Water | Resources
Fruit & Vegetable Wash Safe?
Question from LM
Hi Debra,
I buy organic produce but I still feel like I have to wash it. Are the “non-toxic” fruit and vegetable washes safe? I’m reading the ingredients for a popular one by ECOS that sells at my local food co-op and the ingredients are:
- Water
- Alcohol Denatured. (corn-derived solvent)\
- Decyl Glucoside (plant-powered surfactant)
- Potassium Sorbate (food grade preservative)
- Citric Acid (plant-powered pH adjuster)
Comments? Thanks Debra!
Debra’s Answer
I can’t make a case for this product being “toxic.” It certainly doesn’t contain any of the major chemicals of concern. So in that sense I would have to call it toxic-free.
But here’s my concern. It’s basically an industrial product made from industrial ingredients. Yes the source material for these ingredients are plants, and they appear to be organic (at least there is an organic logo on the label, though nothing says “organic” in the ingredients list.
So these plants are put into a factory and broken down in some way into industrial ingredients that are then combined in a factory into a wash that you are going to push on your organic vegetables and fruits.
Just look at this for a moment. You’ve purchase organic produce. Now you are going to clean it with industrial ingredients. The first ingredient is water. Hmmmm. What kind of water. Probably tap water. If you are buying organic produce you probably are using filtered water. We don’t know what their water is. They are not telling us.
Is this really a necessary product? What is it that you want to remove from your organic produce with this product?
I just rinse my organic produce with filtered water. I’ve never used produce washes and don’t find them necessary.
UPDATE 3/17/19
I just found a very long list of certified biobasaed fruit and vegetable washes.
If this is a product you are interested in, this list would be a good place to compare what percentage of their ingredients are not petroleum.
Nature’s Fabrics
A great selection of natural fiber and fabrics, including cotton, hemp, wool, and bamboo, many organic. They also carry some synthetics, so choose appropriately. Many weaves and colors and some hard-to-find natural fiber blends, such as heavy cotton/hemp fleece. “We are a small family business living on a farm in NW PA. We strive to bring you the finest fabrics at reasonable prices.” The ordering process is a little awkward. To find description and price, find the fabric you want and click on “add to cart” to get to the description page. Then choose a “cut” and a quantity. So, for example, if you chose 1 yard and quantity 3, they will send you 3 continuous yards.
Blue Q
Totes and other bags made from 95% recycled polyethylene rice sacks (don’t know the other 5% but it’s nothing that I can smell). These bags are unusually fun and functional. I have a shoulder tote and I love it. The nontoxic material is waterproof so it protects the contents of the bag when it’s raining, the totes are generous in size with a big zipper that is easy to open and close, and straps long enough to carry on my shoulder. I take mine to the farmer’s market every Sunday. Bold colorful designs. NOTE: There are other products on this site. I am only recommending the bags.
Dizolve
A simple movie-timed sized strip “loaded with eco-friendly, ultra-concentrated cleaning power” brings nontoxic detergent to laundry. Ingredients were chosen specifically to be free of toxics—no dyes, chlorine, dioxane, parsons. Fragrance-free option.
POH Personal Oral Hygiene
Dental floss and toothbrush used by Preventive Dentists. “These are Dentists who have studied the science and art of preventing disease from ever taking hold in the mouth. These Dentists do not want to fill another cavity, or pull another diseased tooth…The science behind our toothbrushes and dental floss was developed by a Medical Doctor, not a Dentist. The products depend on this science…Our toothbrush bristles are very thin with carefully polished tips. This makes the bristles very soft and gentle, compared to other toothbrushes. Since this part of the toothbrush is actually what is useful, we focus our attention there…Our floss is very different, too. Its many thin strands of nylon enable our floss to disrupt and disorganize the bacterial plaque, which is the key to preventing tooth decay and gum disease.” One of my longtime readers recommended this method. She has been using it with success for years. Products are made from nylon.
Toxic-Free Living as an Act of Love
In 2015 I was invited to speak at a summit called Self-Love Revolution. Of course, I spoke on the subject of Toxic Free Living as an Act of Love.
Since it’s Valentine’s Day this week, I thought I would offer you the giveaway as a Valentine’s gift.
I hadn’t read it since then, but I loved reading it just now. It warmed my heart and I want to share it with you.
Here is an excerpt from the ebook.
What Self-Love Means to Me
I want to tell you a story about something that laid the foundation for me about what love is. It happened many years ago, in 1985, when I was 29 years old. It was one year after my first book about toxics in consumer products was published—actually it was the first book about consumer products ever published.
