Why Purity is a Higher Standard Than Organics
Good. Better. Best. When I worked as a graphic artist for a window treatment company we had three grades for our products. The discount and big box stores bought and sold "good", department stores offered better. But the premium stores and design houses offered the BEST.
In this article I thought I should digress from the clean food topic for a bit, and bring up another subject that affects our health - skincare products. As I have discussed in my cancer prevention workshops, when it comes to toxic food - thankfully our bodies have a liver to filter the toxins...but when it comes to what we put on the largest organ of our body, our skin, there is no filter. Everything we put on our skin is absorbed into our system, and per the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) reaches our bloodstream and organs in 26 seconds. So why should we be concerned about our lotions and shampoos?
Toxins in - does not necessarily mean toxins out (unless you are on some sort of regular detox program). Toxins are warehoused inside our bodies… our fat cells are little storage compartments for toxins. A little toxin a day multiplied by 365 days a year multiplied by..... get the picture? It creates a hormone imbalance, and interrupts our miraculously designed endocrine system. Consider that for a moment...and then - be on guard. Just because a label states "all natural" or "organic" does not mean it is toxin free.
The truth of the matter is is that organic farmers have a hard time keeping their plant foods and herbs pure…and it is more challenging in some parts of the world more so than others. I learned a while back from my chiropractor, Dr. Joe Teff, who is a nationally acclaimed and respected nutritionist, that the fall out of radiation from Japan nuclear disaster has affected organic food crops. Where, you might ask? Well, California, Hawaii – the entire west coast of the U.S. A friend tells me the fall out has reached much further north, expanding its toxic air flow and waters even to Iceland (you can monitor. Per Teff, to help the organic farmers of California, the state simply raised the allowance of radiation in order to label a product organic.
If you would like to be your own personal watchdog on this topic - check out www.enviroreporter.com or www.compassnaturalmarketing.com and look for the effects of the Fukushima disaster. Another site for monitoring is ecowatch.com
The Japanese disaster has affected much more than I could ever have imagined, and this is why PURITY beats organic any day when it comes to choosing skin care products.
Many people are “hung up” on organic labeling, but fail to understand what this truly stands for. Organic does not mean that a food or a plant is free of trace metals, radiation residuals, and all those other “nasties”. What organic assures you of is that the product/food has a whole lot less than the non-organics, and has to be under a predetermined number (usually measured in PPM –parts per million, or PPB –parts per billion), as established by governing bodies, for each type of toxin or trace metal. Organic does not in way address the issue of glutamate presence, which per neurosurgeon and well known holistic health writer/cancer prevention educator – an excitoxin that should be avoided. It is important to note that organic soy contains glutamate, as it is absorbed from the ground and the DNA of the soybean plant has many glutamate receptors (aka an uptake system).
A key emphasis I want to make in this article is the ORGANIC labeling of skin care. Unless you are growing it yourself indoors in an environment that contains organic, purified soil, air filtering system, filtered water (preferably ionized) – one really cannot in any way create PURE products. Extraction equipment used to remove residual trace metals, as an example, costs many thousands of dollars. Most small-time DIY skin care product manufacturers cannot afford such equipment.
It is my personal choice to have a higher standard – and I choose PURITY over organic. For my own family, when we choose skin care we first look for the European Union seal of approval. The European cosmetic industry has standards that far exceed any skin care products made here in the U.S. Having said that - watch out for foreign sounding names on your product labels. They may sound French, Swiss, or whatever, but are actually formulated here in the U.S. As an example, I remember a friend telling me her mother uses this high end French sounding product from a fancy department store...and when I researched the ingredient labels the product contained petrolatum (a derivative of crude oil) and parabens. It turns out the product line is simply a more expensive off shoot of the Big L in cosmetics.
Know the company from whom you purchase products. What is their ingredient policy? Are raw materials tested for purity on a regular batch-tested basis? Are products third party tested?
Labeling is what labeling does - MARKET.
I think about the irony of products who wash their labels PINK in October to support the Komen foundation...when the products themselves have cancer causing ingredients. I encourage everyone to be a WISE consumer and do your research.
Beware of hidden agendas! Learn more about EWG - the Environmental Working Group and why they may not be your best source for information.
Check out the web sites I provided and become a SMART consumer about the truth of the nuclear disaster. Mainstream's media coverage, or lack of it, is rather disturbing. How would you like to apply a skin lotion made with organic ingredients that contain radiation? Think about that...
European standards, specifically the European Union Cosmetics Directive and the European chemicals agency known as REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals) are two watch dog agencies that I trust more than any U.S. resource. Therefore, the products we use in our family, adhere to these European standards - and I feel very good about the safe approach to skin care that my family is using.
Before switching to the brand I now use, I pummeled the research and development department with questions about ingredients and methods used to assure purity, as I have always been and forever will be, a skeptic - doing my own investigations where claims are given. I also utilized the information and news, for my nutrition research, of Dr. Russell Blaylock to determine product safety) that turned my health around and was the catalyst to my launch into Purely Living Wellness as a business. Talk about a transformation in my life journey!
Many of my readers may be familiar with Safe Cosmetics.org - and I will wrap this article up with a link to their article which points out the level of excellence that is established by the European cosmetics directive.
May you make wise decisions not only in your food choices, but in your skin care as well! Remember, you are what you absorb!
May you feel great, look great and live great,
Rita S.
Feel free to contact me if you have further questions on the subject of purity or would like to learn more about the products we value and trust.
