Ingredients to Ditch Now
So, you’ve decided to make the switch to nontoxic products. Congratulations! The grass over here is, truthfully, greener! From here, you may be wondering just where to start. There is a plethora of data out there, and it can quickly become overwhelming. I want to sift through it with you, peel back the label of the products in question, and make it clear and easy to understand. This post is part of a small series I am going to run all about making the switch! I’m so happy to have you follow along.
The first order of business is to educate you on the top “worst offender” - in my opinion - toxic ingredients that are in our everyday products. Spoiler alert: They’re in everything. Okay I’m being dramatic... but really. I could go on forever with this and list out all the horrors out there, but I wanted to assemble a concise list of the chart-topping, worst offenders that I see most often. My goal is for you to be able to reference this list next time you make an investment in a new product!
A quick note on reading ingredients labels: keep in mind that when you turn a bottle over and read the label, the ingredients will almost always be listed in paragraph form. The first ingredient listed has the most volume in the total product, and the last ingredient listed has the least volume. For example: if the first ingredient is water, that product is made up mostly of water first. So when a product says “contains real organic blueberry extract!” I always look for to see how high or low that is on the list. Just today I pushed back the label of one of my tried and true makeup items to find more than a few of these ingredients. Many big box companies hide all the toxic ingredients under other names, acronyms, and numbers, but choose to fully spell out the ingredients that are not harmful. Tricky, right?
Here we go!
Parabens: Parabens are used as preservatives in many personal care products today in the USA. Parabens prevent microbial/bacterial growth in our products and are how conventional products can have such long shelf lives and/or are able to avoid refrigeration. While of course we want our products to stay clean, safe, and pure, there are many ways to do this other than using parabens. Common parabens you may see listed on the back of your product might be: methylparaben, butylparaben, or propylparaben, anything with that suffix. Parabens are endocrine disrupting chemicals that affect both humans and animals. Scientific studies have shown abnormal menstrual cycles for women, increased likelihood of breast cancer for both genders, and low birth weight for babies born to mothers with parabens in their blood. Hormonal imbalance is the cause for so many bodily function issues. These top the list of the ingredients we should ditch immediately because of their broad spectrum of negative effect on our bodies for both men and women. I have seen parabens in pet products as well!
Phthalates: Phthalates are the sneaky ones because they aren’t clearly listed on the back of the bottle like parabens are. Phthalates are plasticizing agents that are found in other ingredients, and are most commonly used in artificial fragrance to make the scent last longer. They are also a key ingredient in pesticides, and plastic to make it more pliable & flexible. Unfortunately, in today’s world, it’s almost impossible to completely avoid phthalates. We absorb these chemicals through our lungs, the intestines, the skin and the blood stream. Think about ANYTHING you have that is scented (your favorite body wash), includes flexible plastic (think IV tubing at the hospital!) or wear/eat that has been treated with phthalate-containing pesticides (hello, cotton!). Phthalates are concerning because they are xenoestrogens, which means they get into our bloodstream and mimic estrogen in the body. Phthalates have been linked to breast cancer, obesity, thyroid disfunction, fertility issues, early onset of puberty, and other reproductive abnormalities. Are we sensing a trend here?
Petrochemicals: These are ingredients like mineral oil, petrolatum, and petroleum jelly. Most often, these ingredients are used as a moisture barrier and skin protectant. Think Vaseline and Aquaphor type products. While these do a fabulous job at preventing water loss, the oil base also clogs pores and blocks our skin from allowing it to breathe and preventing the absorption that it needs, also called “comedogenic” properties. Also in this category is an ingredient I’ve seen on many products, Phenoxyehthanol. This ingredient is a petroleum-based preservative, and you’ll even see this on many of the products marketed as “clean”! Phenoxyethanol has been proven to a depressant to our nervous systems, specifically in infants. I saw this ingredient listed on the bath soap I once tried for Liberty that she was soaking in every single day. *Cringe*
Fragrance: Fragrance is the target of so many wellness or green beauty companies out there these days, and for good reason! An easy place to start your nontoxic switch is to start buying things without any synthetic fragrance. It’s just so misleading… and on purpose. All you’ll see listed in the ingredients section is the one word “fragrance”, but that is a mask for approximately 1,500 actual chemical compounds that make it up. The US still allows chemical ingredients under the title of fragrance that are illegal in almost every other country. Most synthetic fragrances are made up of both petrochemicals and phthalates (disrupted hormone function), and it is highly allergenic. It can cause and contribute to chronic conditions like asthma, dermatitis and headaches/migraines. There are so many other options now like clean, plant-derived fragrances and essential oils! I know, I know - your laundry soap scent lasts for days. You love the Febreeze air sprays, and you love the way you skin smells like that body wash all day. But if I could ask you to do only one thing for your health this year, it’s to GET RID OF ARTIFICIAL FRAGRANCES! As much as you love that smell, you’re literally just smearing carcinogenic chemicals over your largest, most absorbent organ.
Ethoxylated Ingredients: Okay, so this one is kinda hard to explain. Ethoxylation is a treatment process in which another ingredient, like an alcohol, is treated with ethylene oxide, which is a proven carcinogen. This is performed in a lab, and creates a new chemical compound that helps to stabilize emulsions or enhance penetration into the skin. These are quickly and efficiently absorbed through the skin, into the blood, and into fetal blood supply and breast milk. Ethoxylated ingredients are also very poisonous contaminant to our environment and ground water supply and can cause mutations in other species that ingest or breathe them (uhhh… hello Ninja Turtles?!?) – so WHY would we use this on ourselves?! Ethoxylated ingredients are things that end in “eth”, polysorbates, phenoxyethanol, “emulsifying wax” or anything that has “PEG” in the same and numbers that follow. Want some good news? The USDA National Organic Program has standards and does not allow ethoxylated ingredients in certified organic products! One of many great reasons to shop organic when possible.
