The Green Beauty Guide: Your Essential Resource to Organic and Natural Skin Care, Hair Care, Makeup, and Fragrances (53 page)

So what should we do to keep our homes smelling like vanilla cookies if we aren’t in the mood to bake? Try green air fresheners. Look for nonaerosol canisters and words such as “biodegradable,” “plant-based,” “formulated without synthetic fragrance,” and “contains no formaldehyde/phthalates.” Green, nontoxic air freshener sprays are made by Seventh Generation, Miessence, and Rainforest Organic, while California Scents now makes organic gel fresheners that are practical and spill-proof. Of course, you can use an all-natural body deodorant (Weleda, for example) in citrus or wild rose scent and generously spray it around the house whenever you need to. Most natural nonaerosol air fresheners are quite concentrated, and a little squirt will last a long time.

You may also try some of Grandma’s recipes. Put some whole cloves in a pan of water and simmer it on the stove. Another way to fill your home with a natural fragrance is to simmer four lemons cut into quarters or bake them in the oven for about forty-five minutes. The citric acid can also destroy airborne toxic particles. For bathroom odors, a simple lit match often does the trick.

Soy candles are fun and easy to make from loose soy wax chips and premade wicks using essential oils such as lavender, vanilla, and lemon. (These are also safe to use if you’re pregnant.) If you are not in the DIY mood, try a lush candle by the Organic Pharmacy, Diptyque, or an ultra-luxurious candle with essential oils by Costes. For the baby’s room, try a candle by California Baby with scents of lavender, lemon, or orange— these scents quickly eliminate a soiled diaper odor.

Potpourri is another good replacement for toxic air fresheners. Browse your local thrift stores or take a walk at an antique market and pick up a lovely “shabby chic” shallow and wide china or crystal vase. Fill it with dried rose petals, pinecones, or lavender florets.Add five to six drops of an essential oil blend of your choice and place the vase in your bathroom or kitchen. To create an uplifting aromatherapy potpourri, mix orange, lemon, and clove essential oils in equal proportions. For an air-purifying concoction, blend tea tree, eucalyptus, and lemon essential oils.

Now that you have learned how to prepare some of the world’s most exquisite fragrance blends, it’s highly unlikely you’ll ever choose conventional aerosol sprays to scent your home.

chapter
16

green
beaty
detox

w
ho doesn’t like shortcuts and magic fixes? We all do, even though most of the quick fixes don’t work in the long run. This three-day detox, however, is different from your usual fad diet. Instead of burning calories and fighting hunger pangs, you will be burning bad beauty habits and cleaning up your act—while losing a few pounds and a handful of zits in the process! The ultimate three-day green makeover, the Green Beauty Detox, will help you start your skin-friendly and ecoconscious living from a clean page.

Is Your Food Making You Old?

The connection between our skin’s health and the toxic burden in our bodies is so important I cannot help but stress it again: the more toxins we accumulate in our system, the faster our skin ages. No matter how many antiwrinkle serums you rub into your face, your body is crippling under the weight of the industrial toxins that have entered our food, air, and personal care products in the last fifty years—and it is these toxins, not the sun or gravity, that are aging our skin. Let’s take a look at how this happens.

You buy a lean chicken breast and plan to prepare a healthy low-fat chicken Caesar salad. As you eat it, you ingest the hormone-laden chicken that was fed with antibiotics and drugs to help it gain weight unnaturally fast. If you decide to barbecue the chicken, keep in mind that carcinogenic compounds form in char-grilled meats. Your hormones are further disrupted by pesticides and chemical fertilizers found in lettuce leaves. Your “healthy” dessert of strawberries comes with a spoonful of pesticides and fertilizers, and the mercury-laden fish you ate earlier adds to a lifetime load of toxic metals accumulated in the bones and fat tissue. All of these toxins come from homemade, “wholesome” food. What about salads prepared at a fast-food counter? The average person in North America each year consumes up to 12 pounds of food additives and 1 gallon of pesticides and herbicides sprayed on fruit, vegetables, and animal feed.

Add the synthetic chemicals creeping into our bodies from household cleaning products, cigarette smoke, hair dyes, cosmetics and antiperspirants, chlorinated water, office supplies, and beauty and personal care products—and the picture starts to look frightening, to say the least. Traces of Agent Orange and other pesticides, petroleum-based fertilizers, preservatives, antibiotics, mercury, lead, heavy metals, and paraffin are found in everybody, no matter what their age, location, or occupation. This body burden causes a host of diseases—and most visibly, it makes us age at a faster rate.

Environmental toxins speed up premature aging by mimicking estrogen hormones in our bodies. The feed that nonorganic farmers give to their cows, chickens, pigs, and lambs is loaded with hormones that make animals gain weight at an incredibly high rate, unseen in nature. When we eat meat and dairy products from these farms, we consume these hormones, too. Even if you are vegetarian, you are still eating your load of estrogen-mimicking chemicals. Pesticides used to protect crops from bugs or fungus and fertilizers that speed up crop growth have an estrogenic effect on humans.

Xenoestrogens, or man-made, artificial hormones, are different from natural estrogens present in plants and human bodies. Xenoestrogens were introduced into the environment only seventy years ago, and they have a cumulative effect on the human body. First of all, they damage the reproductive system, causing problems with fertility in women and low sperm count in men. Xenoestrogens are directly linked to hormone-induced cancers, most importantly to breast cancer. While estrogen regulates such vital female processes as menstruation, pregnancy, and menopause, excess estrogen overstimulates cell growth in breasts, uteruses, or ovaries. Symptoms of excess estrogen include hair loss, allergies, thyroid dysfunction, cysts in breasts and ovaries, irregular periods, and premenstrual syndrome.

