The Wellness Way Women’s Healthy Shopping Guide: 10 MORE Products to Upgrade

A few months ago, I shared our first healthy shopping guide of products to upgrade. When people start making the transition to a healthier lifestyle they often ask, “what products do I need to upgrade?” It can be overwhelming as you learn about which products you thought were safe and find out that they really aren’t.

I had a hard time keeping it to just ten, so here is the next installment of our healthy shopping guide. Just remember we all have to start somewhere! You don’t have to check everything off the list on the first day. In fact, some products you might just stop using instead of replacing right away. Don’t do this with toothpaste though. Still use toothpaste. Here’s a toothpaste recipe to make your own.

10 More Products for our Healthy Shopping Guide

1 – Toothpaste

If you are still using conventional toothpaste you might not have noticed the FDA warning on the side that says to call poison control if swallowed. It is something you use every day and should be one of the first things you put on your list of products to upgrade. Conventional toothpaste comes with the warning because fluoride has been shown to cause acute toxicity if swallowed. What’s the long-term exposure risk? Long-term exposure has been linked to developmental problems, cancers, thyroid problems and more.

Fluoride is not the only troublesome chemical found on common toothpaste ingredient lists. You will also find harmful ingredients like antibacterial chemicals, sodium laurel sulfate, parabens, aspartame, and others. These ingredients can be toxic to the health of your mouth and body! Find a natural toothpaste, like Spry, that doesn’t have problematic ingredients.

2 – Fragrance

Fragrance is one of those ingredients you have to watch out for in many products because these ingredients are “proprietary” and don’t need to be identified. That means that one ingredient could contain a combination of chemicals from over 3,100 possibilities. The fragrance you wear everyday could contain allergens, carcinogens, or endocrine disruptors. Essential oils are a great upgrade. Sometimes it’s just nice to buy a fragrance and some of our favorite perfumes without the chemical junk are Skylar and Inkling. They have lots of different scents!

3 – Mascara

The average woman spends $3,770 on mascara. That’s a lot of money on toxins when you look at the average mascara. Since mascara is put on your eyelashes those toxins have really easy access to your blood stream. Common chemicals you want to avoid in mascara are phthalates, parabens, fragrance and vitamin A. Unfortunately, these chemicals can hide under many different names and, as we talked about, fragrance can be a combination of many nasty chemicals. Find a company dedicated to keeping those chemicals out of their products. I tested some great options in this article on mascara options.

4 – Skincare

What you put on your skin is important too! Your skin is your body’s largest organ. How you treat it can impact your whole body. If your skin care has toxins in them, those toxins can be absorbed into your blood stream. In fact, one study found sunscreen chemicals were still in the blood stream 24 hours after application. Face scrub, foundation, and lotion are all products that have ingredient lists that need a close look!

5 – Laundry Detergent

The fresh smell of common laundry detergents is often hiding many toxic chemicals. You might not even think about them but the chemicals on your clothes are in contact with your skin all day. The ingredients can be harmful to your lungs, irritate skin, cancerous and can mess with your hormones. Check out some of our favorite upgrades in this article on laundry detergent.

6 – Your Electronics

Don’t worry, you don’t have to buy all new electronics. You can upgrade the ones you have! Why do they need an upgrade? The electronics that you use every day are emitting harmful electromagnetic fields.  As our technology increases so does our exposure. The symptoms of EMF overexposure can include fatigue, anxiety, insomnia, headaches and the list continues. Radiofrequency electromagnetic fields have been classified as potentially carcinogenic by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer.

One study found that radiofrequency radiation exceeds safety limits in popular models of phones including iPhone and Samsung. To limit your exposure, you can invest in products that block EMFs. You can buy cases for your phones and laptops or devices like Q-link that you can wear.

7 – Household Cleaning Supplies

Okay, we always knew that the chemicals in cleaning supplies weren’t safe but until you start doing some research you might not realize that cancer, allergies, reproductive harm, asthma, neurotoxicity and more have all been linked to toxic ingredients in common household cleaners. In fact, one study found that daily use of some cleaning products was as bad as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. Check out some of the common ingredients and better upgrades in our article on cleaning products.

8 – Nail Polish

Did you know that nail polish is considered a hazardous waste by the Environmental Protection Agency? Yes, and unfortunately your hard nails don’t protect you from the potentially dangerous chemicals in nail polish going into your bloodstream. Those chemicals can be absorbed through your nails and your cuticles. Yuck! Learn more about the harmful ingredients in nail polish and I'll give you some ideas on healthier upgrades.

9 – Allergy Testing

Not all allergy tests are created equal. Which is a shame because allergy testing can be a great start in getting your gut and your health back on track. Many doctors only recommend an allergy test for IgE response which is only 1% of the immune response. Those are the tests that look for an acute response like anaphylaxis. Unfortunately, that’s not all of your immune response!

A good allergy test will also test for an IgG response. Many people have had a “food sensitivity” test and just didn’t get results. An IgG response is actually split out into 4 classes and most IgG, or “food sensitivity,” tests only test for one. To get accurate results we recommend a food allergy test that tests all 4 classes and gets duplicatable results. A quality test is worth upgrade for quality results.

10 – Chocolate

You deserve a healthy treat after all these healthy shopping upgrades! Chocolate has so many benefits if you are eating real, dark chocolate. Don’t buy the over-processed junk or you will miss out on the benefits. You thought nutrients were just for vegetables? Chocolate is full of nutrients and antioxidants that are beneficial for your health. Your body craves chocolate because it is good for your hormones. In fact, I recommend dark chocolate for healthy hormones. The key is to finding good chocolate that is not full of milk, sugar and chemicals. Some of our favorite brands are Lily’s Dark Chocolate or Alter Eco.

Shopping Healthy with The Wellness Way Ladies’ Healthy Shopping Guide

How many of these products have you upgraded? There are numerous decisions we make every day that can add to our toxic load. Your body was made to detox naturally, but it wasn’t meant to handle all the chemicals we are exposed to on a daily basis. Each step you make to upgrade the products you use regularly is a step in the right direction. My healthy shopping guide will make choosing and leading a healthy lifestyle easier.