Palos Chiro Blog

My name is Amanda and I am here to answer any questions you have about Natural Living. Over 20 years ago, I developed Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS), and since then I have dedicated myself to finding ways to live a life with reduced chemical exposure. In the process, I have found that the best things for my own health are also good for the health of the Earth. I am passionate about living in a way that supports wellness for the body, mind and spirit. Please post your questions about natural remedies, products, recipes for super foods, homemade cleaning products, and anything else concerning a more natural lifestyle. I would love to help

To ask a question, just click on the Comments link below.

All information found on GoAskAmanda is meant to motivate and inspire rather than be construed as medical advice. Please consult a qualified health practitioner for any medical needs.

Another thing!! I will be looking for hopefully very reasonably priced mattresses, any ideas where to find them? Hopefully something as natural as possible.. I’m hoping all of this will help with the allergy problems.. Thanks again.

Kristine

Kristine,

Mattresses are a big sticking point in a person’s quest for a healthier life, because it is so important that they be safe since you spend 8 hours a day in close contact with them, but they are such an expensive item to replace.  Conventional innerspring mattresses are a major trigger for allergies, asthma, headaches and poor sleep quality.  They are made of incredibly toxic synthetic foam and treated with fungicides and fire retardants that are absorbed by our bodies and show up in our breast milk.  I could rant about this for hours, but instead I will give you a few options to consider.  Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a low cost non-toxic mattress.   

First, consider your priorities—if you think that dust mites are affecting your allergies, then the lowest cost fix is to buy a barrier cloth mattress cover for your current mattress and box spring.  Barrier cloth is very tightly woven cotton fabric that is guaranteed to keep the dust mites that are already in the mattress away from you.  Regular cleaning is necessary to make sure that new dust mites do not build up on the barrier cloth.  You can find these at Amazon.com.  Barrier cloth does not protect you from the outgassing chemicals in the mattress, however.  The only way to do that is to encase your entire mattress in sealed plastic, which is not a good option, since the plastic would outgas as well.

If you want to protect yourself from toxins, the best solution is to invest in a safe mattress along with a barrier cloth cover if dust mites are also a concern.  There are very good innerspring mattresses made with organic wool padding and covered with organic cotton, but they are indeed expensive.  These mattresses are completely non-toxic but I personally don’t think that an innerspring mattress and box spring is even a good idea, because sleeping on top of coiled wires interferes with the healing natural magnetic fields that are coming from the Earth.

Many chemically sensitive people purchase more affordable all-cotton futon style mattresses, these are very nice but the downside to these is that they are only comfortable for a year or so, and then they get compressed and have dips in them.  If you have to replace them frequently, they are not a very cost effective solution.  These do work well for cribs though, since they are only used for a few years, and the weight of a child does not compress them too much. 

Another choice is a natural latex rubber mattress, which is what I have and I absolutely love it.  It is the most comfortable thing I have ever slept on and even though my husband and I have different firmness preferences, we both are very happy with this mattress.  Most people who are allergic to latex are allergic to synthetic latex, since virtually nothing has been commonly made with natural latex for decades.  Many cheaper latex mattresses that tout themselves as being natural are actually synthetic latex which outgasses toxic fumes, so you really have to determine if they are real or not.  I have seen synthetic latex mattresses at Ikea, and they do have a very strong odor that would cause me to have symptoms.  My natural latex rubber one has only a slight odor that I stopped noticing in a few days, and I have the nose of a bloodhound!  The manufacturer is Sleeptek.  I found many online sources for this brand.  I paid about $2,300 for it (in king size) almost 10 years ago.  Since it is a solid block of rubber dust mites cannot get inside of it, and every other month I vacuum both sides of it thoroughly and turn it over.  It has a 20 year warranty, and after 10 years of use it is still like new and I am confident that it will last for at least that long, so I consider it money well spent.     

One of the reasons that conventional mattresses are so harmful to us is because of the fire retardants they contain, as required by the government.  Does it make sense to construct a mattress out of highly flammable materials and then douse it with chemical fire retardants, especially when there are safe mattresses available that are covered with a layer of wool that is naturally fire resistant? Does it make sense to expose everyone to very harmful chemicals every night while they sleep in order to offer some questionable protection for the relatively small number of mattress fires that used to occur each year?  My thinking on this is that mattresses do not spontaneously combust, and that this is an issue of personal responsibility.  It goes without saying that children must not have access to anything that could start a fire, and let’s face it, if your entire bedroom or entire home is on fire from some other source, having your mattress resistant to fire will really not help you very much in that situation.    

