Sweet!

I have learned a lot about bees and honey this year. I went to visit a beekeeper, and I also went to a honey festival - that was fun! I have had severe hay-fever type allergies since I was a teenager. I did NOT know until this year that eating honey can help me! However, regular store-bought honey has been strained and processed and is therefore not as beneficial.

If I purchase raw, pure honey that was made by bees locally in my area, in that honey are trace amounts of the very allergens from my environment that make my body overreact and start sneezing. So it works just like the allergy shots I used to get for years, which gave me trace amounts of allergens. That exposure from the honey helps my body learn not have an allergy-type reaction. And, I am becoming less and less dependent on my allergy medication, which is also better for me!

Look into purchasing raw local honey. In the Canal Winchester area, you'll find The Beeman on Route 674 just south of town, who sells the good stuff. For those of you in other places, try to track down some beekeepers or health food stores in your area that sell it. If you have young children, it would be best to ask a health professional's advice on what age it's safe to give them the honey.

You can enjoy a daily (yummy!) serving of honey AND enjoy the allergy immunotherapy benefits as well. Now that's sweet!

Your toxic wardrobe

Chilly days are fast approaching! I've never been a fan of winter, but I do so love my winter wardrobe! I just love the warmth and softness of sweaters. As I have spent the last few years researching healthy choices for my family, I was curious to know what I might find out about fabrics and clothing. It didn't take long to come to a conclusion: I have to make careful, healthy choices about clothing the same as with food! Here is some of what I have learned:

• You like sweaters too? Most sweaters these days, especially for girls and women, are made at least partially from acrylic. Acrylic is made from polycrylonitriles, which is "reasonably anticipated to be a carcinogen."
• Flame retardant clothing, i.e. children's pajamas, are treated with formaldehyde and therefore emit formaldehyde gas, which is a carcinogen.
• Wrinkle-free clothing achieves that "wrinkle free" result by being treated with perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs). Teflon, used to make some clothing stain resistant, is one such chemical, and PFCs are carcinogens.
• All manmade, synthetic fabrics use varying amounts of chemicals in the fabrication process, often times to make them more soft. These chemicals can outgas even long after you buy them.
• Even natural cotton, though, is not completely innocent. Cotton growers use a lot of pesticides on the plants, which remain in the fibers when the clothing is made. Wash your cotton clothing several times before wear! Organic cotton may be an option.
• Dryer sheets load up the surface of your clothing with additional chemicals. Read your dryer sheet ingredients.
• Dry cleaners use perchlorethylene, a VOC that has caused cancer in animals. A few dry cleaners out there are now using "wet cleaning" with a different, nontoxic substance.

So, what can we do? First, try to buy clothing that is made from natural materials - cotton, wool, linen, silk. Avoid synthetic materials whenever possible - polyester, acrylic, rayon. (I have become a compulsive tag-reader when clothes shopping!) My personal view is that if you purchase flame-retardant, wrinkle-free or stain-resistant clothing, the risks far outweigh the benefits. When you buy clothing, wash the item a couple of times in a nontoxic detergent before first wear to avoid further exposure to chemicals through the skin or respiratory system. Now, pull out your family's winter wardrobe and check the labels, and reevaluate the healthiness of each item. Then get ready to bundle up!

Stress!

There is a lot of money in my mouth! I have 2 gold crowns on my back molars and it’s all due to stress. Believe it or not, clenching my teeth at night has caused so much pressure on my back teeth that they literally cracked! I am not the only mom who suffers from teeth clenching or grinding during our supposedly restful, nights sleep. I have many friends who have the same complaint.

Do you wake up with a sore jaw? Do you have headaches throughout the day? Do you have pain in your shoulders and/or neck? All of these may be a sign that you are clenching or grinding your teeth at night. They may also be a sign of something more serious called TMJ (temporomandibular joint syndrome) which afflicts 10 million Americans. Here’s a simple test to see if you have TMJ: place your little fingers in your ears so that your hearing is hindered. Then slowly and steadily open and close your jaw. If at any point you hear a clicking, popping, and/or grinding noise, the jaw joints may be out of alignment, and it’s time to see a professional!

