I was born with allergies.  And not the more prevalent ones to things like dogs, peanuts, or pollens, but the hard to identify ones like chemicals in shampoo.  My mother had to use cloth diapers on me because I was allergic to disposables; she had to find gentle detergents because I was allergic to the mainstream options; she had to avoid most sunscreens because they gave me hives. In middle school when chocolate and coffee flavored lip balms were all the rage, I discovered that I couldn't use them unless I wanted my lips to look like Angelina Jolie's on steroids. Then in my early 20s when I was in college my allergies took on a life of their own! I now had common allergies (to pollen, thankfully not to peanuts or dogs, otherwise my diet would have suffered from a prevalence of jam sandwiches, and I would have needed a permanent box of tissues because I absulotely will never give up my bed-sharing relationship with oversized furry snugglers). The hard-to-identify-and-almost-unheard-of allergy list grew to include every drug store variety of lip balm I tried, scented lotions and soaps, perfumes and body sprays, deodorant and other personal hygiene products, artificial colors and favors, cleaning supplies, several medications, and I lose track of the rest! In short I was doomed to avoid common make-your-life-easier chemicals found in many young women's day-to-day lives.

What to do, what to do! It's nearly an emergency when a girl with chronically chapped lips is allergic to lip balm (and let's face it, Vaseline is no pleasant substitute). And don't even get me started on the problems facing a woman with a deodorant allergy in the summer heat of central California in a car without air conditioning! So I began learning about chemical free alternativs, and in the process I became much more environmentally aware. What began as a search for products that didn't upset my sensitive nervouse system led to a healthier, more responsible, informed consumer lifestyle. For example, did you know that FD&C Yellow #5 food coloring is made from coal tar, and may cause problems for people with asthma or aspirin sensitivity? Or that FD&C Red #3 contains a chemical that may be carcinogenic according to studies that caused thyroid tumors in rats. These studies probably used enormous quantities of dye much greater than we would actually ingest at once, but I'd still prefer Safron and concentrated beet juice for my yellow and red needs!

Now that I'm a mother, I think about the nutrients I pass to my daughter through breast milk and how they may be accompanied by toxins from the things I eat. We all know that a nursing woman shouldn't shoot whiskey, but she also shouldn't consume the hormones saturating conventionally raised beef. I think about what on earth may be soaking into my baby's skin when I clean her adorable little tush with commercial baby wipes. And I visualize my own private mountain at the dump grown from disposable diapers every time I've waited a little too long to run a load of cloth. I also think about the example I'm setting for my daughter. If I want her to grow up caring about her world and making conscious, contentious decisions then she needs to see me going to farmers' market and selecting locally grown, organic, heirloom tomatoes rather than the pesticide-smothered grocery store varieties imported from around the globe.

As a disclaimer, I want to note that I don't make perfect choices every time! I do occasionally consume high fructose corn syrup--I simply prefer it be in things that are obviously sugary, sweet and bad for you, like Milky Way bars, not hidden in products masquerading as healthy foods, like orange juice and breakfast cereal (yes, I said breakfast cereal--check the ingredient lists!). I prefer natural healing methods like massage and relaxation breathing, but for a bad headache I do take aspirin and tylenol. Some grocery items in my cart are not organic (pasta, for example), while for others I'm willing to pay 3x the price for organic or skip altogether if organic isn't available (dairy, eggs, potatoes).

I'm on a mission to reduce my and my family's exposure to the chemicals and toxins that my body has always known were bad for me. And if I can take a few friends and blog readers along with me to help me brainstorm, the more the merrier!

Thanks so much for reading,
Yaffa