When you purchase a natural mattress, you need a prescription from a doctor saying that you require a non-toxic mattress for health reasons so that the manufacturer is protected from liability for selling a mattress that does not have chemical fire retardants (even though the wool covering does make the mattress fire retardant).  Don’t even get me started on how silly this is, but it is easy enough to phone your chiropractor or any other practitioner and have them jot a note on their letterhead for you.   Good luck, and I hope that you can find a solution that will work for you. 

Wishing you well,

Amanda

I’m sorry, I keep thinking of more things to ask you, we are looking for an air purifier and water filters for our condo and I was wondering if you had any advice on good quality affordable ones? Someone told me to visit the website pureairpurewater.com not sure if they are good? My kids and I have a lot of allergies and I had asthma as a child and don’t want them to wind up with asthma as well…

Kristine,

Ask all the questions you want, that is what I am here for!  As long as you don’t mind waiting a couple of days for an answer, I am happy to help you on your quest for a more natural lifestyle. 

I think in general that air purifiers can be a good idea for the places in your home where you spend the most time, like your bedroom, but I haven’t used one myself for many years.  If your aim is to get rid of seasonal allergy triggers like pollen, it is best if you keep your house closed up during the summer and use the air purifier to clean your indoor air, but if you have an allergy problem all year long, it is probably triggered by something in your house.  Things like particle board furniture, carpets, painted walls and vinyl flooring will outgas toxic fumes for years, and combined with toxic cleaning products and dust, your indoor air quality can be quite bad.  It is really better to try to eliminate the source of the problem instead of trying to clean the air, but if your budget does not allow replacing flooring and furniture, then an air cleaner could be a good investment.  I checked the website for Pure Air, Pure Water, and they seem to have a wide range of units for different needs, but I don’t know anything about whether their quality is good for the price.  There are so many of them on the market, and if you read reviews, some people love them and some people hate them, so it is really hard to tell if a particular brand or model will work for you.

As I mentioned in the previous post, purifying water is a must for every household.  It is a very sad fact, but there is no source of water in the entire world that is not contaminated in some way.  Our fixation on manufacturing toxic chemical products creates pollution that has spread into even the most remote places on Earth.  Municipal water treatment plants take the water from lakes, rivers, or deep wells and treat it for bacteria and solid particles, but most people are not aware that they are not able to remove other contaminants like agricultural chemicals, heavy metals, toxic cleaning products that people wash down their drains and prescription drug residues that are in the urine flushed down our toilets. Yuck.  The EPA gets around this problem by setting “acceptable limits” for these contaminants that are based only on what the water treatment systems are capable of doing, not on what is actually safe for us.  This is why your town will truthfully release an annual statement of how your water supply is in full compliance with EPA regulations for safety, but that glass of water you draw at your sink can contain God knows what, along with a helping of chlorine and fluoride. 

If you really want to make sure your tap water is free of every type of contaminant, a reverse osmosis water purifier or a Berkey water purifier are the best choices.  I am using a 20 year old RO unit that I got at Sears, and I replace the filter cartridges every 6 months.  I am interested in getting a Berkey water filter soon, they are better than reverse osmosis systems because they have the ability to remove all contaminants but they don’t remove the minerals from the water.  This is important, because if you drink water that has no minerals at all in it, your body will take minerals from your bones to make the water “right”.  I can’t figure out a better way to explain that, sorry!  Reverse osmosis purified water needs to have it’s minerals replaced, so I fill a gallon jug and put in a dose of a liquid trace mineral supplement to do that. No matter which system you choose, you should have your water tested to determine what kinds of contaminants are actually in there, so you can figure out which type of filter cartridges you need.  I think that any place that sells water filtration systems also sells a water testing kit; you just mail a sample of your water to a lab.

Wishing you well,

Amanda

Hello Amanda!!!

I’m really glad, to have come across your blog, you have been such a wonderful help to me and my family. I was wondering if you know anything about yeast overgrowth or candiasis, I believe it’s called? I believe my family is suffering from this. I figured you would probably have some useful information on this. Thank you yet again!!

Kristine,

I must refer you to a professional for this, because candida yeast overgrowth is a complicated condition to deal with.  Since I have been struggling with this myself for over a decade, I can give you an overview and some tips to try. 

