@jayrashman Yes, I figured a silicone set was at least still better than the 10+ year old of melting plastic utensils I had was 
thanks for your insight!
thanks for your insight!
Top 5 things you’d recommend
- Thread starter allisonintx
- Start date
katrina2017
New member
@allisonintx Crunchy for me is grounded in anti-consumption
1. Compost all of it. Nothing in your trash that is organic matter.
2. Reuse reuse reuse. (Create a space where things that could be tossed are held for arts /crafts)
3. Nothing disposable (no paper towels, rags and washable sponges etc, cloth diapers, old seed catalogs for wrapping paper)
4. Share abundance (make gifts from second hand items, grow part of the garden to give away)
5. Meal planning and eating meals together
1. Compost all of it. Nothing in your trash that is organic matter.
2. Reuse reuse reuse. (Create a space where things that could be tossed are held for arts /crafts)
3. Nothing disposable (no paper towels, rags and washable sponges etc, cloth diapers, old seed catalogs for wrapping paper)
4. Share abundance (make gifts from second hand items, grow part of the garden to give away)
5. Meal planning and eating meals together
@chris0699 Came to basically say the same. You probably don't need to buy the "thing" and stick to natural materials.
@chris0699 Yesss
@chris0699 I reuse a lot of plastic containers from the grocery store/take out for arts and crafts, scrap paper, storing crayons and markers, random supplies, etc.
lanaforjesus
New member
@allisonintx 1- Yuka app, you scan or search barcodes for cosmetics and food and it gives you a score from bad to excellent and tells you all the additives.
2- Learn the dirty dozen. I don’t buy every last thing organic but those are the most important to try and stick to. I’m weird about meat, dairy and eggs and try to research the sources as much as possible.
3- Avoid fragrances. “Fragrance” in ingredients can basically mean anything and it’s always completely unnecessary. Read the ingredients, sometimes things labeled “unscented” still have fragrance in the ingredients.
4- Reasearch your cleaning products and detergents.
5- Slowly replace your linens and clothing with natural fibers, you don’t need to toss everything out at once. Slowly replace plastic (tupperware, bottles) with glass or metal where possible.
2- Learn the dirty dozen. I don’t buy every last thing organic but those are the most important to try and stick to. I’m weird about meat, dairy and eggs and try to research the sources as much as possible.
3- Avoid fragrances. “Fragrance” in ingredients can basically mean anything and it’s always completely unnecessary. Read the ingredients, sometimes things labeled “unscented” still have fragrance in the ingredients.
4- Reasearch your cleaning products and detergents.
5- Slowly replace your linens and clothing with natural fibers, you don’t need to toss everything out at once. Slowly replace plastic (tupperware, bottles) with glass or metal where possible.
@allisonintx
- Limit blue light after 5pm. 2. Exercise outside as much as possible within reason. 3. Eat what your great grandma ate. 4. Become as low maintenance as possible. This way you don’t need much for your hair or skin so less to worry about. 5. If it affects your mental health it ain’t crunchy. Crunchiness for me is about healthy first. So if I am getting anxious about it then it has ceased to benefit me. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
@ramona247 These are great ones!
snowgi7574
New member
@allisonintx 1) sleep hygiene (really and truly, it’s the foundation for so many other facets of health); 2) teaching kids to recognize and value whole food (versus processed); 3) nurturing emotional intelligence in kids, raising them to be empathetic and kind; 4) fostering a reverence for the natural world and recognizing how important it is to protect; 5) valuing science/reason/evidence over dogma.
I think the rest will follow. Try not to fall down the rabbit whole of “chemical exposure” — it’s great to avoid plastics and parabens, stay vigilant around sources of lead exposure, etc, but it’s easy to become obsessive.
I think the rest will follow. Try not to fall down the rabbit whole of “chemical exposure” — it’s great to avoid plastics and parabens, stay vigilant around sources of lead exposure, etc, but it’s easy to become obsessive.
niteshayde
New member
@allisonintx Lots of great recommendations here! Some i haven’t seen written yet: 1) most PFAS are consumed and inhaled. PFAS gets out of our bloodstream in a week. The easiest way to avoid pfas is avoid eating fast food (the packaging has the highest amount of pfas), not buying metal canned items. Do filter your water, and take veggies and fruits out of packaging and washing fruits/veggies with baking soda (soak them for 3 min with a teaspoon of baking soda). Vacuum often and open your windows and doors to let fresh air in, pfas in carpets, water repellent clothes, sofas, are mixed in the dust and inhaled.
2) subscribe to newsletters from ewg.org and ehn.org, and mamavation! Books like “slow death by rubber duck” really got me into thinking about the whole thing.