Now I have to correct this story. I told it one way in the Self Love Revolution Summit interview, but as I am working on this giveaway, I am realizing some of the detailed were incorrect in my memory that day.
I was living in San Francisco at the time, not Marin County, and I decided to go for a drive. Some days, you know, you just feel like you just have to take the day off. And I got into my sporty little Volkswagon GTI and I just started driving.
I drove north over the Golden Gate Bridge and just started driving the backroads up into Sonoma County where they all have the vineyards, and I ended up in a little bookstore. As I was looking at books in the bookstore, a book fell off the shelf into my hand. It fell off the shelf into my hand, honestly.
The book was The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck. And I bought it. I thought, “If the book is going to fall off the shelf into my hand, I better buy it and I better read it.”
I just want to share a little portion of the book to you because it touched my heart. And here it is:
When we love something, it is of value to us. And when something is a value to us, we spend time with it, time enjoying it and time taking care of it.”
Observe a teenager in love with his car and note the time he would spend admiring it, polishing it, repairing it, tuning it. Or an older person with a beloved rose garden and the time spent pruning and mulching and fertilizing and studying it.”
When we love, our love becomes demonstrable or real only through our exertion, through the fact that for that loved one, we take an extra step or walk an extra mile.”
Love is not effortless. To the contrary, love is effortful.
I have probably read this a hundred times in my life. I always come back to this. The book is still available. It’s such a beloved book. It’s a classic book.
I had never heard anything like this before. I always thought love was romantic. It’s what you see in the movies and it happens between a man and a woman or a mother and a child or something. But this was such a universal definition that it’s like . . . when you really love, when you truly, deeply love, it sparks you to want to care for that which you love.
And so if you don’t love yourself, you won’t take care of yourself. It’s really love that is the motivating thing within you that makes you want to be the best that you can be, to make you want to take care of your body, to make you want to do all those self-exploration things, to find out who you are and how you can be a better person. It comes from love. And we all have that. And so health comes from loving yourself and taking care of yourself is the result.
You feel better and then you get reinforced and you want to continue to do the actions once you start taking them.
It turns out that love has many health benefits, including:
* longer life
* fewer colds & flu
* better blood pressure
* healthier eating habits
* better stress management
* less depression
* less pain
* faster healing
And more…
Here are some articles with more information on love and health:
THE GOOD INSIDE: 5 Surprising Health Benefits of Love
WEB MD: 10 Surprising Health Benefits of Love
New Survey Asks California Women About Consumer Product Use to Determine Exposure to Toxic Chemicals
A new study is looking to survey about six hundred women across California about their use of consumer products “to better learn the types of products women use, how often women use them, and how women choose the products they use. This information will help us understand exposures to chemicals in consumer products.
Responses will be used to help the State of California learn how to protect people’s health.
If you live in California and would like to participate in the survey, click here.
I just took it myself. Just taking the survey actually made me more aware of what I use and don’t use. They also ask question about things like what you look for in making your product choices, which gives you an opportunity to look at that too. They included “scent” as a reason you would purchase but not “unscented.” I typed in unscented because I think they will consider “scent” to mean because you want scent, not scent/unscented as an issue. Ah later they ask if the personal care products you use are scented, fragrance-free, or not sure.
They also ask where you purchase your products (natural food store wasn’t included but there was a space where I could type it in).
Doing this survey really showed me how few products I actually use and also showed me how many products-of-concern there are.
Coracao Chocolate
I found these chocolates at my local community food store, who often carries products not found elsewhere. Simple and delicious organic HEIRLOOM chocolate sweetened with coconut sugar. 81% dark heirloom chocolate comes in bars in several flavors, and they also have boxes filled with pieces in flavors you would recognize from a candy store. Great for gifts.
Cria
This is a unique and interesting product designed to “combat hair loss and hair thinning and improve overall hair health.” It’s made with only four natural ingredients, including an herb from the Amazon rainforest. “When applied to the scalp, CRIA’s powerful antioxidants neutralize the toxins while the essential nutrients nourish the follicles. CRIA’s Sesame Oil in particular, supports blood circulation. This helps balance the body’s PH, rejuvenate your weakened follicles, minimize hair thinning and create new hair with every application.”
Alex Crane
“Breezy linen clothes” for men in the USA, made from “fabrics, colors and fits that make us feel playful and sharp, because we all do our best when we feel light.”
