery Made

NatrueNeal’s YardOdylique

One Love Organics

Orgaid

OSEA Organic Skincare

Osmia

Pai

Pholk

Ren

Soil Association Organic

Tata Harper

True Botanicals

Ursa Major Organics

Vichy

Weleda

Youth to the People

List of Toxic Chemicals Common in Personal Care Products

These chemicals are found in moisturizers, lipsticks, nail polishes, soaps, shampoos, and so forth:

1. Formaldehyde
2. Parabens
3. Perfume
4. Fluoride
5. Alcohol
6. Paraphenylenediamine
7. Talc
8. Propylene Glycol
9. Bisphenol A
10. Phthalates (such as DBP or Dibutyl Phthalate)
11. Sodium Lauryl Sulphate (SLS)
12.  Xylene
13.  Paraphenylenediamine
14. Triclosan
15.  Di-ethanolamine (DEA)
16. Vitamin A – retinyl palmitate
17.  BHA & BHT (Butylated Hydroxyanisole & Butylated Hydroxytoluen)
18. P-phenylenediamine or CI followed by a 5-digit number
19. Siloxanes

Eat a Cleaner Diet to Reduce Toxic Chemicals in Your Food

As you begin your journey of learning to live a more natural and holistic life, you will be much more aware of what you put in your body.

So many processed foods contain chemicals, additives, MSG, and so many more ingredients that you not only want to digest but are completely unnecessary. That’s why eating a clean diet is recommended so often.

But it’s not just the food itself. An additional problem is the plastic packaging that contaminates food with harmful particles.

So avoid plastic whenever possible and never ever microwave food in plastic containers.

Types of Food Additives

In addition to recognizing the toxic chemicals in your personal care products, it helps to first understand what food additives might be in your food. Look closely at the ingredients of any processed food you eat, specifically for some of these ingredients:

High-fructose corn syrup – Certainly, there is no reason you should ever need to buy something with high fructose corn syrup. This is a type of additive that makes your food sweeter. But it’s even used in foods you wouldn’t need to sweeten. For example, some store-bought premade chicken salad that is used in chicken salad sandwiches contains high fructose corn syrup, even though it should be naturally sweet with the cranberries and apples used.

Nitrates and nitrites – Likewise, these substances are essentially useless. These are most often found in deli meat and other processed meats. It’s a type of preservative that helps to keep the food fresher longer, as well as give it the salty flavor you want. The problem is that it has been linked to a higher risk of certain cancers, higher cholesterol, and just in general, not a healthy or necessary additive.

Food coloring – Lastly, look out for artificial food coloring in your food, yet another unnecessary ingredient often used in processed foods. All it does is change the color and brightness of food to make it look more appealing, but there is no reason to use it. You might see ingredients like Yellow 6 or Red 40, which are just food dyes.

Choose More Organic Foods Whenever Possible

As far as what you put into your body, you want to choose natural and organic as much as possible.

This is going to reduce waste and at the same time allow you to support your local farming communities.

When choosing foods from the grocery store, look for organic produce. Don’t choose anything pre-cut as it contains extra plastic containers you don’t need. Equally, pay attention to the ingredients of anything canned or boxed.

When to Choose Organic

Now that you understand what chemicals and artificial ingredients might be used, you can start eating a cleaner diet. This often means going organic, but when do you really need organic foods? Here are some things to start with.

Will you eat the skin? – A really easy way to choose what products to buy organic is if you will eat the skin. For example, bananas get peeled, which means it doesn’t really need to be purchased organic if you are on a budget. However, for fruits and vegetables like apples and pears, you typically do eat the skin, so in this case, it might be better to choose the organic option.

Dirty dozen – Just like with toxic chemicals in personal care and household products, there’s a list known as the dirty dozen. This list includes 12 fruits and vegetables that tend to contain more pesticides. If you can purchase these organic, that is highly recommended. They include spinach, kale, strawberries, grapes, cherries, peaches, apples, nectarines, celery, pears, potatoes, and tomatoes.

Eggs, meat, and fish – Beyond produce, it is also a good idea to go organic, farm-fresh, and pasture-raised with things like eggs, meat, poultry, and fish.

When you can afford it – Lastly, don’t underestimate the importance of sticking to a budget. Because sound budgeting allows you to have extra money for other areas of your new holistic living journey, including the lifestyle detox. If you can’t afford organic, don’t worry too much about it.

Ways To Reduce Toxic Chemicals In Your Home

Toxic chemicals permeate our environment so much that it’s practically impossible to fully eliminate them. Commonly used household products such as surface cleaners, laundry detergents, and toilet cleaners are full of toxic stuff.

Actually, they feature warning on the label that they are dangerous to soil and aquatic life! This is one of the things that make me question the sanity of the human race.

Why would anyone want to mass-produce something that poisons the very soil that sustains us? Especially when there are perfectly natural and effective ways to clean our grandmothers have known for ages!

Use Natural Cleaning Supplies

Speaking of cleaning your home, you can use natural ingredients to clean more efficiently. But you can also purchase over-the-counter natural and organic cleaning products. This is a great way to reduce the amount of toxic chemicals you are using.

However, instead of throwing away all your current cleaning products just to buy new ones – which is not good for waste reduction – start slow.

When a cleaning product runs out, such as your all-purpose cleaner, just look for a more natural option or use natural cleaning ingredients like vinegar and baking soda.

Easy, Natural Ways to Clean Your Home

Everyone wants to have a clean home, but if you are looking to detox your lifestyle, it might be time to switch to natural cleaners.