Candida is a strain of yeast that is found in every human body, in small quantities, and is actually necessary for proper digestion.  A healthy body has a balance of both “good” and “bad” bacteria and yeasts, working together to keep your digestive system in harmony.  Overgrowth occurs when something upsets the delicate balance of “good” bacteria in your digestive tract, and the “bad” bacteria and yeasts will take over and multiply (called dysbiosis), until you have a wide range of nasty symptoms and compromised digestion, which will wreck your overall health in a hurry.  The most common causes of dysbiosis are antibiotic use and drinking chlorinated water, both of which kill all of your body’s bacteria, both good and bad.  When your good bacteria are wiped out, the bad bacteria have an opportunity to take over.  A poor diet heavy in sugar and refined carbohydrates provides plenty of food for the bad bacteria, and now you have a problem.  Since antibiotics, chlorinated water, and poor diet are a part of the majority of the population’s lives, I think that candida overgrowth is pretty universal, and a major cause of poor health.  Untreated, it leads to chronic vaginal infections, white coating on the tongue, all manner of skin conditions, all manner of digestive issues, sinus and respiratory conditions, the list is endless.

So, What To Do?

First, consult your chiropractor or other natural health practitioner for a diagnosis and a plan of action.  This condition can be beat, but it requires a commitment to a healthier, natural lifestyle that will help you prevent a reoccurrence.  I learned the hard way that trying to heal a candida overgrowth without changing your diet is futile.  I tried every supplement and cure out there with plenty of success, but I kept having reoccurrences because I didn’t want to give up the junk food that was fueling the candida.  Trust me; it is truly easier to change your diet than it is to deal with this problem year after year. 

Boost your Good Bacteria

Try to get as many probiotics as possible, from several different sources.  Eat fermented foods like yogurt and kefir (see my post HERE on how to make superior kefir at home), Bubbie’s raw sauerkraut, kombucha (both available at health food stores), and take probiotic supplements.  Search online for how to make your own fermented vegetables and condiments.  This will give you a full spectrum of beneficial bacteria to re-populate your gut with the good stuff. 

What To Avoid 

Only use prescription antibiotics if they are absolutely necessary, in most cases, they are not.  If you must take antibiotics, make sure that you get probiotic rich foods at every meal for several weeks afterward, to make sure that your good bacteria is restored before the bad ones can get a stronghold again.

Avoid drinking and showering in chlorinated water.  It amazes me that there is not much publicity about the dangers of ingesting chlorine.  It is necessary for cities to put chlorine in the municipal water to kill any dangerous bacteria that might be in there, but it is crucial that it be removed from your tap water before you drink it or bathe in it.   There are many countertop water filters that you can use, or even a Brita pitcher filter will do.  Since your skin absorbs everything that is put on it and chlorine is vaporized into your lungs from steam, one ten minute shower will expose you to more chlorine than you could possibly get from drinking water.  You can get a chlorine filter for your shower head online that will dramatically reduce your exposure. 

As far as your diet, limiting all forms of refined carbohydrates like grains and sugar will go a long way toward “starving” the yeast.  Eat plenty of vegetables and fruits for carbs; but bread, pasta, and sugary foods are like an all-you-can-eat buffet for candida.  I thought it would be so hard to give up my bread, but when I finally did, it turned out to be nowhere near as hard as I expected.  If your whole family is affected, making dietary changes for the whole household is easier than having tempting food items around.

Candida overgrowth can definitely by managed, but wiping out every yeast cell is not going to happen, and is not advisable anyway, since a certain amount of candida is needed for proper digestion.  What you want to do is create a healthy “body ecology” where your good bacteria dominates, so the bad bacteria cannot proliferate again.  Your health care provider will help you with more ways to personalize your diet to make sure that the good guys always win.   

Wishing you well,

Amanda

Last week I answered only part of April’s question about how to incorporate healthier foods into your diet, so now I will talk about how to add more grains and legumes. 

