This post isn’t what about what you’re thinking. It’s not about gender neutral toys, nor is it about allowing boys to wear pink. It’s not about the roles boys and girls are forced to endure as parents treat them horrifyingly different (sarcasm!).
This is about real chemical imbalances that are 50 years in the making. And we’re seeing them now.
The Telegraph wrote a piece called, “Why Boys Are Turning Into Girls” highlighting the effects of “gender bending” chemicals that have become ubiquitous in our society. It reports that these chemicals, dioxins, PCB’s, flame retardants, and phthlates, are largely responsible for the feminizing of boys and creating a massive problem of sperm count reduction all over the world.
Exposure to these chemicals vary and result in serious health problems, ranging from reproductive, immune or developmental disorders or neurological toxicity. Many of these chemicals are environmentally persistent: meaning they don’t just go away, they recycle themselves within nature, showing up in various animals, plants and bodies of water. Some of them, like dioxins, can be stored in the body and take a long time to be eliminated, encouraging a toxic buildup within your body-system with the result of a particularly serious health condition.
Incredibly alarming when you read that researchers just found flame retardants in samples of butter they had collected from Dallas, TX grocery stores.
These chemicals are practically everywhere. How can you prevent contamination? It’s likely that you and your (and my) children would test with detectable levels of many of these compounds. But here are a few things that you can do:
1) Do not store or microwave food in a plastic container or with plastic wrap. If you microwave at all (which I highly recommend against), move your food to a glass container. Check out this link about plastics or this NY Times article about BPA’s. Also this article claims there is “no safe microwavable plastic.” Avoid canned foods, buy fresh or frozen. Purchase organic when you can and Dr. Mercola claims if you can only buy a few things organic, get more bang for your buck buying organic meats. Local, trusted sources are optimal.
When storing food, attempt to use glass as much as possible, even with dry foods such as nuts, rice or beans. A solution? Buy a dozen or so wide mouth (easier to wash) Mason or Ball glass canning jars and store your food in those.
2) Having a new baby? Buy an organic mattress. Or if that is not feasible wrap your existing mattress. Be sure purchase/paint with low/no VOC furniture and air out the room often before the baby comes. Do not buy flame retardant clothing or mattresses with flame retardant chemicals embedded in them. Remember, anything that comes in contact with the skin has a possibility of being absorbed by the skin.
3) Cook from an iron skillet rather than a Teflon or other chemically coated pan. That includes George Foreman grills which are coated with Teflon.
4) Replace all bath items, shampoo, conditioners, etc with their organic equals. Why? Because soaps and many bathroom items have hormone mimickers as ingredients-which are used on the skin- the largest organ on your body. And make sure you read the labels (even with organic products)! Sometimes they still contain chemicals that are toxic! Here’s another list.
I personally have stopped using bottled moisturizers and started using coconut oil on my skin and I love it! Never put anything on your skin that you wouldn’t eat! Vitacost.com is a good place online to do your discounted shopping for these types of items, but your local health food store would appreciate your patronage.
5) Cook from scratch. You can control what goes in your body much better if you purchase fresh, organic ingredients and prepare them yourself. For me, who was not comfortable in the kitchen, this meant I had to learn how to cook! HA! My solution? I subscribed to Everyday by Rachel Ray and Cooking Light and just started cooking! I had no particular knack for it, but now I am very comfortable in the kitchen! But, seriously, when you purchase an organic product, you are placing your vote in the Big Consumer Ballot Box that translates into moneymoneymoney. Money talks and Corporations listen.
Plain Green 