Green Clean Laundry ...

Every time I ask someone to consider switching to a green cleaning product the first response is, “yes, but does it work?”

I was frustrated for years as well, wanting to use environmentally friendly cleaners but finding them sorely lacking in the power department. I finally found the dream combination, effective, totally green, and priced fairly. I like it so much I became an
Independent Shaklee Dealer and happily put my name out there backing it.

Having used Shaklee’s HE laundry detergent for about nine months now, it still continues to impress. To make a long story short, I sometimes go lend a hand in the dairy barn milking cows. I never minded the smell of a dairy barn, but there is a time and place for everything and it is a strong pervasive odor. You can pretty much count anything worn into a dairy barn as not useable again in any public setting. I used to use one of the “best” store-brand laundry detergents out there, tried several of them, and only smelled like a cow flop in a bed of saccharine flowers .. And usually got a case of dry skin / eczema for my trouble.

Just for fun I tossed a whole winter load of post-dairy barn clothing in the wash; coat, hat, jeans, sweater, shirt, gloves, all of it - set the washer on cold (I always use just cold, no problems after nine months, even with whites) and used only the regular amount of laundry detergent, pre-spotting two small areas with it as well. Clean, no spots or stains that barn matter is so well know for. Zero odor. Period. Impressive.

Get clean, really clean, the first time.

Mercury-free cosmetics

I could not believe my eyes when I saw this headline today By Associated Press writer MARTIGA LOHN Mercury in mascara? Minn. law bans it. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071214/ap_on_he_me/mercury_in_mascara”.

I guess I should not be surprised given what is in “cleaners,” but how Pollyanna of me to think there was some kind of common sense regulation on products meant to be applied to the face and eyes. If you recall, in my “Because Clean Shouldn’t Hurt” article, absorption via the skin is the second fastest method to take in a substance, led only by inhalation. Good thing cosmetics don’t have a smell …

“Federal law allows eye products to contain up to 65 parts per million of mercury” and many other personal care and beauty products contain it as well as multiple other unhealthy chemicals and substances that are known to be a health hazard. Sixty-five parts per million is probably not a lethal dose, but add that to moisturizer, blush, shadow, lipstick, foundation, concealer and now you have a dose that would be six times over allowable by Federal law. Toss in the brew in your laundry soap, bath soap and cleaning products and you may as well go swimming in a waste dump.

I will not test your intelligence by listing all the negative health effects of mercury, but please do think a moment if this avoidable ingredient is really okay with you. A gentle reminder as well that in order to put mercury in your make up also requires a manufacturing process involving workers exposed to it as well as waste being added to the environment. There is no federal law about ingredient labels so do not bother going to look, trust me if it is there the last thing they want you to do is know about it. The good news is now we know where they put all that mercury from our thermometers that were too dangerous to have OUTSIDE our homes.

I became an
Independent Shaklee Dealer
because, as an herbalist, I was mad at what I found was legal to put in “cleaners” and “health products,” feeling there ought to be a law about selling toxins in pretty packages. For 50 years this company has not wavered on allowing profits over health, and has managed to keep the costs even with, and frequently less than the competition.

Give it some thought, and give me a call or drop me an e-mail if you decide that a little truth and safety are a good thing.

In toothpaste we trust?

When it comes to our family it is all about trust, trust that the things we use to improve our lives or make them more comfortable will do us good, not harm. As an
Independent Shaklee Dealer, many people have said to me that “toxins in our lives are unavoidable, why try?” My answer is always to do the math. Every one less IS one less, leaving our bodies healthier and stronger to deal with the things we can not avoid. Math will tell you that every product you use, some several times a day, times 365 days a year, increases our exposure to toxins exponentially .... or not based on some very simple choices. Our choices directly increase our health, and our quality of life.

One simple choice we make every day is to brush our teeth, often several times a day. We have all heard and understand that proper regular brushing not only prevents dental caries, and by now most have heard that professionals such as Professors Robin Seymour and James Steele of the University of Newcastle Dental School in England say that you are less likely to get coronary heart disease if you have healthy gums. This seems simple enough until you ask, does trust need to be an issue with toothpaste? Unfortunately yes. “Off the shelf” toothpaste can contain anything from chemical detergents for “foaming” to those brands just pulled off the shelf because they contained the very inexpensive to use but toxic diethylene glycol; a sweet-tasting thickening agent in antifreeze (Associated Press http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070603/ap_on_re_as/china_us_toothpaste).

Trust is important to me. Not worrying if there are “safe levels” of multiple toxic ingredients in my children’s toothpaste is important to me. I became an
Independent Shaklee Dealer for many reasons ..one of which is that for over 50 toxin-free years, trust has been there. Do the math, brushing your teeth just three times a day means putting that toothpaste in your mouth 1095 times a year. Brushing as dentists recommend; morning, bedtime and after meals, puts toothpaste in your mouth 1,825 times a year. What’s in your
toothpaste? Check out The Sundance Life’s organic and kosher non-toxic
toothpaste to get clean with trust.