Save Time With Big Batch Cooking 

Cook once and reheat throughout the week is one of my favorite strategies for getting grains into my meals.  Breakfast oatmeal is a good place to start, most people like it if you “dress it up” with lots of good stuff, and believe it or not, reheated oats are just as good as fresh.  Make several servings of real five minute oats, not the pasty quick cooking stuff, and remove the quantity that you want to save for later.  Then lavish today’s serving with add-ons like dried or chopped fresh fruits, cinnamon, honey, maple syrup, butter, vanilla extract, nuts, coconut, or all of the above.  Stir in some milk or apple juice if you like it thinner.  You now have a breakfast fit for a king.  Tomorrow, scoop some chilled leftover oats into a pot, add some more milk to thin it out and reheat gently.   Try a different combination of add-ons for variety.  Yummm.   If you are feeling adventurous, try cooking a different grain like quinoa or millet, just follow package directions.  Some people even cook a batch of brown rice for breakfast, adding milk, cinnamon and honey to make a rice pudding-like treat. 

If you are going to make whole grain pancakes or French toast for a special weekend breakfast, you might as well cook up several more servings to be reheated in the toaster or microwave during the week.  I also cook a whole package of bacon or sausages to go along with it.  If you want to cut down on sugar, you can make a batch of fruit syrup by simmering a bag of thawed frozen fruit including the juices with just a little maple syrup to sweeten it; this makes a really nice topping for pancakes.  

Bring On The Beans

To add legumes to your diet, beans can be added to just about anything.  Soup, stew, mashed into sauces, stir fry, rice pilaf, pasta salads, you name it.  If you are serving a dish over rice or noodles, add some beans, but keep the quantity small or you may have some complaints.  I like to cook my own dried beans instead of buying canned beans for two reasons:  I want to avoid exposing myself to the BPA plastic in the can linings, and if I cook and freeze them myself, I can put whatever size portions I want in separate Ziploc bags so I don’t have to deal with using part of a can of beans and not knowing what to do with the rest of it.  Cooking dried beans involves a few steps, but the hands-on time is minimal.  Just soak them overnight, throw them in a pot or crockpot with fresh water, and cook until tender.  Put the desired-size portions into freezer bags and seal, then spread them out in the bags to lay flat and stack in the freezer.  It is so convenient to grab a bag and throw them frozen into your dish; you don’t even need to thaw them first in most cases.  I also like to make a big batch of baked beans in the crockpot and freeze them in bags to reheat with sliced hotdogs (nitrite free) and a dollop of barbeque sauce.    

Speaking Of The Crockpot….

I think a crockpot is a must for saving time with healthier cooking.  It is nearly impossible to botch anything cooked in a crockpot; it will always be tender no matter what.  Having pre-cooked meat stored in your freezer relieves you of the most time-consuming part of meal preparation.  You can cook and cube a large beef or pork roast and reheat the meat with your choice of sauce for a variety of delicious meals.  Roast a whole chicken for dinner, serve the meat and put the carcass and all of the juices back in the crockpot with chopped celery, onion, carrots, fresh water, a splash of vinegar to pull the minerals out of the bones, and poultry seasoning.  Set the pot on low and simmer all night, and in the morning strain the broth into freezer jars or containers.  Unlike packaged broth, this free bone broth is so nourishing with collagen and gelatin from the bones to help heal your joints and skin.   

I like to use my crockpot during a bi-weekly marathon cooking session when I make several things at once to stock my refrigerator and freezer for the next few weeks.  I’ll take a few hours to roast meat, bake bread or muffins, cook a large pot of rice or beans, and make a sauce or a soup.  Then, as long as I have plenty of fresh produce on hand, I can make a variety of quick healthy meals all week long.  This eliminates the “I don’t know what to make for dinner” issue.  It also helps to have a folder with a few stand-by recipes for things that you can make at a moments notice with what you always keep on hand, for those times when everyone is hungry and your mind goes blank!

I hope this helps you get started with making simple, healthy meals that your family will enjoy.

Wishing you well…..

Amanda

Hello Amanda!!!
Kristine here again!! I have been in search for raw goats milk for my 3 month old baby… Any ideas on where i can find this… She has not been doing well on the over the counter formula, and I am in search for a much healthier alternative… I have heard that raw goats milk is the next best thing to breast milk, but have not been able to find it… Any other suggestions on a better alternative? They do sell pasteurized goats milk, but I don’t know if it will be good for her or not? Your help is GREATLY appreciated!!!!  Thank You!!

