The good news is that not all foods are similarly tainted by environmental poisons.  The table below lists those fruits and vegetables that, for whatever reason, seem to absorb or retain the greatest amount of toxins from sprays or from the soil.

Go completely organic if you can afford it.  We all know that organic produce can be pricier – up to 15% more.  But even if you don’t spend the money to fill your grocery basket entirely with organic items, you can focus your efforts.

If you’re on a tight budget (who isn’t?), then do what we do:  be more selective in what you buy from the organic bin.

Go Selectively Organic

If you include the following items in your diet of fruits and vegetables, and you should, make the effort to buy these items organic:

15 Most-contaminated fruits & vegetables

• Strawberries
• Bell peppers
• Spinach
• US Cherries
• Red raspberries
• Peaches
• Imported cantaloupe
• Celery
• Apples
• Pears
• Apricots
• Green beans
• Potatoes
• Imported grapes
• Cucumbers
• Also consider:  eggs, dairy products, and meats and, especially, baby foods.

Congratulations:

With just those items you have reduced your pesticide exposure by 90%.

Good for you.  Good for your kids.

Next Week: We’ll focus on eliminating toxic chemical cleaners from our lives.

Thanks for visiting, and see you here again next week when we complete this series on Better Living Through LESS Chemistry, with a post about how to rid your home (and office, and garage) of toxic cleaners.  I appreciate your comments and questions.  Keep ‘em coming.

Please, “be excellent to one another.”

If you are interested in these topics, please click here to subscribe to this blog (it’s FREE).  Be sure to type in your best email address (the one that you actually use).  You will then receive an email with a “confirmation link” – click on that link to get weekly updates from this blog in your email.

It’s free, it’s convenient, it’s an easy way to stay up-t0-date on information to keep you and your family healthy.

Stay Informed.

Stay Healthy.

Best of health and success to you and your families.

Until next time, remember … you can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose, but you can’t pick your friend’s nose (unless you’re a boogor doctor :~D)

Resources

First, I want to Credit Pinksherbet on Flickr for the image of the girl eating the apple: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinksherbet/3966506446/

and Farlane on Flickr for the great image of grapes: http://www.flickr.com/photos/farlane/127551550/

This is the 3rd in a 4-part series on this blog, Better Living Through LESS Chemistry.

The 1st:Better Living Through LESS Chemistry, and the 2nd: Better Living Through LESS Chemistry: Food and Water, on this blog.

http://www.healthcastle.com/organic_foods.shtml

It’s Embarrassing

Americans spend more money on bottled water than iPods or movie tickets!

Not that those are expenditures to be proud of.

It’s a WASTE

Americans churn through 2.5 Million plastic bottles EVERY HOUR of every day.  It is estimated that the amount of oil used to produce those bottles could fuel 1 Million cars for a year.  Doesn’t even include all those bottles from ‘soft drinks’.  What a waste.

For every liter of water that is put into a bottle, 3 liters are used: 1 in the botte, and 2 additional liters of water that are used to make the plastic bottle.  Then there is the amount of oil used to transport that water to where you and I can buy it.

What a waste.

And all for water that MOST bottling companies simply take from the tap, filter it, and bottle it.

It’s Deceptive

That’s right.  Those beautiful images of mountain glacier-fed streams on the bottle, and the natural-sounding names on the bottle – those have nothing to do with where the water came from.

That’s just marketing.

Nearly HALF of bottled water is simply filtered tap water!

Do it yourself and save the 2000 percent mark-up!

Wouldn’t it be more honest to show a beach covered with oil-soaked pelicans and plastic bottles washed up?

If that was the image that we connected with bottled water, how many of us would still be drinking bottled water?  It’s time that we all start making that connection, and stop drinking bottled water.

It’s Making a MESS of Our Environment

Most of these bottles are not even recycled.  We throw away 3.8 Billion water bottles every year.  Most of those end up in landfills.  Or on beaches all over the planet. That is an estimated $1 Billion of plastic.

