KV Organics

seeking restoration of sustainable life... personally, professionally, & spiritually

Week 1: Ingredients

Magnesium Stearate

by 2 Comments

This month, I’d like to look at vitamin supplements.  First, let me set the stage a bit.

I tend to include supplements in my discussion of ‘personal care products’ because although they are not external hygiene products, they are nonetheless thought of by millions as necessary for taking care of oneself.  And today, similar to the various hygiene products, they are often chock full of potentially problematic synthetic ingredients.

For decades, we have been told to take vitamin supplements.  This has been a valid recommendation in one sense, because of the declining nutritional quality of our food supply.  Whether we’re eating processed foods or whole foods grown in nutrient depleted soils (a dangerous consequence of ‘big ag’ farming techniques), it is a valid concern whether or not we’re getting the nutrition we need.  We have an abundance of ‘food’ in the US, but we are often starved for real nutrition.  Lots of calories, few nutrients.  So, we need to take vitamin supplements to boost our intake of nutrients.

Or so we’re told.

The problem is that most vitamin supplements contain isolated, synthetic nutrients that are mass produced to be inexpensive.  Or sometimes, they’re expensive but little or no better quality that the cheap stuff (huge profit margins for the companies – right.)

But vitamins and minerals were never created to work in isolation.  Some may seem to give benefits for a time, but over time, they often either stop working, or they may  actually produce harm.  Many of these pills are never even absorbed by the body – they just pass through the digestive system whole.  As it turns out, in some cases, maybe that’s for the best – except for the huge waste of money.

What’s problematic about synthetic vitamins is a huge topic, and I will readily confess that I am no expert on this and not even very good at explaining what I do know.  But, I’ve seen enough research to want to apply the precautionary principle yet again and just focus on food.  Clean, sustainably grown food.  Food, water, air, and sunshine is all we were created to need.  Any supplementation we do in our family, to cover gaps in our diet due to a lack of variety (we’re still learning and I have a couple picky eaters!), will be food.  Just food.  Period.  (I love the Miessence superfood products for that reason – they are just food, with a strong focus on variety, not hyping up some miracle ingredient.  Abundant variety of life is the real miracle.)

Watch out for ‘food-based’ or ‘whole-food based’ supplements.  They may be fine, but you really have to read labels and ask questions (yes, that’s sorta my motto).  Many food-based supplements still contain synthetic isolates, and those that come in pill form will usually have binding and filling ingredients.

One such ingredient of controversy is magnesium stearate.  Some say it’s bad.  Some say it’s fine.  Personally, I’m left then with the precautionary principle – just avoid it if there’s any doubt.  Instead, focus on healthy, nutrient-dense foods.

Check out the 5-minute video in this article from Dr. Mercola for a quick overview of the potential concerns.  You can then search his site for other articles on this topic.

Interestingly, one of the loudest rebuttals seems to focus on safety and benefits of stearic acid, not magnesium stearate – why is that?  What’s the difference?  I honestly don’t know.

Both sides are selling something.  So am I.  Nothing wrong with that – just decide what most aligns with your thinking.

For me, I go back to the precautionary principle and my general desire to get as close as possible to how God made things.  If we focus on food, we don’t even have to worry about it.  If stearic acid or magnesium stearate naturally occurs in a food, then personally, I feel I can trust that God also created the rest of that food to work in harmony with those compounds and with my body.  If these compounds are isolated, or synthetically produced and used with other isolated synthetics, then I’m not so sure about that.

Real food as much as possible – sourced in ways that honor God’s natural systems of provision for us.  Apply the precautionary principle – avoid the synthetics.  That’s where I end up amidst the controversy.  Let them duke it out.  I’ll just enjoy real food and be in awe of God’s provision for me.

 

(Another great resource…  Check out this webinar Narelle – formulator of the Miessence products – put together recently.  It’s about an hour, but the general information is very helpful, as well as the Miessence-specific info.)