2) subscribe to newsletters from ewg.org and ehn.org, and mamavation! Books like “slow death by rubber duck” really got me into thinking about the whole thing.
@allisonintx
- To grant yourself grace and know you'll never be able to be perfect at this or avoid toxins completely. Don't compare yourself to these super moms who can do it all. Don't feel guilty if you allow your kid to splurge at a birthday party
- Read labels. Start researching ingredients in food and the harm a lot of them cause and SLOWLY start to cut the problematic ones out of your diet (but only pick 1-3 at a time until you get the hang of it. I cut out like 50 ingredients at once and got soooo overwhelmed!)
- Aim for LESSER toxic products rather than non toxic. It's less stressful and depending on your situation, sometimes the only option. It took me a long time but I'm finally ok with certain greens washed products. It may not be the absolute best or the cleanest but I bet it's a whole lot better than what you use to use.
- Gradually switch out your cookware when you can afford it. Swap out aluminum, anything non stick, plastic, even paper plates (PFAS coating) and replace them with cast iron, stainless steel, and glass. Glass for food storage containers (Pyrex and Anchor Hocking are also oven safe).
- Use quality brands of supplements, preferably whole food supplements if possible cuz the body absorbs those much better, nothing from Walmart, drug stores, or grocery stores. Read the ingredients on them as well. The 3 main brands I avoid are Spring Valley, Nature Made, and Nature's Bounty. Studies have shown that they contain very little of the herb/mineral/vitamin they claim to have and they usually have a bunch of harmful fillers. They are very poor quality.
suomisidney
New member
@raykelley Nature made is third party tested and USP verified, which very few vitamins are. USP tells you that what’s on the label is what’s in the vitamin. Do you have a link to the study that says they don’t contain what they say they do?
https://www.quality-supplements.org/usp_verified_products
https://www.quality-supplements.org/usp_verified_products
@suomisidney I will look to see if I can find the studies. Have you looked at the labels of Nature Made products? There is literally nothing safe about ANYTHING in this 
https://preview.redd.it/na8trp0xmaa...bp&s=cbca1c2ee3b7143d4f962f969eb522073f347082
https://preview.redd.it/na8trp0xmaa...bp&s=cbca1c2ee3b7143d4f962f969eb522073f347082
suomisidney
New member
@raykelley My father ended up with copper poisoning because of some of these supplements and vitamins he was buying that were recommended by his doctors ended up having excess copper because they weren’t third party tested. It’s a trade off for me, maybe some of the ingredients aren’t great but at least I know the vitamin amount I’m getting on the bottle is what’s in the vitamin.
Ritual has a few that are USP verified now so I might make the switch there. I believe Thorne has a few USP verified as well. But they’re expensive. It’s an affordability trade off as well
Ritual has a few that are USP verified now so I might make the switch there. I believe Thorne has a few USP verified as well. But they’re expensive. It’s an affordability trade off as well
suomisidney
New member
Same goes for anything that says “proprietary blend” they do not have to tell you exactly what that is or how much. And if a non USP vitamin says it’s lab tested it’s likely their lab so they can sign off on whatever they want to.
From the NIH
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10196566/
The use of proprietary blends with unknown amounts of various bioactives that are dietary ingredients and the lack of publicly available scientific evidence to support the effectiveness or claims about these unique formulations have implications for researchers and consumers. When the amount of a dietary ingredient listed within a proprietary blend is not declared, it is not possible to accurately calculate exposures and intakes of that ingredient or determine doses used in clinical trials from label information. Researchers must use alternative ways to arrive at amounts, either by chemically analyzing the product, arriving at default values calculated from similar products where the amounts are declared, or by contacting the manufacturer to request the amounts (although they are not required to supply it).
From the NIH
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10196566/
The use of proprietary blends with unknown amounts of various bioactives that are dietary ingredients and the lack of publicly available scientific evidence to support the effectiveness or claims about these unique formulations have implications for researchers and consumers. When the amount of a dietary ingredient listed within a proprietary blend is not declared, it is not possible to accurately calculate exposures and intakes of that ingredient or determine doses used in clinical trials from label information. Researchers must use alternative ways to arrive at amounts, either by chemically analyzing the product, arriving at default values calculated from similar products where the amounts are declared, or by contacting the manufacturer to request the amounts (although they are not required to supply it).
lanaforjesus
New member
@raykelley I didn’t know that about nature made! thanks!
@lanaforjesus Yvw! 
@mmiranda Thx! A lot of what I named is based off of my own mistakes of trying to be perfect at this and then beating myself up when I failed. I put WAY too much pressure on myself during the first couple of years of my transition... I thought I could do it all at once but honestly the stress just made everything more unhealthy for me. I wish I would have done things more gradual