Obviously, reducing the stress in our lives would help this painful situation but I’ve found that mission is almost impossible. And if I’m sleeping I have no control over what my teeth are doing! So, here is some help for those of you with clenching problems and it can also be helpful for those with TMJ. The help comes in the form of calcium supplements. I’m a big proponent of getting the vitamins and minerals you need from the food you eat but sometimes you need a little extra. For me, every night before I go to bed is one of those times that I take a little extra calcium.

To me, calcium has been a wonder drug. It’s essential in proper muscle function and has a calming effect. It also prevents bone softening and relieves stress. So, instead of clenching my teeth, my muscles are more relaxed and my bones are not deteriorating.

When choosing a calcium supplement, keep the following in mind:

1 – Your body cannot absorb more than 500 mg of calcium at a time.
2 – Choose a whole food supplement (that goes for all supplements you may be taking) not a synthetic, man-made supplement which have been proven to be possibly more harmful than helpful.
3 – Take magnesium with the calcium which balances the calcium and aids in absorption (most calcium supplements have magnesium already added to them)
4 – For added benefit, take them an hour before bed. Calcium can make you sleepy!

I use Garden of Life Living Calcium Advanced. However, there are many other good calcium supplement choices out there. Therefore, give this therapy a try. It might take some stress away, relieve teeth clenching and help you get a good night’s sleep!

Baby Mattresses

What age group spends up to 20 hours a day in bed? What age group stands to gain the most benefit from healthy bedding? The answer of course is babies! They spend most of their time each day with their faces just a few inches from their mattresses. Baby mattresses have come under scrutiny because of the materials and chemicals used to make them. Let's talk about the birth of a baby mattress:

1. First comes the shell, the vinyl surface of a baby mattress, which is made from polyvinyl chloride or PVC (remember dangerous plastic #3?). Then phthalates are added to the PVC, making the mattress more flexible. Phthalates are hormone disruptors and considered by the EPA to be probable carcinogens.
2. Next, the mattress is filled with polyurethane foam. This foam eventually breaks down into tiny particles called VOC's, which can irritate the child's airways or mucosal linings. These VOC's can cause eye, nose and throat irritation, headaches, fatigue, nausea, dizziness and allergic reactions.1
3. Lastly, a cocktail of chemicals is dumped onto the mattress to make it flame retardant, as required by law. The most widely used ones are PBDE's, which have been banned in Europe because they are hormone disruptors.

You can find many places online that sell mattresses made from organic cotton and wool. The layer of wool, which is a naturally flame-retardant material, meets the standards of "flame retardancy" required by law, rather than using chemicals. I purchased mine online about 3 years ago and have been very pleased with it. These natural or organic mattresses are rather expensive, usually running around $250-300, but I felt it was well worth the money to prevent potential health problems in my daughter. The Healthy Child, Healthy World organization also recommends an organic wool mattress pad if you simply cannot afford the cost of a mattress, as the pad will help shield the child from the toxins of a regular mattress. Check out this site for more info on the dangers, as well as one of many places to shop online for products: Natural & Organic Crib Mattress.

1 - http://www.healthychild.org/, Emily Lynne Ion, "Do you know what's in your baby's mattress?", updated August 2008.

Controversial Plastic #7

I mentioned in my last blog that I would be tackling plastic #7 separately. The chemical bisphenol A (BPA) is present in many plastic #7 products. BPA was developed in the late 1800's as a synthetic estrogen, but in the 1950's started being used as a plastic-hardening chemical. You will find it in many baby bottles, sippy cups, water bottles, and in epoxy resins found in some food cans and dental sealants. BPA has been a subject of much controversy this year. Dr. Jennifer Sass, a senior scientist in the Natural Resources Defense Council, has stated this about BPA:

Harmful effects in the laboratory animals exposed to even the low levels of BPA that are commonly found in the blood and urine of Americans include an increase in prostate and breast cancer, type 2 diabetes, reproductive abnormalities, reduced semen quality, recurrent miscarriage, obesity, and neurobehavioral problems similar to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. 1

An FDA draft report on BPA released last Friday, August 15, 2008 has declared the chemical to be safe at typical human exposures. However, testing apparently was funded largely by the industry and therefore is suspect in my opinion. The National Toxicology Program, which reports its findings to the FDA, had not yet released its final report on BPA when the FDA decided to put out its draft report.