Baby Wipes

by 2 Comments

Last week, we hit the store with three different school supply lists for the elder three kiddos, and it was a really strange feeling buying all the disposable paper goods.  It’s been a while.  The hardest one for me was the baby wipes.  I haven’t found a disposable wipe yet that I really like, which I guess is why we use cloth wipes as much as possible.

And before we go any further, this post isn’t just for people with babies.  Lots of people use baby wipes for all sorts of purposes.  But is there a really good disposable wipe out there that takes best possible care of people and planet?

A few months ago, at the request of a friend, I dug a little deeper into baby wipes, only to be left more compelled toward cloth than ever.  I had already known about many of the questionable ingredients in the solutions in which commercial wipes are soaked, but I had never realized that the wipe material itself is often made out of non-biodegradable polypropylene.  While this type of plastic can often be recycled in container forms, it can’t be recycled in its used wipe form – especially not if it’s smeared with baby poop.

Goodguide.com ranks Natracare and Seventh Generation as the top two options.  But I was surprised to see ‘parfum’ and some of the other synthetics in Natracare’s solution ingredients – it appears to be the cotton wipe that’s organic, not the solution.  The 7th generation wipe has a better solution, but the wipe is plastic.  Poking around online some more, Walmart has an organic cotton wipe, but the solution has propylene glycol, PEGs, formaldehyde-donating ingredients, etc.

Cloth wipes are SUPER easy.  We found the easiest option was to cut up a flannel receiving blanket (the kind you swaddle newborns in) into small squares.  And most of the time, we just use water to wet the wipes.  We only use a ‘potion’ when there is a touch of irritation (the Miessence baby bottom cleansing gel works really, really well.  Clears up irritations quickly and lasts a long time since a little goes a long way and we use it sparingly anyway).

We’ve gotten pretty used to taking our cloth wipes out with us on the go, but there are times when disposable wipes come in handy.  Has anyone out there found a disposable wipe that is both organic cotton / biodegradable and free of all the synthetic chemicals – either for personal use or to send in as an alternative for filling the school supply lists?

Tricksy Triclosan

by 4 Comments

OK, yes, I said ‘tricksy’ and, yes, I love The Lord of the Rings (my little tribute to Gollum).

Another silly tidbit about me:  Prior to beginning this post, I spent nearly 20 minutes debating whether or not to first recategorize all my old posts according to this revamp plan I’m following.  As laid-back and wingin-it as I have become with four kids, that detail-oriented, and uber-organized, pre-motherhood nature still likes to poke through now and again.  I decided I’d better silence that voice and get on with my ‘Week 1: Ingredients’ post for now.  Will sleep on the idea of bothering to recategorize at some point or not – let alone figuring out how!  🙂

I suppose it’s incorrect to somehow suggest that I’m not still detail-oriented.  That’s the part of me that digs into labels and researches to find the hidden impacts of the choices we make – on ourselves, our neighbors all over the world, and the planet on which we all depend together.  You might think that this is obsessive and unhealthy, but I actually find it quite freeing and exciting.  More on that in a couple weeks, when I touch on the ‘Deeper Whys’ of green living.

For this first week of August, in our official ‘new and improved’ (hee-hee) category around ingredients, let’s talk about Triclosan.  This is a very common ingredient in antibacterial hand soaps and wipes.  It’s also used in toothpastes, antiperspirants, and other non-personal care items such as clothing, bedding, and more.  It is an endocrine disruptor and a good example of an ingredient that is problematic both via its journey through our skin (it’s in clothing and bedding, too?!  sigh…) and down our drains.

As an endocrine disruptor – meaning it messes with our hormones – there are looming concerns over triclosan’s potential toxic and carcinogenic effects on people.  And it is highly toxic to marine life – aquatic systems on which I might remind you, in case you haven’t thought about grade school science for a long time (as I hadn’t until a little over a year ago), we are dependent.