Sulfates: Sulfates are salts that have undergone the ethoxylation process above and are the foaming agents in our personal and household products, most often found in detergent, shampoos, toothpastes, and soaps. Think sudsy-lathery-goodness! Yep, that probably has a sulfate ingredient in it. Also referred to as surfectants, common sulfates you’ll see are Mrs. Popular: Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) or her sister, Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLES). But these sisters are very, very different. SLS scores a 1-2 (low concern for toxicity) on the EWG website, and mostly just poses concern of skin irritation. SLES, however, is more dangerous, as a toxic biproduct is created when SLES is manufactured in the lab. It creates a chemical called 1,4 Dioxane, a carcinogen. Because this is by-product of the original ingredient, it does not need to be listed on the ingredient label at all.
I have such mixed feelings on sulfates, to be completely honest, especially SLS. The reason to avoid these ingredients is because they are dermal irritants, the biproduct issue above, and they can dry out your skin and hair. BUT the SLS-free products I’ve tried so far are about 50/50 with performance. I’ve tried to avoid sulfates in things like laundry detergent, but I’ve found that they didn’t work as well as brands that did contain SLS. In shampoo however, I am religious with only using sulfate-free options, because they also have been proven to fade artificial hair pigment and lead to buildup. And I have noticed that my sulfate-free hair products are always less lathering than conventional brands, which makes sense! I guess this is one of those ingredients I am less stringent about than the others on this list. But it still makes the list for pursuing clean, nontoxic alternatives and always will. I do try and avoid SLES out of the two.
Synthetic colors: Okay so to discuss synthetic colors, I want you to ask the question this time. Ask yourself, “WHY”. Why is the laundry detergent blue? Why is your shampoo a pearly pink color? Why is there a green swoosh of minty gel in your toothpaste? Does your baby’s Motrin really have to be orange? Once you start to realize just how many things have artificial colorants, you can’t unsee it Artificial dyes appear on all kinds of labels, from cosmetics and food to medication. In food, FD&C colorants (aka food coloring) are used and are approved by the FDA. But in skincare and cosmetics, the color literally serves no purpose other than be visually appealing. Synthetic colorants are derived from petroleum and are often contaminated with heavy metals such as arsenic or lead. And have you heard just how many disorders are linked to artificial dyes? Here’s just a quick list:
Compliments of @just.ingredients on Instagram
· Blue #1 has been linked to kidney tumors and hypotension
· Blue #2 has been linked to brain tumors
· Green #3 has been linked to tumors in the bladder
· Red #3 has been linked to thyroid tumors
· Red #40 has been linked to accelerated immune system tumors
· Yellow #5 has been linked to hyperactivity
· Yellow #6 has been linked to adrenal tumors
Thankfully, the FDA has banned a few already, yellow #1, #2, #3 and #4. But the list above remains legal (and there are others not listed) and are used in the US. Red #40 and Yellow #5 & #6 contain the chemical benzene, a carcinogen. Red #40 is also banned in the EU and many other countries.
Turns out, the clear deodorant works just as well as the blue one. And the organic popsicles colored naturally are just as delicious. Trust.
Formaldehyde: Formaldehyde is a preservative in the truest sense of the name, in that it’s most commonly used as an embalming agent for the preservation of flesh. Think creepy dark basement turned science lab, head found in jar type preservation. Urea Formaldehyde is sprayed on clothes and textile goods as a preservative to avoid mold + mildew growth while stored in humid shipping containers. Both chemical variations of this ingredient have been linked to cancer and have been proven to have adverse effects on respiratory disease, memory, and attention span. Formaldehyde is also known for its consistency, as it hardens into a vanish, and is the first ingredient in most nail polishes on the market today. How gorgeous is the color though, right?! Think about this next time you are feeling stressed and are biting your freshly “lacquered” claws.
Going the route of “green” for personal use products is about taking back nature. Nothing in nature smells the same for months on end. And nothing in nature smells like crème brulee pumpkin spice sparkle. Nothing in nature is genetically modified to penetrate your blood brain barrier better and then marketed to you as safe for your babies. If it seems artificial, it probably is. If there is a leaf and the word “natural” on the label, ask the question of who’s guidelines this company is following, if any at all. Unfortunately, many big box brands have caught wind of the growing pursuit of clean living, and therefore are campaigning huge greenwashing (brainwashing-but-make-it-healthy) tactics that even the best of us have fallen for again and again. Making the switch to clean products is a learning experience, and is ever evolving. It’s something that we are making a conscious choice of every single time we invest in a new product.
To start your journey to nontoxic living this year, start by making a vow to turn the bottle over next time you shop, use this list, and start reading. Start researching. Or at the very least, start asking questions. See through the label of modern day consumerism, and I bet you’ll be blown away by what we are being fed. With this entry I want to educate you and help bring weight and importance to the subject. This DOES matter when discussing a healthy lifestyle. If you’re reading this, I am so proud of you for taking the first step, and the most important step - your CHOICE as a consumer!
I wish you health, happiness, curiosity and knowledge in this new year!
If you feel like reading, here are a few of my sources about 1,4 Dioxane, Formaldehyde, Parabens, Phenoxyethanol, and synthetic dyes.