Take a trip to Europe for a week. Eat whatever you want. Roll a few of your own cigarettes*. Gulp down a bottle of red wine a day. Then travel back to the obesity ridden, fast-food loving, processed-everything country we get to call home, and tell me how you feel. A little jet-lag might wear you down, but I doubt a bloated belly and expanding waistline would be in your list of post-Euro-trip problems. In fact, did you not notice how unfathomably healthy, thin, and radiantly beautiful the overseas population tends to be? “How do they do it” is undoubtedly the first thing that pops into your head, and I’ll gladly answer that for you: they eat real things. Yes. Real, home-grown, non-processed, all-natural, fresh from the oven or farmers market goodness. Every day. For the entirety of their lives. Cheetos, BPA ridden plastic-ware, and Marlboro let-me-inhale-toilet-bowl-cleaner-cancer sticks do not exist. The air’s better. People walk places and live active lifestyles. They don’t need insurance to cover electric wheelchairs for the morbidly obese. I could go on but I’ll reel myself in here and get to the point.
Toxins are everywhere. In what we eat, what we drink, the air we breathe, and even in the amount of stress we allow ourselves to feel. Reread that. Those are all variables of chemical exposure to which we can directly control. While some are obvious offenders, ie: cigarettes, some toxins are sneaky little devils that have found their way into products we use on a day to day basis. Large companies use cheaper ingredients for mass production, and sometimes have varying degrees of quality control. For this reason, there are other lovely little companies that make it a point to tell the consumer that they do NOT contain shit-of-the-earth ingredients. Buy those. Yes, they might be a bit more expensive; but the payout of living a healthier lifestyle far outweigh the $2.00 price difference.
My European scenario holds true. I have a sensitive stomach and cannot mix a lot of food groups together, but not in Italy! I literally ate bread and drank wine and ate bowls of pasta and gelato every single day…and I felt completely fine, great even! Where did all this glorious food eating come from? Well, it was consumed at local restaurants. Things are organically and naturally grown over there. From farm to plate. Everywhere. Think of the wholesome, nutritious goodness that entails! As I continually stress to all readers, try to buy organically when you’re able to. By choosing minimally processed foods your body is automatically digesting less crap.
BPA. It’s everywhere. It’s that not-so-friendly chemical that makes its way into every type of plastic imaginable.
Here are 4 ways to reduce your plastic use. I’m going to use the word “reusable” a lot. There’s a reason for it!
1. Reusable shopping bags.
Or ask for paper (and then recycle!) the next time you check out of the grocery store. Don’t put your organic fruits and veggies in chemical containing plastic…kind of defeats the purpose there, huh?
2.Ditch the bottled water.
Buy a BPA-free or aluminum water container and refill that baby. Many stores carry them now, my favorite go-to is TJMaxx or Marshalls (usually located in that cleverly placed display by the check out line…sucks me in every time)
3. Dont ever use plastic straws!
Make it fun. Get your kids involved if you have children. Check online for glass straw companies where you can design your own and show them off!
4. Reusable utensils.
Turn back to that check-out line vortex of things you never knew you needed at your local TJMaxx and look for reusable utensils. Bamboo works best as it’s usually pretty water resistant, and it’s not plastic!
There you have it. You just decreased your toxin exposure and even helped the world be a little more eco-friendly. How good do you feel right now?