Truth is, we don’t need all this antimicrobial stuff.  It may be weakening our immune systems and creating super bugs (which we then can’t defeat) all at the same time.  If you don’t want all the details, just know to read your labels and avoid Triclosan (and its cousin Triclocarban).  If you want more information, here are a handful of good resources.

Breast Cancer Fund on Triclosan
Dr. Mercola’s recent article on Triclosan’s damaging effects to people and planet.
Triclosan’s MSDS (material safety data sheet)

For natural alternatives and defenses, check out things like essential oils and probiotics.  In our home, we make our own hand sanitizer (2/3 aloe gel, 1/3 water, tea tree oil and an aromatic oil of choice – peppermint, eucalyptus, lemon, orange, whatever you prefer.  How many drops of oil depends on your container size).  Oregano oil is amazing for so many things. We really enjoy Miessence’s certified organic (entirely untouched by synthetic chemicals) foaming hand soap and its refill concentrate.  We also really like their dish soap, which is so effective, concentrated (a little goes a long way), and contains only one synthetic ingredient – the biodegradable, corn and coco based surfactant.  And of course, their probiotics (my kids prefer this one).

I’ve heard that somewhere around 80% of your immune system is in your gut.  If your gut is healthy and functioning well with friendly good bacteria being fed nutritious real foods, then you’ll be able to fight off the bad bugs you come in contact with here and there.

I used to be quite the germophobe.  Hand sanitizer, antibacterial soaps and wipes, the whole works.  While I’m still no big fan of slimy trash cans and less-than-clean public toilets, I feel so much more comfortable with the world around me – all the bad bugs included – now that I know how the immune system works, how to keep it healthy in my own body and the bodies of my kids, and natural germ fighting methods that aren’t toxic to our bodies or the waterways.  And I’d say, anecdotally and thankfully, we’ve been a lot healthier since making these changes.

Skip the Triclosan.  🙂

Replacing Parabens

by 11 Comments

Parabens have pretty much been black-listed in the public’s mind at this point.  But what are companies doing to get rid of them?  What alternatives have they chosen?  Have you noticed?  What do you see on your labels?

Some companies insist that paraben concerns are unproven, hype-based fears, and they continue to use this family of synthetic preservatives in their formulations.  Methyl, ethyl, propyl, and butyl paraben.

Some companies are removing parabens not for the sake of human health, but rather brand health.  The mounting evidence against these ingredients hasn’t convinced them – they just want their products to keep selling, and they know that parabens are a pox on their products that will lead to declining sales and brand death if not addressed.

Still other companies have carefully considered the growing research (see Breast Cancer Fund for a brief summary) and have responsibly chosen to remove parabens from their formulations.

But what are they doing differently instead of using parabens?  Are they finding ways to create quality, shelf-stable products without the use of synthetic preservatives?

Sadly, in most cases, the answer is no.  The vast majority of companies who have removed parabens from their formulations, and now proudly display “paraben free” in their marketing, have simply chosen to replace them with other synthetic preservatives.

Read your labels.  The most popular paraben replacement that I am seeing on labels these days is phenoxyethanol.  But check out the MSDS on this synthetic chemical preservative.

 

Do you see that?  Extremely hazardous to the eyes.  Very hazardous to the skin, lungs (when inhaled), and digestive system (when ingested).  Toxic to kidneys, nervous system, and liver.  And note the words “not available” next to carcinogenic, mutagenic, teratogenic, and developmental effects.  Do you know what that means?  It means that this data is not available.  The studies haven’t been done.  Like 89% of the 10,000+ synthetic chemicals used in the personal care industry, phenoxyethanol has not been fully evaluated for safety yet.  (For the full MSDS, click here).

To be fair, the MSDS is typically for the folks working with a chemical in large batches at a lab.  However, is not daily use, often multiple times a day, also “repeated and prolonged exposure” to an ingredient?  As they do with most synthetic chemicals, many formulators will claim that because phenoxyethanol is used in such small amounts in their products, it must be safe.  But that’s what they said for decades about parabens, too.  Is history going to repeat itself on this issue?

