Skin & Hair Nutrition: Are your beauty products toxic?

There are alot of blogs talking about nutrition this way or that way, but how many blogs talk about skin and hair nutrition? Or, let me ask this, how many nutrition blogs talk about skin and hair nutrition?? How about mine!

Your skin is the largest organ of your body -- did you know that? Your skin is "eating" things every time you wash your scalp, put on lotion, deodorant, perfume.. basically everything that touches your skin. That covers makeup, shampoos, conditioners, body lotions, body wash lotions, makeup removers, cleansers, sunscreens, soaps, etc. The list is long! So, what are YOU feeding your skin?

As one of my homework assignments from my herbal class, I had to compare a natural beauty product against a commercial product. This research led me to a website at the Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database. It is run by the researchers at the Environmental Working Group, a group that felt that the public needs to know what is in health products that are not regulated or tested. There are more than 41,000 products available in the database, with a breakdown of over 8000 ingredients.

Just because your products says it's "natural" or "organic" does not make it safe for you to use! For example, I use JASON Lavender Natural Shampoo. I thought that because it had lavender in it as well as organic and natural ingredients, it would rate a 1 out of 10 (10 being the worst possible stuff on the planet). Nope, it rated **6** out of 10 and is considered a "moderate hazard." 83% of shampoos tested actually performed better than this one.

My sunscreen moisturizer, Avalon Organics Vitamin C Suncreen Moisture Plus Lotion SPF 15, scored a piddly **7** out of 10 and is considered a "not recommended" option. Ingredients contained have been linked to: cancer, developmental/reproductive toxicity, allergies, organ toxicity, skin/eye irritations, neurotoxicity, etc. Ugh! The key ingredients in most sunscreens do seem to be particularly bad. My guess is, if you can be in the sun for less than 30 hour and do not have fair skin, it's probably safe to not use sunscreen. Our skin needs some amount of time in the sun (15 or so minutes every day if possible) to create our body's vitamin D, but beyond that, cover up with clothing and being in the shade.

I am not telling you to throw away bad stuff you own, unless you can afford to do so (and want to do so!). The other side of the coin is that you shouldn't waste things either. If it's something you can donate or reuse in another way, do so. I am hoping to switch out my highly unsafe stuff for safer products as I run out of things because I don't want to just throw things away. That would lead to an even bigger problem with our Mother Earth! But that's my MO. Yours is up to you...

I am hoping you find this informational and possibly even eye-opening. I am not claiming that all their data is absolutely correct and irrefutable, but it is worth taking a look to see if what you are feeding your skin matches what you eat.. for the better!

If you have any suggestions for natural skin care (that doesn't show up above a 1 or 2 out of 10 on that scale), please comment and I'll post! Thanks!

Twittering Here, Twittering There

Given that I have been ultrabusy with studying and passing my holistic nutrition courses, and of course cooking, exercising, and living life, I have decided to post blogging articles once every other week, or as often as I can get to them. In the meantime, I am more available on twitter as @realfood2health. Don't know about twitter? Just go to www.twitter.com and sign up! You can find me at http://www.twitter.com/realfood2health. Check it out. I give out tips at least a few times a day, plus you get a more intimate view of what goes on in my life -- at least more often than I post here!

More to come on this blog, as I embrace "progress not perfection" in my life. Thanks!!!

Have you challenged yourself today?

Here's my challenge, that I will share with all of you so maybe you can participate with me as well. I wanted to see what would happen after a full month of "sticking to it". The challenge to myself is to eat whole foods for 30 days. Whole foods to me means mostly colorful vegetables, some fruits, some protein, and some fats. To me, these are "primal" foods, such that our ancestors would have eaten before the agricultural age began.

Colorful vegetables - eggplants, kale, spinach, broccoli, you name it. Cauliflower and maybe those white asparagus that I never buy are the only exceptions that still work.


Fruits - mainly berries for me since they are low on the glycemic index. Blueberries, Strawberries, Raspberries, Blackberries. If I have an apple, I'll eat one quarter to one half of an apple, never the whole.

Proteins - fish, turkey, chicken, shellfish, and beef, in that order.

Fats - raw, cold-pressed olive oil for uncooked foods. Light olive oil for cooked foods.

I had the idea to start day 1 on Sunday, but I ended up eating leftovers yesterday that had beans. I'd rather eat leftovers than waste food, so I am starting today on Day 1 again. I will have to take measurements as a baseline and see how things progress over the next 30 days. Want to share this experience with me? Let me know how it goes for you too!

New Year, New Start to a new...

No, not diet. It's a new start to another blog! I know, it's the third one, but sometimes another new push of motivation helps... as well as a new year.

My diet is simple. I eat real food. I love real food. My body loves real food. When I eat processed food of just about any kind, my body boycotts. No, I'm not an angel (even though I would like to think of myself as one!) nor am I on a strict militaristic regimen, but I do try to maintain eating mostly real food every day.

My hope in restarting my blog is gaining new focus around health and being able to help others while I continue my journey to good health. Future posts will describe healthy foods you may have never eaten before (although hopefully you have!), as well as why we should eat those foods.

I am on my journey to my masters degree in holistic nutrition. I feel that health needs to be looked at holistically, with analysis into foods, stress, emotions, physical activity, etc. There is alot to cover! And I hope to cover it all here.

So, welcome!