As more and more chemicals are entering our lives through our food, skincare and cleaning products, it is time to discuss how they affect your body, cause harmful side effects, and how we can help reverse this trend and be healthier.

One way of doing this, as discussed by Cyndi O’Meara in her book Lab To Table, is to start practicing Counting our Chemical Calories.  That’s right, counting the amount of chemicals our body absorbs daily.

In times past, your body was able to naturally regulate and maintain weight and health. Life was simpler, with way less choices in the foods we ate, the cleaning products we used or the creams and cosmetics we put on our skin. However, our bodies are now being exposed to a toxic overload of chemicals in our everyday lives and we, as a society, are getting sicker and fatter, even though we are eating less fatty food and exercising more.

One of the reasons behind this is our bodies desire for homeostasis, a state of balance among all the body systems needed for the body to survive and function correctly. It tries to maintain a toxic free environment, taking the good stuff from what we consume by way of eating, breathing and skin absorption and excreting the rubbish and by products through urine, feces, carbon dioxide and sweat. If the body cannot eliminate all this toxic waste, and maintain balance, it stores it away until it can in our fat cells, often called Cellulite!

However, with more toxic chemicals entering our body through food production, skin care and household products, the harder it is getting for our bodies to get rid of them all and it is storing them for later in those fat cells.  That’s right, your fat cells, once used in times of fast and famine to store fat for when food was scarce, are now being filled with an overload of toxic chemicals.

Interestingly, our body does have a natural way of trying to eliminate all these excess toxins, and that is through a process called “having a cold or flu”. Our bodies will dump the toxins in mucus and try to excrete as much as is needed to again maintain balance.  Ironically, people don’t like having colds, so they take medication to stop the flow of mucus and thus stop the elimination of toxins. This is compounding the problem creating fattier, less healthy individuals, and eventually more severe colds!!

That is why I believe it is so important to try and change your eating and lifestyle habits. Some simple steps towards this are:

• Eat only simple, good and wholesome food. Where possible, eat organic. Join the wave of people that growing their own vegies, even a pot of spinach on a balcony can help!
• The skin is the largest organ we have! Take care of what you put on it! A great rule of thumb for cosmetics is: if you can’t eat it, don’t put it on your skin.
• Eliminate harmful household cleaning products. Although we don’t consume them, we do inhale them, which cause an increase in chemical calories count.
• Always read the list of ingredients on not only food but your skincare and cleaning products. My rule is: the less ingredients the better!

While balance is the key to a healthier life, we must acknowledge that we are never going to rid our lives of all toxic chemicals. Taking these active steps to decrease your chemical calories count will give our bodies a chance to eliminate the toxic load and rid itself of excess fat. We can regain our energy and be healthier, fitter and happier.

If you have any question, please do not hesitate to contact us.