Nowadays we know better.  We know that chemicals can have cumulative effects in the body from minute daily exposures over time.  We also know that chemicals act on the body in different ways when combined with other chemicals.  Even if phenoxyethanol were proven completely safe in isolated studies, research would still need to be done on its combined effects with the other chemical ingredients in the products you use daily.  But a quick glance at the current MSDS already shows us that it’s a hazardous material.

I used to believe that synthetic preservatives were necessary for product stability.  And for years, it was a trade off I was willing to accept as a customer because naturally occurring molds and rancidity are certainly not safe for my family either.  Most truly natural options I had seen, including DIY (do it yourself), were prone to going funky halfway through the jar or bottle.  And if it were still the case today that there was really no way to have a shelf-stable, quality product without synthetic chemical preservatives, I’d probably say to myself, “Well, OK, if this is the best option, I guess I’m not going to obsess and worry about it.”

But the truth is, thanks to advances in ‘green’ chemistry, today there are options out there that are completely free of synthetic preservatives and still have a great shelf-life.  And there have been for years now, it is just taking time for this information to get out there and combat the chemical fairy we’ve been listening to and trusting for decades.  The educational and product development efforts of Miessence first opened my eyes to this fact, and a relative handful of other companies are now following their lead to move in this totally different direction, swimming upstream against the masses who are simply looking for a more socially-acceptable (because we don’t yet recognize the ingredient names), quick-fix, synthetic ingredient swap.

Instead of choosing products that have merely swapped one hazardous, synthetic ingredient for another, look for the brands that have gone above and beyond the use of synthetic chemical ingredients.  If other effective, truly natural choices now exist, the precautionary principle would ask, “Why risk it?”

 

Hormonal Make-up

by Leave a Comment

It may seem “hormonal” and paranoid to even suggest it, but did you know that the chemicals in your makeup and other personal care products could very well be affecting your hormones and consequently, your health?  Or the health of your daughters?

No, I’m not crazy, overly concerned, or making a mountain out of a molehill.  It’s true.  Puberty is starting earlier for girls than it did just a few decades ago.  Female cancers are on the rise.  All cancers are on the rise.  Did I recently hear that 1 in 3 adults today, statistically speaking, will get cancer in some form or another?  1 in 3?!  How can we not stop and look for the environmental causes behind these serious health issues?

There are many factors, perhaps the biggest one being the use of hormones in our meat and dairy supply; however, one cannot overlook the impact that personal care product chemicals play in this puzzle.  Many of the chemicals used in these everyday products are endocrine disruptors, and are having an impact on today’s teenagers, among other age groups (check out this ‘oldy but goody’ article).

The evidence is there – what can we do about it?  In our household, we have chosen to use certified organic personal care options that have been entirely untouched by synthetic chemicals.  (And drink raw milk sans the hormones and other nasties!)






Good Guide

by Leave a Comment

Taking a little break from my e-fast reflections…

Have been meaning to do a post on Good Guide for some time now.  What a helpful resource!  It’s also part of the reason I fell in love with Miessence.  Check out this article on Good Guide.  It begins:

“One sunny morning in 2004, Dara O’Rourke was putting sunscreen on his 2-year-old daughter’s face when he had a disturbing thought. As a professor of environmental policy at the University of California, Berkeley, he’d spent years studying the global supply chains for products like electronics and shoes. But he had no idea exactly what he was smearing on his daughter.

The thought spurred O’Rourke—who’d made headlines in 1997 for exposing problems with Nike’s labor practices—to action. Back in his lab at Berkeley, he found that the sunscreen—a top-selling brand—included a hormone-disrupting chemical, a suspected carcinogen activated by sunlight, and several skin irritants. “I’m a total nerd—I not only read ingredient lists but study factories in China, Vietnam, El Salvador,” he says. “Yet I still didn’t know what I was bringing into my house every day.”

Continue reading here.

Have you used Good Guide yet?  What have you found most helpful about it?
