What a waste.

In Our Food and Water

It’s Toxic

In addition to devastating our environment, those plastic bottles, and other plastics, contain volatile organic compounds (VOC’s).

Plastic Plastic Plastic

Bad for our environment.  Bad for us.  VOC’s and other toxins (PVC’s) in plastics contribute to allergies, asthma, various cancers, and birth defects.

Polyvinvyl chloride (PVC) is used for water bottles, and bottles for other things:

• salad dressing
• detergent
• cooking oil
• shampoo
• mouth wash, and other plastics like
• plastic wrap on meats
• baby’ teething rings
• baby pacifiers
• baby-bottle nipples, and
• toys

.

The toxins that are in these plastics come out into our food and water, including:

Toxic Bis-pheno-A Derivative

• lead
• cadmium
• mercury
• phthalates
• diethyl hexphosphate

ALL of these are either neuro-toxins, or carcinogens, or BOTH.

I know – this is depressing, discouraging.

But you CAN make a difference. Here’s How:

.

What To Do About It?

• Well to start with, stop drinking water from plastic bottles
• Use tap water
• Filter if you must (we do).  There are several great water filter systems, some pretty inexpensive, that will filter out most VOC’s and other toxins (check the boogor doctor’s Amazon Store on the right for filter systems)
• Don’t store your water in a plastic pitcher
• Use ceramic or glass
• And carry your water in an oh-so-cool stainless bottle.  There are many to choose from (check out the boogor doctor’s Amazon Store)
• Try to store food in glass or stainless containers
• And while we’re on the subject, for all the other liquid food items that come in plastic bottles, try to find them in glass bottles.  No BPA, VOC’s from those.

Check out stainless LunchBots for storing your kids’ lunches, instead of plastic. Yes, they’re pricey, but they last forever!

For carrying our water around, we like Klean Kanteen. (These links are for our Amazon Store; I am an affiliate). See link to “How to Pick a Safe Water Bottle” in Resources, below.

What do YOU use?

So what to do with all those plastic containers in your cupboards?

Do what we do with ours:

• Store crayons and art supplies in them
• Use them to mix paints
• Store screws and nails and other small hardware
• Parts in the garage, etc.
• Put them in recycle if you must discard them

Don’t simply dump them in the landfill.

You can still use them, just don’t store water or food in them.  The goal here is to minimize the amount of time that your food or water spends in plastics, not necessarily eliminate these containers entirely from your life (although that would be OK, too).

We filter our water.  Most of the best stand-alone filtration systems filter the water into a plastic pitcher.  We simply transfer into a ceramic or glass pitcher once filtered.  See my Amazon Store for some nice options.

Next Week:

We’ll focus on reducing the toxins in our food.

It’s easier than you think.

Thanks for visiting, and see you here again next week when we review other ways to minimize poisons in our food.  It’s easier than you think.

I appreciate your comments and questions.  Keep ‘em coming.  Please, “be excellent to one another.”

If you are interested in these topics, please click here to subscribe to this blog (it’s FREE).  Be sure to type in your best email address (the one that you actually use).  You will then receive an email with a “confirmation link” – click on that link to get weekly updates from this blog in your email.

It’s free, it’s convenient, it’s an easy way to stay up-t0-date on information to keep you and your family healthy.

Stay Informed. Stay Healthy.

Best of health and success to you and your families.

Until next time, remember … you can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose, but you can’t pick your friend’s nose (unless you’re a boogor doctor :~D)

.

Resources:

Credit image of bottles on shore: http://www.flickr.com/photos/horiavarlan/4290848934/

This is the 2nd of 4 in the series on this blog. The 1st: http://wp.me/pR4iB-cr

Stainless lunchboxes for your kids: http://www.lunchbots.com

Stainless water bottles: http://www.kleankanteen.com

Poisons in our plastics: http://bit.ly/99ikic Polyethylene terephthalate, high-density polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, low-density polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, and others. Great resource.

