Pulling the Wool over Our Eyes

Guest blogger Sally-Ann Creed, gives an informative overview of the importance of using natural laundry detergents.

Are you using a “natural” Laundry Detergent(s)? Are you quite sure? Read Your Labels and avoid products with these ingredients:

Phosphates in our Washing Powder
Phosphates are natural minerals that are important to a variety of biological processes. A key nutrient for plants and animals, these minerals were once widely used in detergents because they did two very useful things: They reduced water hardness which allowed the detergent’s soap to clean more effectively, and they prevented dirt from being re-deposited back onto the items being cleaned. But while phosphates may be a perfect ingredient for laundry and other detergents, once they’re released into the environment via household wastewater, the results are anything but desirable.

The trouble starts with an algae bloom. Simply put, algae love phosphates. For these tiny plants, a washer load of phosphate-laden detergent is an invitation to a giant all-you-can-eat feast. In response to all this sudden food, the algae feed and reproduce prodigiously, and then die off in equally large numbers as the ecosystem becomes unable to support their burgeoning population.

They destroy our Environment!
Once dead, they drift to the bottom of the pond or lake where they become food for other microorganisms. Now it’s the other microorganisms’ turn to enjoy an overabundance of food. As they feed and reproduce in growing numbers in response to the increased availability of dead algae, the microorganisms strip more and more oxygen out of the water. Eventually, if the population explosion is great enough, the waters in question become so devoid of this crucial element that they can’t support any life at all. The result is a “dead” body of water. Soon thereafter, something called eutrophication often occurs, a process by which a body of water loses all its life, fills in with solids, and becomes dry land.

In response to this once common problem, most products containing phosphates were eliminated years ago. An exception, however, was made for automatic dishwasher detergents - these products gained an exemption from phosphate bans because of the unique way dishwashers work. Responsible manufacturers now create high performance automatic dishwashers that work without using phosphates in their formulas. To keep your local waterways in healthy balance, look for these alternatives when you shop and keep phosphates out of the environment.

Sodium Carbonate
The use of large quantities of sodium carbonate in washing powder has been shown to be very hard on fabrics. Cotton fibres in particular will slowly suffer when washed repeatedly with sodium carbonate. This fraying is especially visible with dark colours, and over time can make the colours looked slightly bleached out.

Sodium Laureth Sulphate (SLS)
This inexpensive detergent is commonly used in cosmetic cleansers, hair shampoos, bath and shower gels, bubble baths and washing powders - it is probably the most dangerous ingredient used in skin and hair-care products. In the cleaning industry SLS is used in garage floor cleaners, engine degreasers, car-wash soaps, etc. It is very corrosive and readily attacks greasy surfaces. What is it doing to our bodies, our children and our environment?

Sodium laureth sulfate is used throughout the world for clinical testing as a primary skin irritant (and to think some people wash their clothes and bodies with this….). Laboratories use it to irritate skin on test animals and humans so that they may then test healing agents to see how effective they are on the irritated skin.

A study at the University of Georgia Medical College, indicated that SLS penetrated into the eyes as well as brain, heart, liver, etc, and showed long-term retention in the tissues. The study also indicated that SLS penetrated young children's eyes and prevented them from developing properly and caused cataracts to develop in adults. It may also cause hair loss by attacking the follicle (but hang on - this in in a lot of shampoo too...!) it is potentially harmful to skin and hair. It cleans by corrosion.

Another extremely serious problem is the connection of SLS with nitrate contamination. SLS reacts with many types of ingredients used in skin products and forms nitrosomines (nitrates). Nitrates are potential cancer-causing carcinogenics.

Because of the alarming penetrating power of SLS, large amounts of these known carcinogens are absorbed through the skin into the body. A variation of SLS is SODIUM LAURETH SULFATE (Sodium Lauryl Ether Sulfate- SLES). It exhibits many of the same characteristics and is a higher-foaming variation of SLS. Boy, do we ever NOT want this in our cleaning products! Avoid it like the plague - there ARE products out there without these dangerous chemicals masquerading as "natural".

Nonyl phenyl ethoxylate
These are the published warnings:

Skin Contact: In case of contact, immediately flush skin with plenty of water. Cover the irritated skin with an emollient. Remove contaminated clothing and shoes. Wash clothing before reuse. Thoroughly clean shoes before reuse. Seek immediate medical attention. (Wow - and this is part of “natural” LAUNDRY detergent???) For skin contact wash with a disinfectant soap and cover the contaminated skin with an anti-bacterial cream.

Inhalation: If inhaled, remove to fresh air. If not breathing(!), give artificial respiration. If breathing is difficult, give oxygen. Get medical attention.
Flammability: May be combustible at high temperature.
Routes of Entry: Absorbed through skin (and you are washing CLOTHES in it?).

Toxic Effects on Humans: Hazardous in case of skin contact (irritant), of ingestion, of inhalation. Mist may cause irritation of the respiratory tract experienced as nasal discomfort and discharge with chest pain and coughing. May affect respiration experienced as audible respiration, and mouth breathing, and distended abdomen. Exposure to high aerosol concentrations for a prolonged period of time may result in suffocation.

Special Remarks on Chronic Effects on Humans: May affect genetic material and cause adverse reproductive effects and birth defects based on animal studies.
Eyes: Causes severe eye irritation and conjunctivitis with possible chemical burns of the eye.

Chronic Potential Health Effects:
Skin: Prolonged or repeated skin contact may cause irritation and dermatitis. Prolonged or widespread contact may result in absorption of potentially harmful amounts and may cause abdominal discomfort, nausea, vomitting, and diarrhea. Studies also indicate that continuous exposure to high concentrations may be toxic to the kidneys.

