SOME BACKSTORY
When I started this blog, the biggest thing that kept coming back to me was how I felt when I discovered the world of holistic health and less toxic living. I was straight up OVERWHELMED. It didn’t help that I was a perfectionist (honestly I’m still struggling with that now) and wanted everything to be perfect so I could start living a “100% toxin free life”. Spoiler alert- that doesn’t exist.
I kept digging for information and answers, but I ended up stressing myself out even more. If you’re going through that right now, know that you are not alone. I completely know and understand how you feel.
It can seem like a bombardment of information at first, but my best piece of advice to you would be to make simple, easy swaps when you can. Please please please don’t do what I did and max out your credit card because you wanted to swap everything as soon as possible. That’s only going to cause you more mental and financial stress, and I don’t want that for you.
So…introducing the “Simple Swaps” series! This is what I wish I had when I was a newbie to less toxic living; basically a beginner’s guide to slowly swapping toxic products for less toxic ones.
Remember that living a less toxic lifestyle means trying your best to reduce the toxic load on your body, not eliminate it. With the way our current society is, that’s unfortunately next to impossible. It’s the small efforts that make a big difference! Just because you can’t afford to make a swap now doesn’t mean it’s going to kill you. I wish I heard that 2 years ago instead of maxing out my credit card!
While writing this, I imagined that I was talking to my two younger sisters. I’m sure they’re annoyed at how much I talk about this stuff, but I just want to convey this in a loving tone because I care about their health. And yours! If they asked me where to start in the world of less toxic living, I would point them to this blog post and hope it helps them on their journey.
SIMPLE SWAPS EP. 1: THE KITCHEN
I think I want to break this series down room by room, and the first room of the house we’re tackling today is the KITCHEN. Below are 8 things in your kitchen that you can swap when you have the time and money.
SWAP #1: DIY Dish Soap
The reason I encourage people to swap their dish soap is because most conventional dish soaps contain fragrance. Sure, fragrance adds a nice smell to whatever product it's added to, but did you know that synthetic fragrance is basically made up of a bunch of chemicals? Legally, some companies won’t reveal what chemicals they use since it can be proprietary information! I don’t know about you but that seems sketchy to me.
I also learned recently that there’s some fragrance chemicals that can bind to estrogen receptors- mimicking estrogen in our body! I would love to explore that science in a future blog post, but one side effect of that could be estrogen dominance. Too much estrogen in the body can lead to symptoms of PMS, heavy/painful periods, bloating, endometriosis, and more. If you’re interested in looking into this more I definitely recommend it.
Take any conventional dish soap and look up its ingredients. There’s a high chance that fragrance is added to it, and sometimes there might be some colorants added to make it a certain color. I looked up the ingredients for a well-known dish soap brand and I honestly couldn’t tell you what over half of those ingredients were.
A simple swap for dish soap is just a combination of castile soap and filtered water. I bought a glass pump at HomeGoods for $5, filled ¾ of the container with filtered water, filled the last ¼ with castile soap, then gave it a good shake! I currently use Dr. Bronner’s unscented pure-castile liquid soap, and it’s about $12 for 16oz (may change depending where you live). Dr. Bronner’s makes scented castile soap but I prefer to not use anything with fragrance.
SWAP #2: DIY Hand Soap
Does anyone else get a headache from Bath and Body Works soaps, or is it just me? The reason I suggest swapping to a homemade hand soap is similar to the reason for swapping dish soap. I used to be a die-hard Japanese Cherry Blossom girl, but now the smell gives me a headache (probably because of the unknown fragrance chemicals!).
I bought two glass foaming hand soap containers off Amazon, then did the same formula as the DIY dish soap. If you want to add some nice smells, I recommend using pure essential oils! It may not smell as nice as a Bath and Body Works soap, but your body will thank you in the long run.
SWAP #3: Luffa Sponges
Most of the dish sponges sold in stores are made of polyester or nylon, which are primarily composed of synthetic plastic. The more you wash your dishes with hot water and plastic sponges, the more you risk exposing yourself to microplastics. I’m sure you’ve experienced your sponge start to break down after intense scrubbing and cleaning. When that happens, you are introducing your environment to itty bitty microplastics.
I discovered the brand Truly Free Home when I was looking for kitchen swaps. I found out they sell a natural cleaning sponge made entirely of luffa! Luffa is a type of plant whose inner fiber looks and acts like a sponge. I had never heard of this plant before but now I want to grow them in my garden!
Luffa is an amazing alternative to plastic dish sponges. You can find luffa sponges on Amazon or on Truly Free Home. These are awesome- made completely from plants, contain no microplastics, and whenever they start breaking down you can throw them in your compost. No cons here!
SWAP #4: Wooden Cutting Boards/Utensils
Pretty similar to the last swap- did you know that when you prepare your food using a plastic cutting board, you are potentially exposing your food to microplastics? As the plastic cutting board breaks down, it gets a little easier for microplastics to break off the cutting board.
You can easily avoid this by switching to wooden cutting boards. I bought my wooden cutting boards on Amazon. They have several wooden cutting boards in different price ranges, and they can last a long time depending on how well you take care of them.
The same goes for plastic utensils that you use on the stovetop or grill. When your plastic utensils come into contact with hot food, it could potentially leach microplastics into whatever you’re cooking! I made the switch to bamboo cooking utensils and I bought a pack of them at my local HomeGoods. I’m 100% sure you could find a bunch on Amazon as well.
