HHC’s Round Up of Clean & Sustainable Home Products

Britton Taylor Chaves

If you breathe air, drink water, eat food, take showers, and use beauty and cleaning products, you’ve been exposed to toxins.

The toxic burden we endure today is greater than ever before. From birth, the odds are stacked against us. In fact, over 200 chemicals have been found in umbilical cord blood (EWG, 2005).

On average we are exposed to more than 80,000 chemicals, pollutants, and other toxins in our environment on a daily basis, many of which have been linked to a variety of chronic diseases such as cancer, asthma, obesity, metabolic and neurodegenerative disease (Norman et al., 2013).

Here at HHC, we recommend using clean (green) and sustainable home cleaning products to help limit the toxic burden in your home.

When you use natural, clean, green products around your home, you are aiding in the overall well-being of your families health. Bonus, a lot of the brands we recommend below are sustainable and earth-friendly!

Branch Basics

The leaners and laundry detergents we use in our home have a major impact on our air quality and overall health. Given the amount of products a family typically uses in their home on a daily basis, if you are going to do ONE thing to limit your toxin load, we suggest switching to clean home cleaning products.

Branch Basics has long been a favorite brand of ours here at HHC. Their multi-purpose concentrate makes cleaning simple, affordable and sustainable. It is plant-based, free of harmful preservatives, biodegradable, and non-GMO. We love that you can buy the concentrate and use it on a huge variety of surfaces in your kitchen, shower, bath, laundry, to wash produce, hand soap etc.

Check out their Starter Kit and use code HOLISTIC10 for 10% off!

Stasher Bag

Many people have grown up using plastic Tupperware to store their food. Over the years, research has shown that plastic leaches chemicals into our food and drinks, which can harm our health. Plastics like Bisphenol A (BPA) and Bisphenol S (BPS) have been shown to have hormone-mimicking, estrogenic properties. BPA has even been linked to breast cancer tumors. (Johnson, 2018).

We get it, using Tupperware can be a hard habit to change. And switching over can be an investment. But it is worth it.

Start with glass containers or try out Stasher Bags, a line of reusable, non-toxic silicone storage bags. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes and can be used for so many needs like storing your nuts, packing a sandwich for your lunch or organizing your closet.

Follain Candles

Did you know that conventional candles can be toxic? A report from the Environmental Protection Agency referenced research that measured traces of lead and formaldehyde above cancer-causing thresholds, among other chemicals that are harmful to health, in conventional candles.

We recommend clean-burning candles, like Follain’s line of coconut and soy wax blends with an all-cotton wick. Bonus, they are hand-poured in the United States. Use code ref15_6szryz for 15% off your purchase at Follain.com.

Well Earth Goods NotPaper Towels

While regular paper towels are convenient and have been used in homes forever, paper towel usage contributes to deforestation, global warming, and our world’s ever-increasing waste problem. They can also bring unwanted chemicals into your home due to the way they are processed.

Want an easy swap? Check out Well Earth Good “NotPaper” Towels. Notpaper Towels are the perfect reusable, zero waste option to replace typical kitchen paper towel roll, napkins, or cleaning cloths.  These towels are professionally hand made in Oregon from single ply absorbent 100% cotton flannel and can be washed in the laundry.

Dr. Bronner’s All Purpose Pure Castile Soap

We all know the importance of washing our hands regularly (especially lately with COVID-19). But you would be surprised to know that there are several ingredients you might want to avoid in a hand soap - specifically parabens and sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) - which are both common chemical ingredients found in conventional soaps. (Smith, 2016).

Want an easy swap? We love Dr. Bronner’s line of sustainable products. Their Pure Castile Soap is free from synthetic detergents and preservatives and all ingredients are Certified Organic, GMO-free, Fair Trade, and cruelty-free. Plus, we love all of the different scents you can pick from!

What else can you do?

Swapping out your home products for these clean, green and sustainable ones will help decrease your overall exposure to toxins. But considering our undeniable toxic burden, we recommend a Reset program to our clients on a quarterly to support the body’s innate systems of detoxification and repair. It’s giving your body everything it needs in order to do its job effectively; balance blood sugar, calm inflammation, reduce bloat and shed toxic water weight.

Interested in trying out our HHC Reset? Check out the below link for more details.

What are some of your favorite clean home products?

Let us know in the comments below! Don’t forget to join our Facebook group where we share our favorite products and our nurse health coaches are answering questions and supporting clients!

References

Environmental Working Group (2005). Body burden: The pollution in newborns. Retrieved from https://www.ewg.org/research/body-burden-pollution-newborns

Norman, R., Carpenter, D., Scott, J., Brune, M. & Sly, P. (2013). Environmental exposures: An under recognized contribution to noncommunicable diseases. Rev Environ Health, 28(1):59-65. DOI: 10.1515/reveh-2012-0033

Johnson, C. (2018). The End of the Tupperware Age: Choosing Safer Food Storage Containers. Retrieved from: https://earth911.com/living-well-being/the-end-of-the-tupperware-age-choosing-safer-food-storage-containers/#:~:text=Plastics%20like%20Bisphenol%20A%20(BPA,linked%20to%20breast%20cancer%20tumors.&text=(Note%3A%20As%20of%20March%202010,CA%20are%20BPA%2Dfree.)

Smith, K. (2016). 10 Natural Hand Soaps That Are Paraben and SLS Free! Retrieved from: https://www.onegreenplanet.org/lifestyle/natural-hand-soaps/.

Britton Taylor Chaves is a Social Media Content Manager specializing in wellness and supporting women entrepreneurs. Follow her @brittontaylorchaves on Instagram.