Article originally written in 2013; Revised with updated links 9/6/2015
Sources: "Toxic Beauty" authored by Dr. Samuel Epstein, Cancer Research Foundation
"Excitotoxins, The Taste that Kills" by Russell Blaylock, MD
In this article I thought I should digress from the clean food topic for a bit, and bring up another subject that affects our health - skincare products. As I have discussed in my cancer prevention workshops, when it comes to toxic food - thankfully our bodies have a liver to filter the toxins...but when it comes to what we put on the largest organ of our body, our skin, there is no filter. Everything we put on our skin is absorbed into our system, and per the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) reaches our bloodstream and organs in 26 seconds. So why should we be concerned about our lotions and shampoos?
Toxins in - does not necessarily mean toxins out (unless you are on some sort of regular detox program). Toxins are warehoused inside our bodies… our fat cells are little storage compartments for toxins. A little toxin a day multiplied by 365 days a year multiplied by..... get the picture? It creates a hormone imbalance, and interrupts our miraculously designed endocrine system. Consider that for a moment...and then - be on guard. Just because a label states "all natural" or "organic" does not mean it is toxin free.
The truth of the matter is is that organic farmers have a hard time keeping their plant foods and herbs pure…and it is more challenging in some parts of the world more so than others. I learned a while back from my chiropractor, Dr. Joe Teff, who is a nationally acclaimed and respected nutritionist, that the fall out of radiation from Japan nuclear disaster has affected organic food crops. Where, you might ask? Well, California, Hawaii – the entire west coast of the U.S. A friend tells me the fall out has reached much further north, expanding its toxic air flow and waters even to Iceland (you can monitor. Per Teff, to help the organic farmers of California, the state simply raised the allowance of radiation in order to label a product organic.
If you would like to be your own personal watchdog on this topic - check out www.enviroreporter.com or www.compassnaturalmarketing.com and look for the effects of the Fukushima disaster. Another site for monitoring is ecowatch.com
The Japanese disaster has affected much more than I could ever have imagined, and this is why PURITY beats organic any day when it comes to choosing skin care products.
Many people are “hung up” on organic labeling, but fail to understand what this truly stands for. Organic does not mean that a food or a plant is free of trace metals, radiation residuals, and all those other “nasties”. What organic assures you of is that the product/food has a whole lot less than the non-organics, and has to be under a predetermined number (usually measured in PPM –parts per million, or PPB –parts per billion), as established by governing bodies, for each type of toxin or trace metal. Organic does not in way address the issue of glutamate presence, which per neurosurgeon and well known holistic health writer/cancer prevention educator – an excitoxin that should be avoided. It is important to note that organic soy contains glutamate, as it is absorbed from the ground and the DNA of the soybean plant has many glutamate receptors (aka an uptake system).
A key emphasis I want to make in this article is the ORGANIC labeling of skin care. Unless you are growing it yourself indoors in an environment that contains organic, purified soil, air filtering system, filtered water (preferably ionized) – one really cannot in any way create PURE products. Extraction equipment used to remove residual trace metals, as an example, costs many thousands of dollars. Most small-time DIY skin care product manufacturers cannot afford such equipment.
It is my personal choice to have a higher standard – and I choose PURITY over organic. For my own family, when we choose skin care we first look for the European Union seal of approval. The European cosmetic industry has standards that far exceed any skin care products made here in the U.S. Having said that - watch out for foreign sounding names on your product labels. They may sound French, Swiss, or whatever, but are actually formulated here in the U.S. As an example, I remember a friend telling me her mother uses this high end French sounding product from a fancy department store...and when I researched the ingredient labels the product contained petrolatum (a derivative of crude oil) and parabens. It turns out the product line is simply a more expensive off shoot of the Big L in cosmetics.
Know the company from whom you purchase products. What is their ingredient policy? Are raw materials tested for purity on a regular batch-tested basis? Are products third party tested?
Labeling is what labeling does - MARKET.
I think about the irony of products who wash their labels PINK in October to support the Komen foundation...when the products themselves have cancer causing ingredients. I encourage everyone to be a WISE consumer and do your research.
Beware of hidden agendas! Learn more about EWG - the Environmental Working Group and why they may not be your best source for information.
Check out the web sites I provided and become a SMART consumer about the truth of the nuclear disaster. Mainstream's media coverage, or lack of it, is rather disturbing. How would you like to apply a skin lotion made with organic ingredients that contain radiation? Think about that...
European standards, specifically the European Union Cosmetics Directive and the European chemicals agency known as REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals) are two watch dog agencies that I trust more than any U.S. resource. Therefore, the products we use in our family, adhere to these European standards - and I feel very good about the safe approach to skin care that my family is using.
Before switching to the brand I now use, I pummeled the research and development department with questions about ingredients and methods used to assure purity, as I have always been and forever will be, a skeptic - doing my own investigations where claims are given. I also utilized the information and news, for my nutrition research, of Dr. Russell Blaylock to determine product safety) that turned my health around and was the catalyst to my launch into Purely Living Wellness as a business. Talk about a transformation in my life journey!
Many of my readers may be familiar with Safe Cosmetics.org - and I will wrap this article up with a link to their article which points out the level of excellence that is established by the European cosmetics directive.
May you make wise decisions not only in your food choices, but in your skin care as well! Remember, you are what you absorb!
May you feel great, look great and live great,
Rita S.
Feel free to contact me if you have further questions on the subject of purity or would like to learn more about the products we value and trust.
Article originally written in 2013; Revised with updated links 9/6/2015
Sources: "Toxic Beauty" authored by Dr. Samuel Epstein, Cancer Research Foundation
"Excitotoxins, The Taste that Kills" by Russell Blaylock, MD