Dangers of Parabens

Parabens. It sounds like the name of a garbage collection company doesn’t it? What you may not be aware is that parabens are more a part of your world than realize, and its unfortunately not a good thing. What exactly are parabens and where do you find them? Lets start with where do you find them. Parabens can be found in personal lubricants, shampoos, commercial moisturizers, cleansing gels, shaving gels, topical pharmaceuticals, toothpaste, and possibly used in food additives.

So with that being what exactly are parabens? Simply put parabens are chemicals used as preservative. They are used to fight bacteria and fungus, are widely available, and cost very little to manufacture and use. Nearly all of the parabens used as preservatives are man-made and not naturally occurring. Because so many products we use contain some form of parabens, it can be difficult to avoid them.

No why are parabens bad? Before I answer this question, please note that there have been studies on both sides of the argument about whether parabens are bad or safe. In my opinion, because of the number of studies done regarding its dangers, I tend to avoid products with parabens. Essentially, similar to Bisphenol A found in plastics, parabens appear to mimic the hormone estrogen in the body. For those who have read many of my past tips, you will note that I often say that no one needs excess estrogen as this leads to a host of health issues such as breast cancer, fibroids, cysts, infertility, low libido, depression, weight gain, irregular menstrual cycle, and the list goes on. Researchers have found parabens in breast tumors and believe there is a relationship between the two. In addition, in the July 2002 issue of the Archives of Toxicology, Dr. S. Oishi of the Department of Toxicology, Tokyo Metropolitan Research Laboratory of Public Health reported that exposure of newborn male mammals to butylparaben “adversely affects the secretion of testosterone and the function of the male reproductive system.” FYI Researchers are still not sure how and why parabens might affect development and growth of both babies and adults.

So how do we avoid parabens and other harsh chemicals? For starters I would suggest reading labels more carefully and try to avoid products with these 10 chemicals:

1) DEA (diethanolamine)
2) Parabens Of Any Kind
3) BHT (Butylated Hydroxytoluene)
4) Propylene Glycol
5) Triclosan
6) Bisphenol A
7) Polyethylene
Sodium Lauryl Sulfate
9) 1,4-dioxane
10) Butyl Cellosolve

There are also some great companies that have signed an agreement called The Compact For Safe Cosmetics, which is a coalition effort to protect the health of consumers and workers by securing the reforms necessary to eliminate dangerous chemicals from cosmetics and personal care products. Some of these companies are Suki’s Naturals, Avalon Organics, Weleda, Tom’s of Maine, Aubrey Organics, Dr. Bronner’s, Burts Bees, California Baby, Dr.Hauschka, Terressentials, Badger, Nature’s Gate, JASON, Kiss My Face, Pangea.

I hope you found this information useful. As always stay fit and well family.

Sugar Addiction

Sugar is more than likely a bigger part of your diet than you realize and YOU ARE PROBABLY ADDICTED TO IT. Some researchers believe it is one of the main reasons you could be struggling with issues such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, heart diseases, and there is also a potential link to cancer. According to Dr. Robert Lustig, a pediatric endocrinologist, sugar is one of the most toxic products on the market. Even when making an effort to avoid it, we are often failing mainly because when there was a big push to remove fats from our foods in the 1970s, manufacturers had to come up with a way to make them taste better. This led to the creation of sugars such as High fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) found in a number of sweetened products. Believe it or not the actual consumption of real sugar has gone down about 70%, but sadly HFCS has made up the difference. Ironically Dr. Lustig, believes there is really no difference between real sugar and products such as HFCS, as they are all toxic. Even in sugar free products such as protein shakes, peanut butter, bread and so on, sweeteners are still used to make them more palatable.

Now how could you be addicted to sugar? According to Eric Stice, a neuroscientist at the Oregon Research Institute, sugar activates the brain the same way as addictive drugs such as cocaine. Stice found that when something sweet touches your tongue, say soda or barbeque sauce, the brain releases the feel good chemical dopamine, in the same manner as if you took cocaine or drank alcohol. So each you time you ate something sweet, even mildly, you experience euphoric feelings. However, much like a drug addict the feeling of euphoria begins to diminish, so you keep trying to find that first high, which leads to consuming more and more sugars.

So what is the solution? I believe that we should completely avoid sugars as much as we can, and much like a drug addict go through a detox. Try drinking your coffees or teas black. Avoid sweet juices such as soda (even diet) or boxed fruit juice, and go for real fruit which even though has sugar, does contain fiber which slows down the absorption of the sugar. Be sure to eat foods like tomatoes, onions, or brewer’s yeast which are rich in the mineral Chromium which can stabilize blood sugars. I also believe that once per week each month, one should try a Ketogenic diet, which limits or removes completely carbohydrates and sugars from your diet. This will leave you with only fibrous carbohydrates, fattier proteins sources such as salmon, and more healthy fats like fish oil, avocado, coconut oil and so forth. This will allow your body to produce glycogen (stored energy created from sugar and carbohydrates) from your body fat. The benefit here is that you stabilize insulin levels, and can even lose weight in the process if that’s your goal.

I hope you found this information useful, and not too nerdy :).  As always stay fit and well family :).