Kristine,

I have seen references to giving goat milk to infants many times in my research on natural health, but since I do not have any children of my own, I had to get some more insight about this subject from a friend of mine.  She said that she had used Meyenberg powdered goat milk for her son, per the advice of his pediatrician.  I also looked up the ingredients label of a typical baby formula, and once again, I was shocked.  It is basically powdered industrial cow milk (including the hormone, antibiotic and pesticide residues that come along with that), extra lactose (which could possibly encourage lactose intolerance), poor quality vegetable oils (which are extracted with the use of toxic chemicals) and a long list of synthetic vitamins.  It troubled me that there is more sugar in this product by weight than there is fat content.  Using extra lactose is a clever way to bump up sugar content without having to use the word “sugar” on the label, which would make most parents wary of the product.  No wonder your baby is not doing well with this! 

I remembered coming across a recipe for homemade baby formula using powdered goat milk on a blog that I frequent, you can find that information HERE.  I searched and found many recipes online that add other ingredients to the goat milk that are naturally found in breast milk, like coconut oil for the lauric acid and probiotics, which are very necessary for your infant’s digestive system.  You would probably not find these ingredients in any standard baby formula.  So I encourage you to investigate this and find a better solution for your baby. 

As far as the debate with raw milk versus pasteurized, I can say without a doubt that if you can find raw goat or cow milk, it is absolutely worth the effort to obtain it.  Raw milk contains enzymes and nutrients that are destroyed during the pasteurization process, these are critical to our health.  I will point you to two websites where you can get truthful information on raw milk, they are realmilk.com, and rawmilk.org.  The Real Milk site has a search feature to find raw milk near you, but I believe they focus more on cows than goats.  Also, if you are in a city or suburban area, finding someone who keeps livestock in your area can be a challenge.  You could also try putting a free “wanted” ad on Craig’s List, and see if you get any response. 

Meyenberg goat milk products are antibiotic and hormone free, and fortified with Vitamin D and folic acid. Pasteurized fluid goat milk is sold in quart cartons at all grocery stores.  If you cannot find a source for milk straight out of the goat, this seems to be the best bet.  The powdered version is found at health food stores, or discounted online at Amazon or Vitacost.  The powdered milk has the disadvantage of being pasteurized and further processed, but the convenience of always having shelf stable powdered milk on hand may appeal to you.  My feeling on this is that any of these goat products will be much safer for your baby than conventional baby formula.

Wishing you well, 

Amanda

Thank you for the excellent information on bread machine baking. I will be baking better bread as soon as the White Whole Wheat Flour arrives.

I wonder if you also have any ideas on how to incorporate more nutrition into everyday meals? I tend to cook those quick casserole meals that are not what you’d call health food. I’d like to get alot more vegetables, legumes and grains into our diet but I have the same problem with the meals as with the bread. It has to taste “good” along with being quick and easy to make.

Also, what are your thoughts on slowcookers?

Best wishes
April

April,

Your question, I think, is shared by most people these days.  We want to eat healthier foods, but time for cooking is limited and we are accustomed to eating junk food, so that is what our taste buds prefer.  It can be hard to drag your family along, kicking and screaming, into a healthier lifestyle if they are not as motivated as you are.  As for myself, I have always been highly motivated, but I got caught up in the junk food cycle and it seemed too hard for me to break.  But in the last year or so, I feel that I have gotten a handle on some simple routines that have made it possible for me to change my household over to a much better diet, painlessly.  Here is what I have done:

Start With a Commitment

For years my husband and I had the mindset that if a food is “healthy” that means that it won’t taste good and we won’t enjoy it as much as our favorite junk food.  This is pretty self-defeating and not true at all.  Everyone has something in the produce world that they enjoy eating, and you can start there.    Even if you eat the same bananas and green beans every day because that’s all that you like, so be it.  Expanding your options can come later, when you are less afraid of making changes.  Ask your family how much it would mean to them if they could feel more energetic, more mentally alert and improve their health statistics at the doctor’s office. Then ask for a commitment to take some baby steps toward better eating.  Assure them that you won’t change everything at once, and also assure them that a person’s taste buds do change over time.  I have read numerous accounts of families saying that junk foods are no longer enjoyable once you give the other options a fair chance.   

Focus on Produce

I wanted us to eat more fruits and vegetables, but I was used to just eating just a main course at my meals.  So I started making a vegetable side with lunch and dinner, and adding a piece of fruit for “dessert”.  I found that I automatically had to eat a smaller portion of the main course in order to save room for the other items.  This is a completely painless way to still have your favorite dishes while increasing your intake of produce.  If you also have a fruit at breakfast or for a snack, you will easily reach your “five a day” goal.  Once your family is used to this, you can add a second vegetable to increase your produce even more. 

