What one change would reduce the most amount of toxic gick getting into our bodies?

Talking about the general populace here... not permies who are probably well down this path.

Another thread got me thinking. What one thing would reduce the most amount of toxic gick if it was removed or replaced with something better? Processed foods? Shampoo? Deodorant? Chemical laden clothes? Plastics?

There are people who squish rolls of toilet paper so that they will use fewer squares in order to save money... while buying starbucks coffee.

There are people who swap out incandescent lights for LED's to save electricity... while still using an electric dryer.

The thread was about using newspaper and cardboard as mulch and the possible nasty ingredients in those materials. Which is true... many have junk in them. But I gotta think if someone use those as mulch and had a successful garden and ate those vegetables and also cut out say... processed foods or perfume... that they would be much better off as far as toxic gick is concerned. And it would give them the confidence to work towards a higher level on Paul's eco scale.

So which category WOULD make the most difference?

My personal crusade for my household, in the name of reducing the amount of gick getting into my body, has been looking towards food handling and preparation.

I used to have a bunch of Tupperware/plastic containers that have been slowly changed out for glass containers and mason jars. I'm trying my best to get stainless steel lids with silicone gaskets with pretty decent results.

My cookware has now moved away from coated surfaces and exclusively to cast iron/stainless steel/carbon steel. My cutlery is a mixture of metal and wood.

My biggest struggle in this change has been trying to find a swap that is as convenient as ziplock bags. There really isn't I have found that is an easy swap so I do my best to just not use them. I'm not sure if people have thoughts on foil? I haven't done my due diligence yet.

So yeah... I'm trying to reduce contamination sources before things go into my body.

It sounds like you're asking about what one thing we'd change if we had a single wish to make. I guess I'd go for the replacement of fossil fuels. I don't know that's the most toxic thing we do, but I think climate change is worse than cancer and stuff.

But I don't have a magic wish, so I think the real answer is that there is no *one* thing. Do everything you have the spoons for -- pick the low-hanging fruit. I can't give up soap but I can make sure my whole family is using greywater-safe soaps. I can reuse and recycle stuff as much as seems reasonable. And I can teach my kids and grandkids how to grow nutritive foods instead of buying pale simulacra at the supermarket.

Christopher Weeks wrote:It sounds like you're asking about what one thing we'd change if we had a single wish to make. I guess I'd go for the replacement of fossil fuels. I don't know that's the most toxic thing we do, but I think climate change is worse than cancer and stuff.

But I don't have a magic wish, so I think the real answer is that there is no *one* thing. Do everything you have the spoons for -- pick the low-hanging fruit. I can't give up soap but I can make sure my whole family is using greywater-safe soaps. I can reuse and recycle stuff as much as seems reasonable. And I can teach my kids and grandkids how to grow nutritive foods instead of buying pale simulacra at the supermarket.

More the second part than the first. I wasn't thinking so much on a global scale, but more at the personal scale. If we think about all the sources of gick coming into our bodies, I think it makes sense to start with the sources that add the most. If I am trying to save electricity, switching to a clothes line instead of an electric dryer will save far more than changing how fast your computer goes to sleep.

I want to know for getting rid of toxic gick... what is the "clothes line option" that will stop lots of toxic gick compared to say... swapping out plastic shoelaces for something more natural... which is not a bad thing, but probably doesn't account for a very large percentage of the gick coming into our bodies.

We breathe stuff in. We drink. We eat. I suppose some tiny amount of stuff enters us through our skin.

I don't think we can do much about the formaldehyde and other industrial pollutants that are just part of our air supply. But do what you can not to make the problem worse, of course. I guess there's lots to do inside the envelope of our house. I don't like to use anything that has obvious VOCs. If it smells of solvent, especially, I'd rather it not be part of my house. (Of course, I didn't build my own house, so there are limits to what I can control.) But we've gotten rid of all carpet and have started experimenting with natural paints instead of just buying more of the latex paint with God-knows-what inside.

Because we drink so much, I bet clean water is the single most important thing, but I wonder how much is reasonable to do about it. I have a well. We periodically test to make sure it's good water and the stuff we drink straight goes through a filter. But when I lived on city water, we just drank what they gave us. I guess we could have installed a filter -- but like a good RO filter is all plastic...is that really a great solution?