Here is the list of most common sources of xenoestrogens entering our bodies on a daily basis:

Cosmetics:
paraben preservatives, butylated hydroxyanisole, aluminum

Makeup:
FD&C Red No. 3 (erythrosine), phenosulfothiazine

Sunscreen lotions:
4-methylbenzylidene camphor

Plastics:
bisphenol-A

Insecticides:
atrazine, dieldrin, DDT, endosulfan, heptachlor, lindane, nonylphenol

Furniture:
polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), plasticizer for PVC

Water:
chlorine

When synthetic chemicals enter our body, they face an encounter with the liver, our living filter that destroys toxins and releases the leftovers into the bloodstream. Many synthetic chemicals, including xenoestrogens, petrochemicals, nitrates from processed meats, secondhand smoke, antibiotics, and alcohol, disrupt the vital processes in the liver. Toxins slow up bile production, making it thick and viscous. As we keep the liver busy by throwing more toxins in its direction, it becomes sluggish and overtired. It begins to convert toxins into other toxic compounds that create free radicals, causing damage to cells in various body parts, including the skin, which is prone to free radical damage and irritation. Tired livers and thick bile cannot break down food properly, which results in a clogged, toxic colon—meaning more acne outbreaks, allergic dermatitis, and wrinkles on our faces.

When synthetic chemicals enter our body, they face an encounter with the liver, our living filter that destroys toxins and releases the leftovers into the bloodstream.

Eating Organic for Healthy Skin

Now that you understand what the lifetime of toxic living has done to your skin and overall health, you are no doubt feeling a bit overwhelmed. The bad news: your health has already been damaged. The good news is that you can still do much to improve the situation. By following the guidelines of the Green Beauty Detox, you will help your body eliminate the toxic load accumulated for decades and defend against future attacks.

Start with food.
Conventional produce is often contaminated with chemical fertilizers, pesticides, sewage sludge residue, polluted underground water, lead from cans, phthalates from plastic lids and containers, and aluminum from foil and packaging. Fish is often polluted with mercury, while imported fruits and vegetables may carry a load of DDT (banned in the United States, but still used in many countries) and airplane fuel emissions from being flown across the globe. You can even find radioactive materials in some foods, since radioactive municipal and medical waste make a cheap commercial fertilizer. The use of municipal sewage sludge is not regulated in the United States, meaning that industrial refuse ends up in livestock and on our plates.

Go organic.
What’s the point of avoiding chemical toxins in your cosmetics if you load your plate with pesticides, herbicides, artificial sweeteners, antibiotics, petrochemicals, and preservatives? Nothing will save your skin and hair if you continue eating conventionally produced food. Fortunately, organic produce is easy to find, and you can replace every single food item in your menu with organic versions. Organic foods taste better and contain more nutrients. Organic farming considers the health of the planet by preserving soil and waterways. Yes, organic produce can cost 5 to 20 percent more than conventionally farmed food. Consider these extra costs as monthly payments for the most effective health insurance you’ll ever find.

Foods That Cure Your Skin

Here are the foods that form the foundation of Green Beauty Detox eating. If possible, everything you eat should be organic or locally grown by responsible farmers. Many grocery stores are now stocking organic produce and other food items, so look for these sections when you’re shopping.

Protein

Protein is vital for your skin, nails, and hair. Without an adequate supply of protein, your skin ages prematurely and loses collagen and elastin, becoming dull and pale, while facial muscles lose strength, and hair and nails weaken.

During the Green Beauty Detox, you should avoid all kinds of animal proteins. This includes meat, poultry, fish, whey, and dairy. In his groundbreaking book
The China Study,
Dr. Colin Campbell found that a typical Western diet, high in fat and animal protein, resulted in increased levels of estrogen hormones that play a role in breast cancer and premature aging. “Women who consume a diet rich in animal-based foods . . . reach puberty earlier and menopause later, thus extending their reproductive lives,” writes Dr. Campbell. “They also have higher levels of female hormones throughout their life span.” According to
The China Study,
a lifetime’s exposure to estrogen among Western women is three times higher than in Chinese women. Other studies consistently prove the destructive role of animal fats and protein in the hormonal balance. Recent studies show that animal fat can also boost the risk for breast cancer (Wu et al. 1999) and endometrial cancer (Bandera et al. 2007). Animal protein appears to boost estrogen levels no matter where it comes from.

So what should you eat instead? I am not asking you to go vegan, since strict elimination diets have never worked for everyone. Instead, let plant-based foods take the center stage—or the center of your plate. Let meat and dairy play supporting roles while you indulge in fruits, vegetables, mushrooms, beans and peas, nuts, and seeds. Plant foods have more antioxidants, minerals, and vitamins than animal foods, and plant proteins, cholesterol, and fats are healthier than those of animal origin, especially if they are grown in organic soil. Experimental studies on laboratory animals show that diets with reduced calories, fat, and protein can even prevent breast, prostate, and possibly other types of cancer (Hede et al. 2008).

Eat smaller amounts of plant protein throughout the day. That way, your energy levels remain stable, and you can avoid late afternoon fatigue. Eat plant protein, such as rice, tofu, soy milk, nuts, and seeds for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Of course, three days of vegetarian eating will not lower your estrogen levels, but you will hopefully develop a taste for plant-based foods and understand that eating vegetarian is not as hard as it seems.