Make it Taste Great

Penzey’s Spices is a wonderful company that sells quality seasonings for a great price.  They have dozens of spice blends to season all types of dishes, and their catalog is a great read for recipes and suggestions for how to incorporate healthy vegetables into your meals.  You can take your cooking to delicious new heights with their encouragement.  They are at penzeys.com. 

Discover Roasted Vegetables

If there is a vegetable that your family is not crazy about, try roasting it!  Just toss the cubed vegetable (or a couple different vegetables) with olive oil, chopped onion and/or garlic, salt, and one of the Penzey’s spice blends, and roast at 425 degrees until browned and tender.  I wouldn’t even try cauliflower until I was brave enough to have it roasted like this, and I couldn’t believe how good it was.  A sprinkle of parmesan cheese on top won’t hurt.  Another good trick is a classic—serve your raw veggies with ranch or other dressing for a dipping sauce. 

The Freezer is Your Friend

Stock up on frozen veggies and fruits, they work wonderfully to add quick sides to your meals without all of the washing and chopping.  Thawed frozen fruit sprinkled with a bit of shredded coconut and chopped nuts makes a fine ending to a meal.  Frozen produce is just as nutritious as fresh, but I avoid canned produce.  Food cans are lined with BPA plastic, which is an endocrine disrupter, meaning that it will interfere with your hormones in a bad way.

I hope that this will get you started with healthier eating.  Next week I will post with tips for adding grains and legumes to your meals, and discuss the crockpot and how it can help you save time in the kitchen. 

Wishing you well, 

Amanda

Hello Amanda….

What is a natural recipe for a dishwashing machine detergant? I’m sure the store bought ones are full of chemicals? And also what is a good disinfectant for floors and countertops?

Kristine

Kristine,

I have tried a number of homemade dishwasher detergents, and I have never found one that worked well.  I would end up with residue on my dishes, and they never really got clean enough.  So I gave up on trying to make my own detergent, and I now buy what I think is the most effective and least toxic store bought product.  It is called Citra Dish, by the makers of Citra Solv, which is one of my favorite non-toxic cleaning products.  Citra Dish is pretty vague about their ingredients, but it does not contain any bleach, phosphates, perfumes or dyes, it seems to be relatively safe to use and it really does work very well.  It has a light citrus scent from natural orange oil, and I don’t find this scent to be offensive at all.   I used to buy it at health food stores that carry the Citra Solv line of products, but now I find it easier to just order a whole case of it online at Amazon or VitaCost. 

 I would avoid any common dishwasher products like Cascade, these products contain industrial chemicals like bleach, perfumes and dyes, and arsenic (yes, you read that right!)  Why manufacturers think that we want to have such substances on the dishes that we eat off of is beyond me.

As for disinfecting floors and countertops, see my post HERE about how to use vinegar and peroxide.  Easy, cheap and effective.

Wishing you well,

Amanda

Dear Amanda,

I have a three month old baby and was wondering what kind of lotions, soaps, diaper cremes and so on are safe and natural to use on her? Also any lotions, soaps and shampoos are good for adults as well… Any brands u would recomend and where they can be purchased would be of great help…
Thank you for your help!!!

Kristine

Kristine,

Congratulations on your new baby, and I applaud you for wanting to make sure that the products you put on your baby’s tender skin are safe.  Babies are particularly vulnerable to toxins because their immune systems are not fully developed yet, and their sensitive skin can react to harsh products.  One would think that products that are made for babies would automatically be gentle and non-toxic, right?  Unfortunately, no, manufacturers are more concerned with pleasing shoppers with the type of scent and texture that you would expect than actually making it safe to use.  So it is up to us to read labels to determine if a product is safe or not.  I just looked at the ingredient labels for Johnson’s baby lotion and shampoo, and I was shocked.

The lotion contains ingredients like propylene glycol (antifreeze), polysorbate 61 (an industrial chemical), dimethicone (silicone, so your baby’s skin feels soft and slippery), synthetic beeswax (what? I guess the bees just aren’t doing a good job anymore!), and no less than three types of parabens, which are preservatives that disrupt your hormones and are linked to cancer.  There are also artificial fragrances and colors.  Wow, I cannot imagine putting a product like this on a baby’s skin, or anyone else’s skin, for that matter.

