by Rick Smith & Bruce Lourie with Sarah Dopp
2009
I have been on a quest these last months to modify my cooking and make use of healthier food items and substitutes.
I can’t say I’ve been overly successful.
I use sucanat, halved with white sugar.
I use whole wheat or spelt flour, halved with white flour.
I did use coconut oil full on, until my husband voiced that he’d been using canola oil all his adult life and was not about to stop now so, "Please buy canola oil!"
I lovingly complied.
I have, however, made the successful switch to butter.
As part of this odyssey I just read, “Slow Death by Rubber Duck”, by Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie. The subtitle gives a good indication of what this book is about:
“How the Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Life Affects our Health”
There you have it.
For 275 pages I read about how basically everything I use day in and day out is poisoning my body and the bodies of my husband and four children.
Not exactly uplifting.
My husband just shook his head as I tried to convince him that we need to change how we do life.
Ironically, this was exactly how he grew up - his parents were onto “chemicals” way before anyone else was.
They’re Europoean.
My good husband didn’t buy it then and he doesn’t buy it now.
Even if my husband isn’t standing on the sidelines cheering me on, I still found this book fascinating in a scary sort of way and I am really glad to have read it.
I now look forward to the awesome task of following it up with a lot of thinking, observation and change.
For instance, I didn’t realize that every time “fragrance” or “parfum” is listed as an ingredient it means that product contains phthalates, linked to a whole bunch of nasty health concerns.
As is triclosan contained in anti-bacterial products.
And PFOA (short for perfluorooctanoic acid) in Teflon.
Who knew.
I thought I was doing my kids a favour by buying them nicely smelling shampoo.
I thought I was doing our family a favour by buying anti-bac soap.
I thought I was doing myself a favour by cooking with a non-stick Teflon pan.
Apparently not!
The book finishes with a list of suggestions about how to put this incredible information into practice – in a practical and realistic sort of way.
After all, we’re surrounded each and every day and we can’t live in a bubble.
Some examples of what I am going to try to do:
· Limit the fragrances and “parfums” in our house. I did buy us all shampoo and conditioner at the local organic store – a little pricey, but not as expensive as many of the salon shampoos out there.
· Avoid air fresheners, which I generally do anyway.
· Check out the website http://www.healthytoys.org/ to see how healthy the toys in our household are.
· Avoid Teflon. I haven’t had a regular Teflon frying pan for awhile, but I do love my non-stick electric pan.
· Avoid fast food as a lot of packaging is coated with a relative of Teflon.
· Avoid flame-retardant material!
· Dust often as flame-resistant chemicals actually hang out with the dust bunnies in our houses. Not good news for babies and crawlers who exist on the floor.
· Eat smaller fish to avoid high mercury levels.
· Eat light (skipjack) tuna.
· Don't use products labelled “anti-bacterial”. For the last few years, I’ve tried really hard to only use my norwex cloths. Love them!
· Use natural cleaning products like vinegar, baking soda and borax.
· Avoid "nano" products like silver and zinc.
· Go chemical-free on the lawn. Take a screwdriver and dig those pesky dandelions out!
· With regards to plastic use: 4,5,1 and 2. Mind you, this book was written in 2009, has anything changed since then?
This list is truly long and sadly overwhelming. There are certainly a lot of things to avoid, but with any change, slow and steady is the game. Some changes will stick and others won't, but that's okay.
I do feel that trying to “detox” and limit all the nasty stuff entering our bodies is a worthy cause, however, after all, we were given our bodies to take care of.
I guess that also means I need to avoid excess chocolate...