Healthy Homes

by Leave a Comment

So sad to be missing the “Healthy Homes in Toxic Times” event tonight at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philly…  Had registered hoping to go, but knew fully well that it would be a last minute decision to really go or not…  As the day progressed, it became apparent that it would just be too much to try and schlep myself and a ravenous four-week-old nursling into Philly on a cold winter night.  However, I have instead spent a little time surfing the websites of the groups presenting at the forum.

Here is a summary of the event from the ANS website:  “In a large city like Philadelphia, pests, air pollution, and other sources of detrimental environmental exposures impact the quality of our daily lives. The methods we choose to control pests, the cleaning and personal care products we purchase and use, and how we care for our immediate home environment can have consequences on our health. As we navigate our weekly routines, we can all find ways to reduce harmful exposures and enhance the health of our home environments.”

If anyone doubts the toxic effects of everyday products and pollutants on our health, here are more voices calling out and asking you to consider the issue again – for the sake of your own health, the health of the planet on which we’re all dependent, and the health of future generations.  Your everyday choices really do make a difference.

Women’s Health & Environmental Network (WHEN)
Pennsylvania Integrated Pest Management
National Center for Healthy Housing

And an article on personal care products, quoting WHEN founder and Temple University professor, Julie Becker.




Cosmetic Cancer

by Leave a Comment

One of the simplest yet most profound quotes I’ve read regarding the ever-increasing cancer epidemic is from the introduction of Nancy Sleeth’s book, “Go Green, Save Green.”  Nancy quotes her husband, Dr. Matthew Sleeth: “It’s time to stop ‘running for the cure’ and start looking for the cause” (page xiv).

The Breast Cancer Fund is among a growing number of organizations rising up to bring greater attention to fighting the environmental causes of cancer, rather than focusing narrowly on the search for medical cures to be applied once the disease is found.  In reality, pharmaceutical and surgical ‘cures’ can only be temporary.  The real cures lie in finding and preventing the root causes of all cancers.  And the evidence is mounting every day to prove that the root causes are environmental factors such as toxic synthetic chemicals and the decreasing quality of food.

Below is a link to the Breast Cancer Fund’s page about choosing safe cosmetics.  I am not making this stuff up myself when calling attention to these issues.  And as you can see on their site, products that are certified organic to food grade standards are the purest of the pure.

To view the Breast Cancer Fund’s page on selecting safe cosmetics, please click here.

If you would like information on the general criteria I use to select the safest possible products for my family and the planet, based on all my research, please click here.

If you would like information on the products that I have personally chosen for my family  and now also happily represent, which are the world’s first to have been certified organic to food grade standards (2001), please click here.

Poisoned

by Leave a Comment

We don’t have TV in our house – life is just simpler in so many ways without one. But, when my mother-in-law stayed with us briefly a couple years ago due to some medical issues, she got us hooked on NCIS. My hubby and I still watch the new episodes each week – we just watch them the next day online.

This week’s victim, as it turns out, was slowly poisoned over the course of two weeks by a rival chemist. How? The dirty work was done by pumping a colorless, odorless, and highly toxic chemical directly into the water line leading to her shower. The victim’s daily cleansing routine, instead of helping maintain her health, was slowly killing her.

The plausibility of this episode is rooted in the fact that our skin absorbs a significant amount of what we put on it. And while it may seem a bit extreme to draw an analogy to this NCIS episode, because of what I’ve learned over the last 5+ years, the storyline did trigger the thought in my mind: “And how many people may actually be doing the same thing to themselves over the course of decades because of the personal care products they choose?”

In its “Healthy Home Tips for Parents,” the Environmental Working Group (EWG) actually lists “choose better body care products” as tip #1.  In a day and age where we cannot control so many of the toxic exposures we experience, it is worth considering the areas in which we can make safer, healthier choices – for our bodies and the planet.

– For the EWG “Healthy Home” tips document, click here.
– For more resources on why you may want to consider daily toxic exposures through your skin, see Part 1 of this free report.