SWAP #5: Glass Food Storage
If you haven’t noticed a trend by now, a lot of these swaps involve swapping plastic for something else! When you place hot food into any type of plastic storage (ziploc bags, plastic meal prep containers, etc.), the heat can cause the plastic to start leaching into the food. An easy swap for this would be to switch over to glass food storage.
I bought a pack of varying glass food storage from Sam’s Club, but you can find these in almost any store. Most of the glass food container packs come with plastic lids and that’s honestly fine! I don’t fill my containers up to the top so the plastic doesn’t come in contact with my food. Like I said earlier in this post- it’s all about lessening our toxic load and the small swaps are what’s important.
Glass mason jars, glass drinking cups, and glass baking dishes (like Pyrex) are easy swaps too. You can find these anywhere and they’ll help you reduce your exposure to microplastics! I love storing pasta sauce, broth, or any type of hot liquid in my glass mason jars.
When it comes to packing your kids’ lunches however, glass may not be the answer. I’ve heard good things about Stasher, which is a reusable food storage company. Instead of plastic, they use food-grade platinum silicone that you can wash and reuse. I’ve also used paper lunch bags and I bought this brand on Amazon. The Stasher brand is a little pricey, but the Lunchskins brand on Amazon is definitely cost friendly.
SWAP #6: Stainless Steel/Ceramic/Cast Iron Pots and Pans
I honestly feel like this could be a whole post on its own.
A majority of non-stick pans that you find in the store are coated with Teflon. Teflon is what makes “non-stick” non-stick: easy to clean, easy to cook with, and the food basically glides off the pan when you’re done. However, when the coasting of your non-stick pan is scratched (most commonly when using a metal utensil on the pan), it releases PFAS, or “forever chemicals”. PFAS are per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. They’re called “forever chemicals” because you guessed it- they never break down and can stay in your body forever!
I think the best 3 alternatives to non-stick cooking pans are stainless steel, ceramic, and cast iron. Stainless steel pans are definitely the most versatile but are the most expensive. Ceramic pans can be pretty similar to non-stick when it comes to cooking experience, and depending on the brand you get can be cheaper than stainless steel. Cast iron is the cheapest of these, but you’ll have to be careful with what you cook in it. Acidic foods won’t destroy your cast iron, but you may need to re-season your pan after you’re done with it.
I am personally saving up for All Clad stainless steel and Caraway ceramic sets. I have one Lodge cast iron dutch oven for my sourdough! If you want something more affordable, I currently have Cuisinart stainless steel pans from Amazon and they work great.
SWAP #7: Water Filter
This swap may depend where you live and where you get your water.
As someone who lives in Florida, I was shocked when I went to the Environmental Working Group’s Tap Water Database and saw what was in my tap water. You should head to that link, type in your zip code, and see what comes up! I looked up my zip code and saw that the arsenic levels were 21 TIMES above the EWG’s health guideline…yikes.
There are a lot of water filters out there, but whenever you are able to invest in one I can recommend either a Berkey, Clearly Filtered, or AquaTru. I currently use Clearly Filtered water filters, but the other 2 are ones I’ve heard great things about! However, it’s still our duty as a consumer to look up what these water filters actually filter out.
I currently only filter my drinking water. When I boil water for pasta or wash my veggies, I still use water from the tap. Small swaps! I eventually would like to get an under-the-counter or whole house filter, but those are pricey so I’m slowly saving up.
SWAP #8: No seed oils!
If you don’t know me, I am a seed oil hater. I really want to explore the history of seed oils and how they came to be in a future post, but for now I strongly recommend tossing your seed oils and cooking with higher quality oils like organic avocado or olive, or animal products like tallow, grass-fed butter, or ghee.
Seed oils are inflammatory oils, and they are also pretty unstable at high temperatures. When it comes to cooking, these include canola oil, vegetable oil, sunflower oil, soybean oil, grapeseed oil, and whatever other seed-based oils are sold in grocery stores. I know some of these containers say these oils are “heart-healthy”, but if you look up how these are made you’ll know they really aren’t.
I always have organic extra virgin olive oil, organic avocado oil, ghee, and organic grass-fed butter in my kitchen for cooking. It may be a little pricier to grab these at the grocery store, but I assure you that your body will thank you in the long run.
I’d also be careful about the type of butter you grab at your local grocery store. Some butter is actually not even butter at all, it’s just mixed with different seed oils! This is why it’s important to start reading those ingredient labels to see what’s in your food.
I like to keep my kitchen free of seed oils, since I cook a lot of my meals. Unfortunately when it comes to eating at restaurants or eating anywhere outside of your home, most places use seed oils to cook their food. This is why it’s important to make small swaps where you can. I used to be so obsessed with stopping my seed oil consumption that I ended stressing myself out and feeling horrible about myself when I ate at Chipotle. Now I know that I should do my best and not worry about the rest.
Well, that’s it!
Those are my 8 swaps that I would recommend when moving towards a less toxic kitchen and an overall healthier home. For my blog readers that like lists, here's a handy dandy one:
- Make DIY dish soap: castile soap + filtered water
- Switch to luffa sponges instead of conventional, plastic sponges
- Make DIY hand soap: castile soap + filtered water (+ essential oils optional)
- Switch to wooden cutting boards and utensils instead of plastic ones
- Use glass food storage instead of plastic ones
- Switch to stainless steel/ceramic/cast iron pots and pans instead of non-stick ones
- Filter your drinking water
- Limit your seed oil consumption
Thank you so much for reading this! I truly hope this blog post helps you on your journey towards a less toxic lifestyle. What do you think of these swaps? Any other ones that I missed that you would recommend? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!
4axm14