I have great concern over the possible danger regarding BPA pointed out by scientists such as Dr. Sass and other independent scientists. I am greatly limiting my exposure to BPA and plastic #7. Take a walk around your grocery store bakery and look at the plastic containers they use. I found #7 everywhere. There is a very helpful website which lists all the companies that make baby bottles and sippy cups, informing you of the level of BPA used in their products. Please check it out for your family. Click here: Z Recommends: The Z Report on BPA In Children's Feeding Products, Third Edition

1 - www.nrdc.org, Press Release August 8, 2007, quote by Dr. Jennifer Sass.

Top Ten Organic Buys

Are you confused about eating organic? I just heard an interview with an expert on one of the morning programs. He said it really didn’t matter if you ate organic or not because there are no more vitamins and minerals in an organic fruit/veggie than a non-organic fruit/veggie. To be quite honest, that is not why I prefer to buy organic. I buy organic produce because I know there have been no pesticides used on my strawberries, and no chemicals sprayed on my apples, and no toxins making my grapes taste just a little bit funny.

But, let’s face it. . . who can afford to buy all organic produce? My food budget jumps quite a bit when I buy all organic products at the grocery. So, if we have to make some hard choices, here are the top 10 foods that we should try to buy organic. 1

1. Apples
A is for apple — and a lot of pesticides. According to the Food and Drug Administration, more pesticides (a whopping 36) are found on apples than on any other fruit or vegetable. In one test, as many as seven chemicals were found on a single apple.

No organic? Peel your apples, and look for apples from New Zealand (it's noted on the little produce stickers), which are treated with half as many pesticides as those grown Stateside.

2. Baby Foods
"An infant's immune, nervous, and detoxification system is less developed than an adult's and more vulnerable to the effects of pesticides," says Elson M. Haas, M.D., author of The Staying Healthy Shopper's Guide. The green beans, peaches, and apples that go into baby food (and all over your kitchen floor) tend to be treated with chemicals. Organic brands like Earth's Best are available.

No organic? Make your own purees by tossing organic fruits and vegetables into the blender.

3. Butter and Milk
The grains that dairy cows eat are heavily treated with chemicals, which have a residual, though still notable, presence in milk and dairy products. (Milk may also contain bovine growth hormone and antibiotics.)

4. Cantaloupe
Cantaloupes often contain five of the longest-lasting chemicals, one of which is dieldrin, an exceedingly toxic and carcinogenic insecticide. Though it was banned in 1974, residues still persist in soils and are taken up through the cantaloupe's roots and absorbed into the edible portion.

No organic? Thoroughly wash the outside of the melon, since a knife can drag exterior residues through the flesh as you slice it.

5. Cucumbers
In a survey of 42 common vegetables, cucumbers were ranked second in cancer risk and 12th in "most contaminated food" by the Environmental Working Group, a respected public-interest group.

No organic? Peel the cucumbers, since the waxes used to make the skin shiny also tend to hold chemicals.

6. Grapes
Because grapes ripen quickly, tend to mold, and attract insects, growers hit them with multiple applications of various chemicals. The worst are Chilean grapes, which are treated with as many as 17 of them. (Ninety percent of the grapes eaten in the United States from January to April are Chilean.)

No organic? Buy grapes grown domestically; they are treated with fewer chemicals.

7. Green Beans
The Environmental Protection Agency has more than 60 pesticides registered for use on green beans.

No organic? Choose fresh beans over canned or frozen. Wash them well.

8. Spinach
In a certain cartoon, spinach makes muscles. In real life, the chemicals used to treat it may cause cancer or interfere with hormone production.

No organic? Vigilantly wash each leaf separately under running water.

9. Strawberries
Strawberries are one of the most contaminated of all produce items in the United States.

No organic? Choose local berries over long-distance ones (there's less spraying). The package should say where they're from, or the supermarket's produce manager should know.

10. Winter Squash
Like cantaloupes and cucumbers, winter squash has a propensity to absorb dieldrin from the soil into its edible parts.

No organic? Buy Mexican. The soil in Mexico is largely uncontaminated by dieldrin.

Happy Eating!

1 Above list: Michele Bender, “Real Simple”, August, 2001, http://www.realsimple.com/realsimple/content/0,21770,688584,00.html, (August 6, 2008)

Plastics-Check your labels!