Fortunately, there are many products available for babies and adults that do not contain these harmful ingredients.  The Burt’s Bees line of products is very good, but since they were bought out by a mega-corporation a few years ago, they have put synthetic fragrance in their stuff, even the baby products.  I cannot tell you how disappointed I am about this, because it makes no sense to manufacture a truly pure and safe product and then adulterate it with a toxin because you think that is what the public wants. Especially the baby products, because we all know that babies smell wonderful all by themselves!  So that being said, if you are not bothered by a tiny amount of a synthetic fragrance, Burt’s Bees is a great choice for baby soap, lotion and powder.  They are available everywhere, from health food stores to grocery stores to Target and WalMart.  Their products for adults are now so highly fragranced that I cannot use them myself anymore, so I have had to search for something better. 

Hugo Naturals is my new favorite product line, sold in health food stores or online.  I have been very pleased with their adult products, and their ingredient lists are the most clean that I have ever seen.  Their baby line is called Baby Hugo, and has everything you need, including diaper creme. 

When choosing products for your skin, always read the label.  If it reads like a science experiment with unpronounceable ingredients, leave it on the shelf.  If you can recognize most of the ingredients, you have found a better product.  I try not to put anything on my skin that I would not eat, and this is not as hard as it sounds if you keep it simple.   Lately I have been ordering simple, homemade bar soaps for body and shampoo from small family run businesses, and I love purchasing from a family trying to make a living by making safe products, instead of a faceless corporation that is only interested in breaking sales records.  Two that I can recommend are grahamgardens.com and applevalleynaturalsoap.com.  Graham Gardens has baby powder, baby oil and diaper creme as well.    

 Wishing you well,

Amanda

Dear Amanda,

I recently inherited a bread machine. Can you tell me about making highly nutritious breads in the breadmaker? Mostly to be used for breakfast toast but also for occasional sandwiches. The bread needs to be good tasting or my loved ones will not eat it. I’ve experimented a bit. So far only the white breads have passed their taste test.

Have a Happy and Healthy New Year

 April

April,

A bread machine is a wonderful asset for healthy eating.  Most store bought bread products are full of food additives that are best avoided, and breads labeled “whole grain” usually contains only a small amount of whole grains in an otherwise unhealthy white bread.  Making bread at home in a machine is easy and it saves a lot of money, since a quality loaf of bread can cost upwards of five bucks at the store.  When I got my bread machine many years ago, I was thrilled with the professional results it gave me. 

I feel for your dilemma of trying to get your family to eat healthier whole grain breads.  We were all raised on soft, fluffy white bread, and that is what our taste buds expect.  It took me several years to get to the point that whole grain products tasted better to me than the white stuff, and that change will happen with some persistence.  In the mean time, you need to get them to agree to try other types of breads, and that is the sticking point!  If they taste good, you have won the battle, and your best ally is something called “white whole wheat flour”. 

White whole wheat flour is made from a different variety of wheat than the whole wheat we have been eating for centuries.  It is much milder in flavor, grinds to a finer flour than regular whole wheat, and the taste and texture of baked goods made with this flour are very close to that of white flour.  This makes it perfect for “sneaking” whole grain flour into your foods without your family noticing.  I have used this flour for several years and I can say that everything I have made with it, while not a hundred percent identical to a white flour product, is pretty darn close, and has always been delicious. 

This flour is produced by a wonderful 200 year old company called King Arthur Flour.  Their website is kingarthurflour.com, and their flours are sold in health food stores and some grocery stores.  This company is devoted to the success of the home baker, and you can sign up to have their great blog posts sent to you with the most detailed and well-explained baking information I have ever seen.  I have a book of theirs called Whole Grain Baking that is full of beautiful recipes for everything made with flour; all types of yeast breads, all types of sweets, muffins, biscuits and pastries, all made with whole grains. There is plenty of information on how to use a bread machine for dough preparation.  I have tried many recipes from this book, and every one of them has become a favorite.   You should find plenty there to please your white bread lovin’ family. 

One last note about a bread machine:  King Arthur Flour recommends that you only use the machine to knead and raise the dough but not to bake the bread, because the results are not as good as when you bake the bread dough in a loaf pan in the oven.  I ignored this advice for years, thinking that it probably didn’t make that much difference, but boy, they are right about this.  The machine’s controlled temperature and long knead cycle produce a beautiful bread dough, and baking it in the conventional oven only takes a few more minutes of time and effort, and the results are really worth it in terms of better texture, better crust and higher rise. 

Wishing you well,

Amanda