For example, your commercial cleaning products are often filled with chemicals and additives that don’t help clean your home any better and contain unnecessary harmful ingredients.

Here are some easy and natural ways to clean your home.

Natural Cleaning Ingredients

Before you start cleaning your home, you need to compile some natural ingredients and tools.

For natural cleaning, some of the best ingredients include white distilled vinegar, baking soda, lemon, borax, cornstarch, essential oils, and of course good old-fashioned water.

You will also need a few supplies for making your own natural cleaning products including empty spray bottles and possibly measuring spoons or measuring cups.

Easy Cleaning Changes to Make Right Now

Over time, you will start understanding all the different ways to clean your home, but for now, let’s keep things simple. Here are a few different ways to clean your home naturally, that don’t require much more than what you have on hand now.

Use Hepa filter vacuum – Household dust collects toxic debris shed from various sources within your home, which you then absorb. So it’s very important to regularly ventilate and allow the harmful particles to disperse. But the majority of dust will remain and the most effective way to get rid of it is to use products with advanced filtration systems, such as HEPA. 

Use microfiber cloths – With microfiber cloths, they do a lot of the cleaning without needing anything other than water, or maybe a little baking soda for scrubbing. They are gentle, kind to the environment, and can be used over and over again.

Stop buying scented products – Another thing to consider is that you don’t need added scents in your cleaning products. Similarly to personal care products, you can find natural ways to improve the smell of your home, including essential oil diffusers to provide natural fragrance at any time.

Vinegar and citrus are the perfect combo – Any time you need to do some light cleaning or disinfecting, all you need is citrus and white vinegar. These together work great for cleaning windows, wiping down countertops, and even mopping the floors.

Make a habit of cleaning as you go – Reduce how much scrubbing you need to do by cleaning more as you go. Rinse dishes when you put them in the sink, wipe down counters after cooking, and rinse your shower walls more often.

List of the Best Natural Household Cleaning Products On the Market

Abena Amnesty International Bambaw Bio D Biobag Bumboo Clothes Doctor Comp Bio Delphis Dishmatic Dri Pak Ecococonut Ecoegg Ecoforce Ecoleaf Eco-Max Ecosavers Ecover Ecozone Eddingtons Essential Trading Fair Zone Faith In Nature Fixits Greencane Greener Cleaner Greenfrog Botanics Greenscents Guppyfriend Hill Brush Company If You Care Imsevimse Jangneus Design Koh Lavinia Lemonaid Beverages Logsaver Loofco Magman Method Mulieres Natural Collection Select Oceansaver Seventh Generation D2w Degradable Plastics Ecoliving Powerplus Radiator Booster Safix Simple Living Eco Sodasan Spruce The Cheeky Panda Traidcraft Turtle Bags Waft Who Gives a Crap Wild & Stone Wilton London

Natural Cleaning Products You Can Make at Home

Now for some more natural cleaning products, you can make right at home with the ingredients listed above.

Deodorize with Baking Soda – Baking soda is going to be your best friend when you decide to use natural cleaning products. It is excellent for scrubbing, but don’t forget about deodorizing. Sprinkle it in your bathtub, toilet, or garbage can, let it sit for a bit, then rinse with water and things will smell much better.

All-Purpose Cleaner – Equally, you can make your own all-purpose cleaner with just white distilled vinegar, water, and lemon. Use about one part water with one part vinegar, then add the rind from a lemon to the bottle for added scent. Just be careful about using acidic products on granite or marble.

Rough, jagged surfaces don’t require much other than basic protection, but smooth surfaces have a higher likelihood of showing bits of wear or damage.

If you have been struggling to clean with something that also happens to be eco-friendly, microfiber cleaning cloths are a great option. We really like the blue and yellow microfiber cleaning cloths from AmazonBasics.

Here are some reasons why!

Features of the Microfiber Cleaning Cloths

These microfiber cloths are special towels that are made with a very light, fine material that allows it to polish to a certain extent. These towels are unbelievably absorbent and can be used for general cleaning, even though you will be tempted to hoard them.

Some features we absolutely love about these cleaning cloths are the fact that they can be used with any cleaners you have and have really soft material that is non-abrasive but also cleans well. You aren’t going to scratch any surfaces when you use these towels.

As a cleaning aid, they are a favorite because they are made from highly absorbent materials. The fibers are extremely durable and can withstand a lot of intense use and washing.

Specifically, if you live in a dusty area, these cloths are a life-saver. The good thing is, you can use them without any kind of cleaner to remove dust and other particles. This particular pack comes in 24, with assorted colors. Because they are made of polyester and polyamide, they can be washed over and over again without having to be replaced.

Ways to Use Them

You can use these towels on anything from country to table, exterior car cleaning, interior car cleaning, windshields, windows, and more. These towels can be used on basically anything you want. All you have to do is toss them in a wash, and they’ll be back and ready for work as soon as they’re done. These towels might even dry more efficiently in most normal weather with minimal effort.

Why We Love Them

One of the best things about these microfiber cloths is that they are fairly large, and because of this, they are able to get a lot more coverage during a cleaning process, as well as give you the opportunity to keep the different cleansing stages completely separate on one cloth. The number of these excellent cleaning aids should be enough to make you want to have a stash of these in your trunk each day.

Disclaimer:

This article was written by Zuzana Halliwell. I am not a doctor or health professional and cannot be held liable for the information written here. This article is meant to provide information about the benefits of a healthy lifestyle and diet. The content is based on my own personal experience and on information provided by medical professionals that is available to the public. It is not intended to provide medical advice. Do not use it as an alternative to seeking help from a medical professional.