I have to talk about plastics as my very first article, as it is such a growing problem in the subject of toxic sources. I want to make sure that everyone knows about the labeling system for plastics, and what it means to you. Your plastic containers, cups and bags should have a triangle on the bottom with a number in the middle. That system is utilized in recycling programs, as some plastics can be recycled and some cannot. However, this number also tells you which plastic the product is made of so that you know how toxic it is to your body! This is what each number is, and I'll give a few examples of that plastic:

#1 - PET or PETE (polyethylene terephthalate). Water/soft drink bottles, salad dressing and veg oil bottles, peanut butter containers, some food packaging films. The American Chemistry Council stands by its assertion that, "...these materials are essentially nontoxic and pose no threats to human health..."1 Still be very careful, however, not to reuse these bottles or heat them (like in a dishwasher), as that could change the leaching ability of this chemical.
#2 - HDPE (high density polyethylene). Milk jugs, some detergent and cleaner and shampoo bottles, yogurt and butter tubs, cereal box liners. Not known to be a carcinogen or leach chemicals.
#3 - PVC (polyvinyl chloride). Clear food packaging, some detergent and shampoo and cooking oil bottles, piping. Vinyl chloride is listed by the 11th Report on Carcinogens as "known to be a human carcinogen."
#4 - LDPE (low density polyethylene). Squeezable bottles, bread and frozen food and grocery bags. Not known to be a carcinogen or leach chemicals.
#5 - PP (polypropylene). Some yogurt and syrup and ketchup containers, straws, some kids' cups. Not known to be a carcinogen or leach chemicals.
#6 - PS (polystyrene). Styrofoam products, trays for chicken/beef/pork, egg cartons, carry-out containers, CD cases. This chemical can be made into either rigid or foam products. It may leach styrene into foods. Styrene is listed by the 11th Report on Carcinogens as "reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen."
#7 - Miscellaneous. Polycarbonate water bottles, food and carry-out containers, nylon, Nalgene products, some baby bottles, some metal can liners, epoxy resins. The #7 category is a catch-all category. The chemical Bisphenol A, found in many #7 products, is a hot topic right now, a very bad chemical, and I will do a separate post on that one to explain it in more detail.

At this stage of the game from what we know for sure, get rid of #3, #6 and #7 plastics in your home! Get in the habit of checking all plastics for the little triangle on the bottom of containers before you use it or buy it. Remove food from carry-out containers as soon as you get home. Use glass containers as much as possible.

Blessings,
Heidi

1 - Packaging Materials: 1. PET for Food Packaging Applications. International Life Sciences Institute; 2000, Washington D.C., p. 11.

Welcome from Brenda

Hi Everyone!

This is so exciting – our very own blog! I never thought I’d be doing this in a million years. But, at least, now you don’t have to listen to me ranting and raving over these horrible-for-you processed foods and the FDA and food allergies and medication and. . . . Well, you can just read it all here and I promise not to say another word (unless you ask, of course!)

I love, love, love food but have found in the past years that certain foods do not love ME! And I’m not the only one. There are thousands of people walking around with food allergies or sensitivities but have no idea! I’ve also found out so many other things about food, nutrition, and our whole way of eating in America that I just need an outlet for all I’ve learned. Nutrition so fascinated me that I even decided to take a course and get certified as a Nutrition Specialist!

I think you will be surprised by the information that Heidi and I provide on this blog. I pray that God will use it to bless your lives and make you aware of possible dangers in your own home and also to make you aware of how you can make your body strong and healthy all on your own.

More posts to come soon – thanks for reading!

Hugs,
Brenda

Welcome from Heidi

Hello, dear friends!

I have invited you to sneak a peek at something I do with a passion - research! I am also very passionate about making myself and my family as "chemical free" as possible. And since I delve into this subject time and time again, coming up with all kinds of information, I really wanted to pass on some of what I am learning, hoping that you're passionate about keeping yourself and your kids safe as well. So hey, Brenda and I will do all the work, and you just come read our info from time to time, okay? I personally want to talk more about the "don'ts", what to avoid, point out what things we might never have known are carcinogens and toxins. We all have known someone, probably several people, who have been diagnosed with cancer. I'm out to fight it on the home front - get rid of things that may lead to cancer or other devastating illnesses. I can't speak with medical authority, but I can pass on what I'm learning, hoping to keep you and your loved ones as healthy as possible. Thanks for listening, and Brenda and I will let you know each time we have more to share. God bless!