A Healthy Home Detox

Last week I shared how important the home environment is to your physical and mental health, you can read that here if you missed it!

While natural light and a decluttered space are important, the number of toxins and chemicals in your home environment can truly have an even bigger impact on your overall health and wellness.

Do you live in a toxic home?

Now before we dive in, I want to remind you that transitioning your home environment doesn’t happen overnight. This is an opportunity to learn and grow, gain awareness, and make changes when you can!

Common sources of toxins in your home can be found in your cookware, cleaning products, candles, processed foods, and water.

We can become exposed to more chemicals in our home than in our outside environment. Of course, it's impossible to eliminate all toxin sources, but it's important to improve where you can and support the body’s detox pathways.

Below I break down the familiar toxic sources and a few swaps that you can incorporate into your home and lifestyle.

Cookware:

pots and pans that have non-stick features typically have a component called Teflon. This contains toxic chemicals called PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) or PTFE (Polytetrafluoroethylene), which can create toxic fumes when heated. The problem with a lot of these toxins is that they stay in the body for long periods.

Green Pan

The best healthy, ceramic non-stick pan

Cookware swaps:

I recently switched my cookware to the Green Pan brand, but other non-toxic brands are Caraway, Stainless steel, or Castiron. I am happy with my choice of Green Pan, they’re ceramic and at a good price point if you’re not quite ready to invest in Stainless Steel or Cast iron

Cleaning products:

Toxic chemicals are a given in generic cleaning products. Just like food, you should be reading the product labels and avoid anything with a danger, hazard, or poison label along with ingredients like ammonia, DEA, APEs, and TEA. It’s also important to not allow companies to greenwash you! Greenwashing means they use vague terms like “natural” or “ecologically friendly”, the problem is they can put this on the label even if it isn’t exactly true.

Cleaning product swaps:

Try to look and opt for short ingredient lists (five or less) that contain plant-based ingredients! The best choices are ones with terms that state solvent and phosphate-free. I clean with doTERRA home cleaning products as well as make my own!! Baking soda, lemon, vinegar, and cornstarch are pantry staples that double as cleaning products. Combine with essential oils and you may never need to use a chemical cleaner again. I’ve also heard great reviews about Branch Basics if you’re not looking to make your own!

Furniture and textiles:

Yes, I know, isn’t it extremely frustrating that we are unknowingly exposed to chemicals through our mattresses, couches, and carpets?! This one is a bit harder to swap, but it's great to be aware of when you’re in the market for purchasing something new! Often mattress manufacturers add flame retardants to comply with fire regulations; these are known to cause poor brain development as well as learning, behavior, and memory problems in children. Carpets also contain their chemical cocktail from stain resistance treatments to antistatic agents, they’re all toxic.

Furniture and textile swaps:

When finding a healthy alternative, be a conscious consumer! Choose companies that make their products from natural materials like untreated cotton or wool. Ensure that they’re free of synthetic materials like foam, glue, and moth-proofing chemicals.

Water:

Recently, the USA today released an article stating that the EPA (environmental protection agency) has announced that our tap water is no longer safe to consume due to the forever chemicals within the water called PFAS. These chemicals have been linked to different types of cancer, low birth weights, and thyroid disease, along with other health ailments.

Water swaps:

Drinking filtered water is more important than ever! Instead of drinking tap water, find a filtration system that works for you and your budget. I love the Berkey counter-filtration system, AquaTru, or even entire home systems from Radiant Life. If you decide to drink reverse osmosis water, it is important to remember to add back the necessary minerals that it strips!

Keeping your air clean is also something to be aware of when we are talking about toxins in the home. It’s important to remember that you could be contributing to poor air quality by burning toxic candles, not allowing outside air flow, cooking with toxic cookware, spraying chemical air fresheners, or using toxic wall plug-ins. There can also be hidden mold or old paint that is contributing to respiratory problems and poor air quality.

I recommend getting an air purifier (Air Doctor is a top brand), growing indoor house plants, opening windows and allowing fresh air to flow through rooms, opening blinds to allow sunshine to filter in, swapping toxic air freshening products with diffusers, and switching to soy-based candles.

The big deal about these toxic chemicals is that they disrupt your endocrine system. Think hormones, metabolism, energy levels, reproduction, growth and development, stress, and even mood!!

It’s so easy to turn away from this information and think, a little chemical exposure here and there is fine. But, in reality, it's more than a little, there are so many sources of chemicals that we are exposed to that a little bit, from multiple sources add up. We just went over some aspects of the home, but think about food, beauty products, and the environmental exposure on top of all that.

There was a period when I was resistant to making changes because it is uncomfortable and annoying! It’s okay to be angry that this is what we have to do to protect ourselves and our health. Get mad at the people running our country for allowing products to contain these chemicals. Get mad at the companies who are doing everything in their power to tell you they’re not harmful. Just don’t get mad at people that are trying to do better and promote better options. It takes time to adjust and as I said before, it doesn’t happen overnight or even over a year. Gain awareness and then move forward mindfully.

Let me know if you have any questions, always here to help!! If you’re ready to dive deeper into working on the different aspects within your life that impact your overall nutrition, set up a free consultation with me! You can learn more about my coaching program by clicking here.

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