As you may know from some of my previous blogs, I've had a great interest in natural products lately. I've been eating 100% organic food almost exclusively for months now. I have to say that I love organic food. You never realize just how bad regular food is until you try the healthy stuff. I swear, I can taste the chemicals in non-organic food now! I've also been up to some other experiments lately when it comes to natural products...
Non-flouride toothpaste
The information I have been reading suggests that the flouride they put in the public water supply is actually a toxic, cancer-causing chemical. I was rather skeptical of this since everyone has always said that flouride is needed to strengthen teeth. Based on my experiment here, I'm beginning to believe that flouride is bad for you! For the last 6 months, I have been brushing my teeth with non-flouride toothpaste. 99% of all toothpastes contain flouride. It's not easy to find ones that don't. If you go to Whole Foods Market, you can find some. Make sure to read the labels carefully to find ones that don't contain flouride. After 6 months of 'denying' my teeth the flouride they supposedly require, I can honestly say, that my teeth are in better shape without the flouride. Back in my flouride toothpaste days, I regularly had bleeding gums. Now they never bleed. Obviously, this means that one problem has gone away, solely due to the switch to non-flouride toothpaste. When I changed the toothpaste, that's all I changed. I still use the same toothbrushes, still brush the same amount of times, still brush the same way etc. The toothpaste is all that's changed. And it's helped!
Shower Filter
I've also been taking showers using a shower filter for the last 6 months or so. Why? For the same reason I'm using non-flouride toothpaste - To eliminate toxins in the water. Flouride is a toxic chemical as is the chlorine they use to purify tap water. Would you drink a bottle of bleach? I think not. The chlorine in the water supply is obviously not as concentrated, but over time it adds up. Has this change helped me any? I'm not entirely sure, though I don't have any complaints. You can find show filters at Home Depot or Lowe's.
Distilled Water
I drink at least a gallon of distilled water each day. Often a lot more than that. Why? Distilled water is about the most pure water you can get. It's water and NOTHING else. Isn't mineral water just as good? No, since it has minerals and likely flouride and chlorine in it too. Same with tap water, same with 'drinking water'. The distilled water tastes a bit different from regular water. It takes some getting used to, but onc e you do, it tastes fine. Has this helped me? I don't know, but it certainly doesn't hurt.
All Natural Hand Soap
For the last two days, I've been trying to only use all natural hand soap whenever I wash my hands. This includes at work and at home. How do I handle it at work? I keep a bottle of hand sanitizer at my desk (which is just alcohol). I use the bathroom, rinse off my hands and then use the sanitizer rather than the soap. Why? There is a very good reason for this experiment. For a long while now, I've suffered from a really bad case of dry skin on my hands. It gets to the point where my hands get so dried out they crack and bleed! I could never figure out why this was happening... It was my one last annoying little health problems. I recently read that the sodium lauryl sulfate that is is most hand soaps (and deoderants, and shampoos) is known to cause skin irritation and dry skin. So I replaced the hand soap in my house, along with the shampoo and body soap, with all natural versions that do not contain sodium lauryl sulfate, to see if this helps. Granted I've only been doing this for two days, but I am already noticing that my hands aren't as dry and seem to be getting softer. This test may, in fact be working. I'm going to continue this and see how it goes.
No more milk
I drink very little milk these days. I used to drink two glasses of milk with my breakfast every morning, as well as a couple glasses every night. I was easily polishing off 2 gallons of milk a week. Now I buy 1 gallon and it's likely to expire before I drink it all. Why? I've read that drinking milk can be bad for your health, so I'm trying to live without it. These days I have a big glass of distilled water with my morning organic oatmeal and organic banana. Whether it's helping or not, I don't know, but I'm going to stick with it.
No more diet sodas
Diet sodas are extremely addicting. I am certainly addicted to them. I have read that diet sodas are extremely bad for your health and in fact contribute to making you fatter! For the last two days I've been avoiding diet sodas. I would go out somewhere during lunch every day specifically to buy a Diet Coke and drink it. Add to that the 1 or 2 cans of Diet Coke at work and the Diet Cokes in the evenings if I go out to dinner and I was drinking a lot of this stuff. I've managed to avoid them for two days straight. That's a big acomplishment for me. I'm going to do my best to maintain this. I am really beginning to notice the addiction to them based on my thoughts during the day. "Ok, it's lunch time. Where am I going to get my Diet Coke today?" "Hmm, 3pm, time for a Diet Coke." Not to mention that the free refills at most restaurants and fast food places means that whenever I eat out, I often go through at least two 32 ounce cups of the stuff. Bad, bad, bad Rick! These last two days it has been really tough fighting the addiction to this stuff. I have to conciously stop myself from going for the "Diet Coke" dispenser every time. I've replaced them with regular non-diet sodas lately. These are still tasty but don't have the addiction affect. Some of the stronger regular sodas, such as Mountain Dew tend to give me a stomach ache. This is another way to discourage myself from this stuff. If it makes me sick, I won't drink it! Maybe I should start up "Diet Sodas Anonymous"...
I will continue my experiments and let everyone know what happens.