(This article is from another site, just passing this great info on to my readers!)
Chemical Free Living
What is chemical-free living?
Chemical-free living is the embracing of a lifestyle that omits chemicals from as many aspects of life as possible. Say goodbye to cleaning products and hello to vinegar, bicarbonate of soda and essential oils! Long gone are the snail pellets and pesticides, replaced by chilli and garlic spray and plants that don’t attract snails or bugs in the first place. Organic fruits and vegies abound! Organic cotton sheets are more expensive but somehow worth it. Soaps, shampoos and conditioners and body/lotions and potions made from chemicals are discarded in favour of plant-produced products. You get the idea...anything that you had in your house that was previously doused in chemicals is replaced with a chemical-free alternative. Pretty straightforward really, this chemical-free living biz.
Even for A Hippie Like Me That is A LOT of Effort...
You got it! It’s really not easy living a chemical-free existence, since pretty much everything you buy from supermarkets these days is chemical based. A browse through the shampoo aisle of any major chain will reveal that sodium laureth-sulphate is one of the main constituents of any hair product you pick up. Sad really, since it’s listed as a carcinogen and is absorbed very quickly by the skin. Makes you wonder why shampoo manufacturers put it in there to start with...ok it makes the shampoo all foamy but shame about the cancer factor right? Sheesh! And that’s just shampoo we’re talking about. Detergents, bleaches, pesticides and other chemical products found in most households are much, much nastier.
Actually, it’s almost impossible to live a chemical-free life, what with pollutants circling all over the shop and chemical strains being found in everything from carpet to cantaloupes. The more you make an effort to remove chemicals from your life though, the less work your sensitive organs have to do to pump the chemicals back out of your body. The more efficient your body is at getting rid of harmful toxins, the less likely you will have a toxic buildup in your body, and therefore the less susceptable you are to disease, cancer, a whole host of ailments! Makes sense doesn’t it.
Another reason for changing to a chemical-free way of living is that although you may not be able to smell the difference between lemon-scented dishwashing liquid and freshly squeezed lemon juice, your nose is much more than its ability to detect smells. It is a receptor for chemical signals, and it sends these to the brain the instant it picks anything up (think about the pheremones released by someone you are attracted to; you can’t smell them, but you sure do feel the effects of them....reooow tiger!). In the case of natural smells and natural products, the nose receives the chemical signals emitted by these products, decides they’re organic and thus compatible with our genetic make-up, and accepts them willingly. In the case of chemical scents and products, however (think perfume, bleach, detergent), the chemical signals sent to the nose, no matter how nice these products might smell to you, is not a healthy one. Our bodies recoil from these chemical products in disgust...the chemical constituents in them have been synthetically created and are not organic, and therefore they do not match our genetic make-up. Our body rejects them on a base level, and continual use of these products eventually leads to toxic buildup, allergies and severe reactions.
Give Me Some Chemical-free Tips, Goodie Two Shoes!
An easy way to start your chemical-free quest is to buy organic fruits and vegies. Food is a major carrier of chemicals, and omitting this source of chemical build-up is relatively easy since it doesn’t require a major lifestyle change. All you have to do is buy organic. Sure it’s more expensive, but if you think that it’s probably buying you a few more years of quality life then the monetary cost becomes irrelevant.
Beauty products are the next step. Buy organic shampoo and conditioner brands like Alchemy and Natural Instint. Both of these haircare ranges are plant based, smell delicious and don’t cost much more than normal products. Invest in that beautiful smelling hippie soap that’s made of plant oils and is scented with essential oils next. Yes it costs four times more than normal soap but it’s pure luxury and you will smell edible. Another plus is that your body won’t reject it, so you won’t sweat foul smelling toxic sweat a few hours after using it. Now onto deodorant...get a crystal deodorant stick or a plant-oil deodorant, or even a clay deodorant. Just don’t spray that aluminium straight onto your sensitive lymph glands please! Did you know that if spray an insect with deodorant it dies just as quickly as if it was sprayed with flyspray? You get the point.
Once you’ve worked on yourself it’s time to work on your surroundings. No more bleach or harsh cleaning products. Vinegar and bicarbonate of soda will clean almost anything. Add lemon, orange and pine essential oils and you have yourself some strong yet friendly disinfectants to be used all over the house. For extra dirty pots squeeze half a lemon onto a few tablespoons of salt and get scrubbing. Chemicals begone!!!