Wasteful, inefficient:

We churn through 2.5 Million plastic bottles every hour. http://bit.ly/9pBizz

http://bit.ly/axxVJY “Bluewashing” bottled water issue: requires 2 liters of water to produce that 1liter bottle!

Americans spend more $ on bottled water than iPods or movie tickets! http://bit.ly/1gE3fe

Deceptive water marketing:
“Pink Washing the Dangers of Bottled Water” – deceptive marketing. http://bit.ly/92GvM2 by Lisa Kaas Boyle, Plastic Pollution Coalition

http://plasticpollutioncoalition.org/2010/01/pink-washing-the-dangers-of-bottled-water/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-kaas-boyle/pink-washing-the-dangers_b_426077.html

How to pick a safe water bottle:

http://www.thegoodhuman.com/2008/03/17/choosing-a-safe-reusable-water-bottle/

Dangers of bottled water:

Toxins in plastics contribute to allergies, asthma, many studies including this one, 2004: http://bit.ly/cJogf7.

BPA may raise risk of asthma in children: http://bit.ly/9J52OH http://bit.ly/cFbRan

http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:http://www.ecosalon.com/17-surprising-sources-of-bpa-and-how-to-avoid-them/

http://www.naturalwellbeing.com/blog/2009/07/dangers-of-bottled-water.cfm

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_backlash_against_bottled_water

Scientific American article: Europe bans many chemicals manufactured in the U.S. http://bit.ly/9YwXSp

Environmental impact (Warning – disturbing images):

http://tinyurl.com/ygnzh67

http://bit.ly/czPsQH

http://bit.ly/bhdXdP

http://www.squidoo.com/pacific-garbage-patch

These chemicals have brought great convenience.  But at a great price.  These chemicals are in our environments.  They are in our bodies.  And they are here to stay.  Many of them are stable.  Like, forever.

Even chemicals that were banned in this country over 30 years ago are still in our environment.  They can still be found in our food, and in our bodies.  And some of them are horribly toxic.

An Example:  DDT

An example is the pesticide, DDT (and its metabolite, DDE).  They were banned in this country in 1972.  Yet, they are still both found in 100% of samples of raisins and spinach (both fresh and frozen), and many other foods in this country.  They can still be found in our bodies.

These two compounds, DDT and DDE, have many hazardous effects on humans, including:

• disruption of endocrine function (linked to diabetes, for example),
• developmental neurotoxicity (exposure of pregnant women results in retardation of the child’s development), and
• asthma, to name only a few.

VOC’s  (volatile organic compounds)

These and other toxic chemicals are all around us, every day.  They are in the cleaners that we use in our homes and at work every day.  And they are in our food.  They are in the plastics that we use, for everything.  They are ubiquitous.  They are everywhere.

The various volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) are used to make PVC pipes, other plastics, and chemical household cleaners. VOC’s come out of whatever plastic they are in – that’s what “volatile” means – they vaporize.

That means they are in the air around us.  They come out of our furniture, our wall-coverings, our clothing.  That “new car smell” or “new house smell” that we love so much?  That’s volatile organic compounds.

These VOC’s contribute to allergies, asthma, and altered immunity.  Many reliable medical studies have come to the same conclusions on these facts.  The link between VOC’s and asthma is clear.  In fact, comparing a child who has asthma with one who does not, it is possible to tell them apart simply by measuring the VOC toxins in their exhaled breath!

Cancer and diabetes and birth defects, Oh My

Let me say that again in case you missed it:  Children with asthma have much higher levels of these toxins in their bodies, a difference that can be measured in their breath.  Our children should not be the “canaries in our mine”.

Our children are particularly susceptible to toxins.  For an explanation, see my recent post, The Human Pollution Experiment.

In addition to allergies, rhinitis, asthma, and alterations in our immune systems, these toxins (in pesticides and plastics) have been linked to cancer, diabetes, and birth defects.  Through multiple scientific studies.  Performed by reputable institutions.

