How do we protect ourselves from toxins in our homes?
When we think of pollution, we only think of vehicles with smoke from their exhaust, factories with smoking chimneys, polluted water sources, felled trees and garbage lying in piles not far from living areas. Although these have huge implications, our health has even more insidious enemies. I prefer to call them the poisons in our house. My inspiration is the Toxic-Free House initiative, which aims to produce toxic-free versions of the products we use every day.
The soaps we wash our face with as soon as we get up in the morning, the fragrant laundry and dishwashing detergents, the skin cleaning lotions we use, moisturizers, sunscreens, make-up materials, all the plastics in our kitchen, some pots and pans, water cans, household molds, and most importantly, the vegetables, fruits, and whites we eat. and red meat sources, foods such as eggs… All but all of them can be poisonous as long as they are not natural ingredients.
First of all, I would like to talk about the harms of these toxins, which we are not even aware of, to health. The toxins we are exposed to invite many diseases. Chief among these is:
- Obesity
- Insulin resistance
- Diabetes
- polycystic ovary
- brain fog
- autoimmune diseases
- Hormone disorders
- Hashimoto
- chronic fatigue
- allergies
- Asthma
- Anxiety
- Depression
- dysbiosis
- cardiovascular diseases
- Cancer comes.
So, how to eliminate these toxins from our houses?
In fact, as always, it is easiest and most effective to start from the kitchen. Because unfortunately, we take all of the toxins in the kitchen directly into our body through the mouth. Pesticides used during the cultivation of vegetables and fruits invite many metabolic diseases, and also increase the risk of developing cancer because they disrupt the body’s defense mechanism. The step to avoid this is very simple: Consume organic and well-agricultural vegetables and fruits. Consuming pesticide-free organic products reduces the rate of pesticides in urine by 90% in just one week. Ecological markets are the address of the freshest of organic vegetables and fruits. You can find reliable food sources on the website poisonsizsofralar.org.
The same goes for white meat, red meat and eggs. Meat and eggs of animals that are grazed or fed with organic feeds, not medicated feeds, reduce the rate of toxins we take into our bodies, thus reducing the risk of disease.
The choice of materials for the tools we use in the kitchen also plays a major role in reducing the toxin load. Removing plastic containers, packages, dishes, food processor bowls, strainers, spatulas, cutlery, water bottles and cans from our kitchen and our lives as much as possible, which are in every aspect of our lives, will minimize exposure to chemicals such as BPA and polymers. Since it would not be a realistic recommendation to say never to use plastic products, I can suggest you choose metal, glass, wood, steel options if possible. BPA-free water drums, glass drinkers; Preferring white porcelain pots, steel strainers and kitchen utensils to stay away from chemicals in paints will prevent chemicals from being taken into your body.
Non-stick pans and pots are another source of toxins. All other non-stick type products, known as “Teflon”, which they covered, carried perfluoroalkyl chemicals (PFAS). In 2005, these chemicals ceased to be used due to their harm, but were replaced by another harmful chemical, perfluorotexanoic acid. In addition, direct contact of food with aluminum pots, pans, baking trays and aluminum foil can cause problems. Aluminum is a known neurotoxin, meaning it has harmful effects on the nervous system. It is also a toxin that creates oxidative stress and affects the mitochondria in particular. That’s why steel and cast-iron pots and pans are the healthiest options.
The next step is personal care products that we can never blame but that mix with the blood through the skin and cause us to be loaded with toxins. It is important to pay attention to the contents of moisturizing creams, eye shadow, foundation, eyeliner, blush, mascara, anti-aging creams, lipstick, shampoo, hair cream, perfume, sunscreens, anti-perspirant, nail polish and hair dye. Products that do not contain phthalates, parabens, formaldehyde, ethanolamine, sulfates (SLES, sodium laurethsulfate and other ingredients ending with -eth), retinylpalmitate, CocamideDEA or perfume on the label, especially sunscreens that do not contain oxybenzone, octinoxate, avobenzone, homosalate, retinylpalmitate should be preferred. If possible, products with at least 96% natural content should be purchased. Thus, we minimize the intake of toxins from our skin.
Likewise, it is necessary to avoid harmful chemicals in laundry and dishwashing detergents. In particular, you can use rock salt instead of dishwasher salt, white vinegar instead of rinse aid; As detergent, we can choose clean, organic options, and we can use white vinegar instead of softener. In this way, our risk of exposure to chemicals from our skin and through inhalation is reduced.
Finally, I will talk about the source of toxins, molds, which we do not notice and sometimes do not care about. Sometimes mold can form on the sides of the glass and sometimes on the bottom of the walls due to the humidity of the inside or outside, and breathing the mold not only damages the lungs directly, but also disrupts the entire metabolism. That’s why you should ventilate the house every day, check the windows and exterior walls at regular intervals, find the source when you encounter any mold and remove it, then spray it with white vinegar and wait, then clean it thoroughly with carbonated water. You should immediately throw away the food on which you notice mold, wash the containers they are in at high temperature, and if possible clean the cabinet in which the container is located, then ventilate the kitchen thoroughly. This way you avoid exposure to toxins.
In short, chemicals that affect our health negatively and invite many diseases are everywhere. Now that we know what toxic substances can be and learn how to avoid them, we are one step closer to healthy living. Let’s clean our house and body from poisons as much as possible. Let’s run to the kitchen and start replacing plastic storage containers with shiny glass containers, jars. It will come back. Because living healthy is as easy as removing poisons from our homes.