No one here needs to be convinced of this, but growing your own food gives you control over what you're taking in by way of eating. I can use no industrial inputs or do my research. Through breeding and cultivation practices I can emphasize nutrient density instead of yield. And I can supplement my diet with wildcrafted foods for extra phytonutrients -- which are not just not-tainted, but also actively help you repair damage from the other things you take in that aren't ideal.

I guess I'm not too worried about taking gick into my body through my skin, but I wear natural fibers (to the extent that's possible in our economy) and I'm cautious about handing industrial chemicals, though sometimes you have to work with petroleum and solvents.

Christopher Weeks wrote:We breathe stuff in. We drink. We eat. I suppose some tiny amount of stuff enters us through our skin.

If we're talking about 'level 1' people, and things that we have some control over, the single most important thing to do I suspect, is to buy organically raised food if at all possible. If you can grow your own even better, as Christopher touches on some of the good things regarding doing that. If everyone would only buy organic, all the gick associated with chemical farming and the associated damage to the environment would become non viable (if no one bought it then it would not be grown that way). I'm pretty sure some of the gick in water would be associated with farmland run off, so water quality might improve too.

If you can minimize cars and/or money expenditure in general, then that is sort of a bottleneck for toxins entering into your life. Eliminating those things is rather high on the scale, but as a rule, the less we use them the less we are coming into contact with industrial gick and the more we are relying on nature for our sustenance.

However if you are minimizing money expenditure by buying cheap bad food that isn’t quite doing it. Minimizing the amount of things you buy is maybe more like it.

Sometimes it may not be what we aren’t taking in but what we are. For instance I read recently that ground ivy is used to counteract lead poisoning and it is said in the book that painters who take ground ivy do not get lead poisoning. They say the same about cilantro—fortunately I have never had to test either of those remedies, but I do eat ground ivy every spring. It may be that liver medicines can also help with eliminating toxins that are stuck in our bodies. Þe olde medicine-folk have a concept called “bad blood” which what I read suggests a buildup of toxins that slowly overwhelm the body, especially in winter-time, and are apparently cured by “blood purifier” medicines and foods. I’m not entirely sure if what I said was an accurate reflection of the concept but hope so.

For the general populace, or permaculture people,  I think that foraging, learning to forage, would set people along a much better path towards being healthy and reducing toxins. It isn’t something you need a garden for, just a basket or any container for greens, berries, nuts and so on. The food is extremely nutrient dense and for free, and it isn’t sprayed with chemicals.

Thinking about this as a chemist....

Eating concentrated toxins would offer the most damage. Pharmaceuticals for example. When I look at people's medicine chests with  discernment, most of the pills get taken to counteract the negative side effects of other pills. Piling toxins on top of toxins.

Next most toxins would come from an activity like spraying -cides on your lawn (or garden or farm). That puts you in close proximity to the most concentrated form of the chemical. Even in moon suits you would contaminate yourself, and your immediate vicinity.

Hiring someone to apply the chemicals for you would still poison you and your environment, but someone else would take the brunt of the contamination.

Then things like applying chemicals to your body: soaps, deodorants, perfumes, anti-antiperspirants, sunscreen, dryer sheets, fabric softener, lotions, etc...

Then as already mentioned, eating food sprayed with poisons. Non-organic wheat seems particularly dangerous to me. Corn, soy, canola, cottonseed and vegetable seed oils in general seem quite problematic. In vegetables, they talk about the dirty dozen: Spinach, Strawberries, Kale, Collard, and Mustard Greens,Grapes, Peaches, Cherries, Nectarines, Pears, Apples, Blackberries, Blueberries, and Potatoes.

Plants seem like they want to kill us with all kinds of toxins. I prefer to think of plants as medicine instead of as food.

So that leaves a meat based diet. Animals that never ate grain, corn or soy come in as safest. Ruminants (cow, deer, elk, lamb, sheep) contain less toxins than chicken or pork, and I think carry fewer toxins than plants. But even conventionally raised chicken and pork seem less toxic than grains, seed oils, or vegetables. Use small bodied fish such as herring, salmon, anchovies, sardines. Avoid large bodied fish like tuna, because they accumulate toxins from eating smaller fish.

And whatever other people already mentioned...