For more on Sally-Anne Creed, please see her website's at www.sallyanncreed.co.za and www.creeds.co.za.

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More good news about fish oil

Doctors are being advised to prescribe oily fish or omega-3 fatty acid supplements to heart attack patients.

Professor Gene Feder, Chair of the Guideline Development Group, said: "The growing evidence that cardiac rehabilitation and specific lifestyle changes reduces the risk of second heart attacks, as well as improving quality of life, is not widely recognized."

This is wonderful news – at last good nutrition is being recognized by main-stream medicine. Nutritionists have been recommending fish oil for heart patients for years – Dr Robert Buist for one, then Dr Joseph Mercola and Jack Challem, ‘The Nutrition Reporter’ were recommending it in 2003 and of course Dr Barry Sears is a great proponent of high dose fish oil to combat heart disease. Try a Google search on benefits of fish oil and heart disease, and you’ll come up with 1,160,000 links.

However, what must be clearly borne in mind is that our oceans are all contaminated with heavy metals such as mercury, and so consider this when taking high doses of fish oil in supplemented form. Any fish oil supplement must ONLY be of Pharmaceutical Grade, which indicates that the oil has had any heavy metal contamination and other toxins removed under pharmaceutical conditions

More recommendations by health professionals for high-dose, ultra refined fish oil before, during and after pregnancy will ensure good development of the brain of her unborn child, as well as sufficient omega-3 for her health

And further, benefits have been experienced in the following conditions:
Bronchitis, emphysema, high blood pressure, asthma, ulcerative colitis, Alzheimer's, MS, ADD, dyslexia, Parkinson's and more.

Read more on the BBC article Fish oil urged for heart patients.

Image source=BBC.co.uk
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The Great GM Debate

News from David Biello in Scientific American this week (May 24^th 2007) is that Genetically Modified Crops Survive Weed-Whacking Herbicide. Crops genetically altered to resist herbicides have become so prevalent that resistant weeds are beginning to appear, necessitating new forms of genetic modification.

Everyone must be aware of the growth of technology in all spheres of our lives, even where we least expected technology to have any say at all. But surely the fastest growing in the past decade must have been in agriculture, where growth in GM food has been faster than in any other since the inception of the earliest of farming tools, the plow.

Nearly 250 million acres were put under GM crops in 2006 and 173 million of those were GM altered to resist the herbicide Roundup™. Farmers are able to apply it without restraint, so cutting costs and dropping the need for cultivation between crops.

But the giant ragweed (Ambrosia trifida) has now evolved into varieties which have an inborn resistance to the herbicide and so researchers move on to more successfully modified crops to resist yet another herbicide.

Where will it all end?

Image source=www.internationalpheromone.co.uk

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Harvest from the Toddler Organic Vegetable Garden

Have you been ‘conditioned’ into believing organic vegetables can never look as good as regular ones in shops? Well if you have, then take a closer look at this picture. There’s a bit too much reflection coming off the packaging, but there’s no denying the cos and dark frilly oak-leafed lettuce is as good looking as any, anywhere! The only reason organic vegetables look so unappetizing is because they are not fresh. And the reason other vegetables keep their ‘fresh’ look is because of the harmful chemicals placed inside the plastic wrappers which give them a longer shelf live.

These vegetables were harvested from Squirrel’s Landing Organic Garden last Wednesday, and sold to a few lucky shoppers on Thursday. They were still crisp and beautiful and caused many ooh’s and aah’s from admirers. If you’ve been watching Cabbages and Cream since its inception, you’ll remember it all started at the beginning of March, and this is what has come out of the garden two and a half months later. You can track progress of the lettuce by clicking Organic Vegetable Garden Progress on April 22^nd.

Our beetroot doesn’t show up in this picture, but you can be sure it is utterly delicious, with strong, healthy leaves – nothing like the limp stuff in the supermarkets and big vegetable stores.

Read more on the topic: We want real food

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Fatty acids

This is a big subject, but we can simplify it by recognising the following:

Fatty acids are released when dietary fats are digested. The major fatty acids in our diet are composed of recurring segments of two carbon units making up long chains of fatty acids of 16, 18, 20, etc, carbon atoms, divisible by 2.

Almost all fatty acids in natural products contain an EVEN number of carbon atoms.

Fatty acids containing no double bonds are called saturated fatty acids and those with double bonds are called unsaturated fatty acids. Those with more than one double-bond are called polyunsaturated.

Trans Fatty Acids – This is a little more complicated, but put simply. if two parts of the fatty acid are on opposite sides of the double-bond, then the fatty acid is in the ‘trans’ form. Transfat is the common name for a type of unsaturated fat with trans isomer fatty acid(s). Transfats may be monounsaturated or polyunsaturated. These are the fatty acids we need to avoid in our diets as they are damaged and cause many health problems. You will find them in supermarket vegetable oils, most processed foods, fast foods, junk foods, breakfast bars, some breakfast cereals, chocolate bars and more.

Essential Fatty Acids are the ones our bodies do not produce so we have to get them from our diets. Known commonly as omega-3 and omega-6, their scientific names are alpha-linoleic acid and linoleic acid respectively. Omega-3 acids are derived from marine sources and omega-6 acids are derived from land-based sources of plants and animals. The best source of dietary omega-3 is in fresh organic fish and good pharmaceutical grade fish oil with good quantities of EPA/DHA. This is one supplement everyone could benefit from and a daily dose of 2-4g will help avoid heart disease and much more.

Watch out for more on this essential food on Cabbages and Cream.

See more from Dr Robert Buist on Nutritional Courses.

Image source=http://adam.about.com/reports/000074_7.htm

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