The Primal Parent

21st century body care products are a whole lot like America’s food supply. They are full of chemicals we shouldn’t be putting on our skin but are marketed to us as though they are safe, most of us have no idea how bad for us they really are, and far superior products actually do exist.

I made the switch over to natural body care products (and household cleaning supplies) when I was pregnant with Evelyn. And of course, I never went back. Awareness is the key to positive change. Why would you deliberately choose to poison yourself with known carcinogens, chemicals known to cause birth defects, and hormone-altering substances absorbed through the skin? I wouldn’t anyway, so that’s why I’ve been using natural body care products for the last 7 years.

But even natural beauty products can be deceiving. Just to give you an example, Burts Bees Naturally Ageless Night Cream lists a whole bunch of great ingredients like white birch and pomegranate but it also contains alcohol which dries out the skin (definitely not going to help with wrinkles) and at the end of the ingredients sits phenoxyethanol, an ingredient which has no information listed about concerns for cancer and reproductive toxicity but does raise moderate concerns about non-reproductive organ toxicity. And just by the look of the word itself, can that really be natural?

To avoid the many ingredients even natural products can get away with listing, I usually just mix up some oils at home and use that. But now I have an even better alternative.

Keep Reading..

The worst thing about so called dietary cures for acne is that many of them are written by people who don’t actually have acne. There is no “in theory” when it comes to acne or at least we don’t know what it is yet. I have followed every single acne plan prescribed by every genius PhD, MD, or Joe Schmo. They haven’t worked, so clearly the theory surrounding the cure for acne is still largely unknown. Aside from that, on an emotional level, those that suffer from acne definitely don’t need clear skinned, small pored beauties telling them how they do it. They don’t do anything. They simply don’t have the problem.

Some or many aspects of the modern diet have changed the way acne sufferer’s pores secrete oil, the way the pores clamp down and stop healthy circulation, the way hormones are secreted in the skin, and the way the immune system goes overboard to mount an attack on a small cyst.

Yes, acne is a disease caused by a bad diet but no, it is not a disease which is cured by a good one. It can be managed. The acne can be stopped, but as soon as the person starts eating modern foods again, it will return. When an acne sufferer so much as cheats, she will probably get pimples again. This is why the term orthorexia is so offensive to me because these modern diseases are only manageable. Strict eating is requisite. Once a system has gone wrong in the body it isn’t repaired over night.

Keep Reading..

Weekends are getting a little more interesting at the blog starting today. Saturdays will include a post of two or three email questions and my answers to them. Sundays will include something food related – either recipes or school lunch ideas.

Today I talk about the cause of oily skin and hair and then delve into the reason why we crave caffeine and what we can do to restore balance and ditch the need for it altogether.

Keep Reading..