These studies have been performed at some of the best scientific and medical institutions in the world.  They cannot be ignored, or dismissed as the product of an “alternative lunatic fringe”.  I wish.  This threat is real, immediate, and significant.  As we further pollute our environment, the threat is worsening.

So what can we do about it?

The theme this month will be “better living through less chemistry.”

This is the introductory post, the first 1 of 4 series.

The next 3 posts in this series will detail what we can all do to reduce or eliminate these chemicals from our lives.  More importantly, how we can eliminate them from the lives of our children.

We will focus on our water, our food, and the cleaners that we use.  These will be practical tips, not theoretical.  I think you’ll find them useful.  I have.

If you are interested in these topics, please click here to subscribe to this blog (it’s FREE).  Be sure to type in your best email address (the one that you actually use).  You will then receive an email with a “confirmation link” – click on that link to get weekly updates from this blog in your email.

It’s free, it’s convenient, it’s an easy way to stay up-t0-date on information to keep you and your family healthy.  You can un-subscribe at any time.

Stay Informed.

Stay Healthy.

Thanks for visiting, and see you here again.  I appreciate your comments and questions.  Keep ‘em coming.  Please, “be excellent to one another.”

Best of health and success to you and your families.

Until next time, remember … you can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose, but you can’t pick your friend’s nose (unless you’re a boogor doctor :~D)

Resources:

For the story of Rachel Carson’s epic struggle to raise awareness of the environmental dangers of DDT and other toxins, see her book, Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson, released in 1962. (This is an affiliate link).

This blog: Stop Breathing: Your Air is Killing You (and what to do about it).

Toxins in plastics contribute to allergies, asthma, many studies including this one, 2004: http://bit.ly/cJogf7.

Exhaled toxins in breath able to distinguish children with asthma from those without. Study reported 2009. Scary stuff: http://bit.ly/cazZbX

Crinnion WJ. Environmental Medicine, Part 1: The Human Burden of Environmental Toxins and Their Common Health Effects. Alternative Medicine Review. Vol. 5: pg 52-63; 2000: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10696119.

http://www.greenbang.com/better-living-through-chemistry-not-so-much_13826.html

If you have sinusitis, allergic rhinitis, or asthma (or your children do), and you smoke …. seriously?!  Really?  Stop, duh.  It’s not cool any more.

Stay away from tobacco and other smoke.  Even the smell of smoke that you can smell on other people – on their clothes, in their hair, on their furniture – is toxic.  Keep them away.

2.  Change your furnace filters, already.

Check them every month, especially if you have pets. Change them at least every 6 months.  No – they were not meant to be changed every 15 years like the oil in your car ;D

3.  Run a HEPA-filtered vacuum at least every week.

More often if you have pets.  This will help minimize those dust bunnies.  It can also help minimize the dust mite or cockroach problem.

4.  Clean and detoxify your air with plants.

The 3 Plants recommended by Kamal Meattle (rhymes with Beattle):

• Areca Palm – the “living room plant”
• Mother-in-law’s Tongue – the “bedroom plant”
• Money Plant – the “specialist plant”

Watch Meattle’s TED talk (HIGHLY recommended):

http://greenspaces.in/blog/ted09/

Read Dr. Wolverton’s book, “How to Grow Fresh Air,”

available on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/How-Grow-Fresh-Air-Plants/dp/0140262431/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1266359650&sr=8-1-fkmr0

5.  Reduce mold in your home.

Every home has mold, but you can reduce it:

• Run the ventilation fan when you take a shower.
• Track down leaking faucets or condensation on pipes – look beneath your bathroom or kitchen sink.  Any stains beneath the pipes suggest a leak or dripping condensation.  Have it checked – that moisture is a potential source of mold.
• If you use a humidifier in your bedroom at night (a good idea), turn it off during the day.  Open the room up to air it out.
• You don’t need to use bleach to scrub away mold. Tea tree oil is a natural antifungal.  Add a teaspoon of the essential oil to a cup of water and apply solution with a brush.

