Thursday, December 22, 2011

We can support companies who produce green products by purchasing their products

By Malien Williams


It should come as no great surprise it's the small, entrepreneurial makers who are leading the way in the green revolution of personal care product and household cleaning products. The giant conglomerates like Johnson & Johnson and Proctor & Bet turn out thousands of products annually, but ever really stopped to see what is in these products? All one need do is to read the label on any of the products and you'll see it is a toxic soup of a multitude of chemicals.

It literally takes a chemistry degree to decipher the ingredients and understand what is in them. And why? Only a generation or 2 back, our elders and grandparents once used effective but easy products to scrub their houses. And these products contained ingredients we all know and understand like bicarbonate of soda and white vinegar.

Enormous business has industrialized both the home cleaning products industry as well as the personal care industry. These products aren't better than the natural ones, they're just poisonous. Every year the rates of cancer are increasing, and is it truly any wonder? We slather chemicals on our skin and scalp and then leave it to our bodies to purify the chemicals. And it's not just the personal care products we use directly on our bodies. It's also the cleaning products we use in our home. Take laundry for instance. Whatever laundry detergent, whiteners or fabric softeners you use on clothes then get put on your body. And you skin soaks up the chemicals. Or think about the chemicals you use to wash your house and the fumes they give off- we breathe them all in. It's far worse for your pets since they're down low on the ground coming into larger contact with the chemicals.

But fortunately there is change coming, much in the same way change has come to our food industry. Small makers are starting to make their own healthy and natural products which work more efficiently than the standard chemical ones. Some are organic certified and some just use wholesome, good ingredients. How can you tell which products are excellent for you? Turn over products and start to read labels. A good rough guide is, if you know what it is, and it is something you can eat, then it's probably OK. Do not be puzzled by the Latin names under which many ingredients are listed. Sometimes the common name will put in parenthesis as well since few us speak Latin. As an example, if you see "Helianus Annuus" you may think that it's a chemical because you do not know what it is, but in fact it is just sunflower seed oil.

By supporting entrepreneurs in your neighborhood, you are supporting not just your own health, but a healthy eco system. In America we vote with our bucks. So by buying natural produce from tiny producers, you tell the massive conglomerates that they better change their strategies or risk losing money. And as we've seen with the food industry, big business will listen. So visit your local farmers markets, shop online, or actively hunt down little producers and support a fitter life-style.




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