6.  Get rid of as much plastic in your life as possible.

Sure, plastics have brought us convenience, but they have also brought us poisons.  The volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) from our furniture, wall coverings, PVC pipes, clothing, dishes, etc., all pollute our air, our water, our food. They are bad for us.  This means (these are mostly about your water, but still valuable):

• Stop drinking bottled water.  Every liter of bottled water requires 2 liters of water to produce the bottle and get the water into the bottle (that’s a whole separate rant!), and we use enough oil to fuel 1 Million cars per year in this country, just to make the bottles for our water (http://goo.gl/fb/qgYx ).  Worse, bottled water contains toxins (http://bit.ly/9pBizz and http://bit.ly/aq4A40 ).
• Use tap water.  Filter it if you must.  We do.
• Carry your water around in a cool stainless bottle.  I use one by Klean Kanteen (see my Amazon Store on right column of this blog).
• Store your leftovers in glass or stainless.
• Pack your kids’ lunches in stainless (http://lunchbots.com/ (not affiliate link).

7.  Get rid of all those toxic cleaners.

In your home, in your office, in your garage, in your car.

Natural cleaning alternatives include:

• Vinegar.  Mix 1:1 with water for natural all-purpose cleaner. Test on inconspicuous area first. Vinegar nicely cuts grease, removes mildew.  CAUTION: do NOT use on marble. AND: It may dissolve tile grout.
• Use straight vinegar for toilet cleaning.
• Use vinegar as a fabric softener: add 1/2 cup vinegar to rinse cycle in place of commercial softener.  Good for those with sensitive skin (and who doesn’t have that?).
• Lemon juice.  Excellent at dissolving soap scum and hard water deposits.
• Baking soda.  Sprinkle baking soda on cut half of lemon – use to scrub surfaces, stains, dishes.  Wow. Nice effect.
• Baking soda is great for cutting grease, getting wax or lipstick out of clothing – make a paste with a little water and gently rub before loading into washer.
• Use baking soda to clean a stuck drain instead of hard drain-openers: http://www.naturalhealthezine.com/how-to-fix-a-clogged-drain-with-baking-soda/

8.  Finally, take your shoes off.

It is said that 85% of dirt and toxins in the dust in our homes comes in on our shoes.  Leave your shoes at the door to prevent bringing the attached dirt, bacteria, and pollutants into your home.

See http://ow.ly/1dJbr for more.

Do a search on BPA or VOC to get a sense of how these toxins are contributing to your illnesses – from asthma, rhinitis, sinusitis, and immune disorders, to all-out cancer.  If you or your children have ANY chronic illness, chances are there is a scientific study that demonstrates a link to toxins in our plastics.

Any other tips that you use to reduce the pollutants in your home? Please share.

To download this post as a free PDF file, How to Clean Your Air, here on this blog: http://wp.me/PR4iB-s7

Thanks for visiting, thanks for listening.  Thanks to all the great online resources for this information.   We should consider ourselves fortunate that we don’t live in one of those cities where the outdoor air quality kills thousands of people every year.

If this blog is helpful for you, please click here to subscribe for free email updates (did I mention it’s FREE):

Simply type your best email address (the one you actually use) into the orange-outlined box at the upper right of the page, and click the subscribe button. When you receive the confirmation email, click on the link to give your okay to receive weekly email updates.

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Stay informed, stay healthy.

Best of health to you and your families.

Please, “be excellent to one another.”

Until next time, remember … you can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose, but you can’t pick your friend’s nose (unless you’re a boogor doctor ;~D)

Resources:

How to create a safe and healthy home environment for your child. http://bit.ly/4xa3zj

How to reduce exposure to indoor toxins. http://www.eartheasy.com/live_reducing_indoor_toxins.html

Most importantly, from the Allergy & Asthma Network, Mothers of Asthmatics, is the Indoor Air Repair Kit – an outstanding PDF resouce: http://www.aanma.org/publication/indoor-air-repair-kit/