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Preservatives, Chemical and Natural - Preservatives give personal care products a longer shelf life and kills bacteria, fungi, microbes and oxidation.
Are there any natural preservatives out there?
Tips for Choosing High Quality Food - will help you choose healthy food. Don't forget to read the labels.
Sleuthing Out Sugar - will give you a list for all the names of sugar.
Homemade Lipstick - safe, easy to make and it won't hurt you to consume it! It contains no lead!
My recipe today is Corn Pudding - from The Williamsburg Cookbook. My family always enjoys it. | |
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I INVITE YOU TO MY BLOG
I'm here to help you understand what's new in the exciting world of natural beauty and wellness. If you would like to take a look -
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PRESERVATIVES, CHEMICAL OR NATURAL |
 The Big Preservative Debate
All personal care products have a shelf life.
Preservatives contained in beauty products ward off bacteria, fungi, microbes, and oxidation. Such preservatives halt enzyme activity in the formulation, stop the oxidation process, or kill bacteria and any living creatures that wandered inside the bottle.
The more preservatives that are loaded into the product, the longer it can remain "pure" and uncontaminated. This way, beauty products can be manufactured in mass quantities and be warehoused for a longer period. [For example] Staphylococcus aureus, a pathogenic bacteria, can be fatal when applied to broken skin (Nguema at al. 2000), and incidences of blindness caused by contaminated mascara have been reported (Reid, Wood 1979).
No wonder many cosmetic companies are now searching for preservatives that are paraben- and formaldehyde-free yet are effective against the effects of air, light, bacteria, yeast, and fungi even at low concentrations.
Suprapein (created by Bio-Botanica) is totally natural preservative made of oregano and thyme oils, as well as cinnamon, lavender, lemon peel, goldenseal, and rosemary extract. Lemon peel oil, grapefruit extract, vitamin C (ascorbic acid), and vitamin E (tocopherols) are also used to prevent oxidation.
You can do your own share to prevent contamination of your paraben-free products, which have a much shorter life span than their synthetic counterparts do.
- Handle all cosmetics in a way that prevents bacterial contamination.
- Do not leave product containers uncapped.
- Do not share them.
- Do not use your fingers instead of applicators.
Some products, such as lip and body balms, body and hair butters, oil-based serums, perfumes with or without alcohol, oil-based salt and sugar scrubs, bath and body oils, and liquid soap have a shelf life of several months to a year. Nevertheless, most organic creams and lotions that contain water must be used within six months.
"Artificial preservatives are only necessary if your product formulation is weak or unstable," says Roger Barsby of Weleda. "If you dilute your ingredients [with water] to make the product cheaply, then you will need artificial preservatives.
Too often, when thoroughly reading the ingredients in a 72 percent "organic" hand cream, I discovered that methylparaben was shyly hiding at the end of the list of ingredients, almost blending in the luscious floral design. The ingredients list further revealed triethanolamine and fragrance, both printed in very small, all-capitalized letters, making it very difficult to read.
Our skin eats anything that we put on its surface. When you use beauty products loaded with chemical ingredients, you are feeding your skin highly processed, artificial junk food. If you try eating healthfully, why use junk beauty products.
Preservative To Avoid
Beginning in September 2007, the European Union has banned the use of formaldehyde for embalming purposes. European regulators have also questioned the safety of iodopropynyl butylcarbamate (IPBC), a common wood preservative used in cosmetics, and may restrict its use in moisturizing body lotions.
Resource For This Article: The Green Beauty Guide by Julie Gabriel |
| TIPS FOR CHOOSING HIGH-QUALITY FOOD |
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 Eliza Zied, MS, RD, and Ruth Winter, MS, authors of Feed Your Family Right!, recommend adhering to the following guidelines when shopping for various foodstuffs:
Food: Breads and crackers
What You Want:
- The first ingredient is a whole grain
- 3g or less of fat
- 3-5g fiber per serving
What You Don't Want:
- Saturated fat
- Trans fat
- Added sugars
Food: Hot and cold cereals
What You Want:
- The first ingredient is a whole grain
- 3 g or less of fat
- 3-5g fiber per serving
What You Don't Want:
- More than 10g sugar per serving
Food: Pasta, rice, frozen waffles and pancakes
What You Want:
- The first ingredient is a whole grain
- 3g or less of fat
- 3-5g fiber per serving
What You Don't Want:
- Saturated fat
- Trans fat
- Added sugars
- More than 5g sugar per serving
Food: Frozen or canned fruits and vegetables
What You Want:
- Unsweetened
- For canned fruits: Packed in water or on its own juices
- Juices from 100% fruit juice
What You Don't Want:
- Canned fruits in light or heavy syrup, or candied fruits
- Vegetable juices with more than 140mg sodium per serving
Resource For This Article: Better Nutrition Magazine, August 2007
SLEUTHING OUT SUGAR
A sugar by any other name truly is just as sweet-and can impact your blood sugar levels and health in the same way as table sugar. Here are some common sugar aliases:
- Corn sweetener
- Corn syrup
- Dextrose
- Fructose
- Glucose
- High-fructose corn syrup
- Honey
- Lactose
- Maltose
- Malt syrup
- Molasses
- Sucrose
- Syrup
Resource For This Article: Better Nutrition Magazine, August 2007 |
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HOMEMADE LIPSTICK |
 If you're familiar with Snapple fact #53, you know that the average woman consumes 6 pounds of lipstick in her lifetime. Who knows what kinds of chemicals we end up swallowing just to pretty up our puckers. Why not cook up your own lip gloss? It's easier than you think!
For a fun, quick recipe suggested by the National Honey Board, start with:
1 teaspoon of honey
1 drop of vitamin E oil
1 tablespoon of sweet almond oil
Add 10 fresh cranberries to provide a tasty tint.
Mix the honey and oil together in a pot on low heat until it reaches the brink of boiling (but don't allow it to boil). Remove from heat and stir the berries into your mixture, gently crushing and mixing the berries until they are lukewarm.
Strain through a fine sieve to remove all the fruit pieces and then pour the mixture into a small container or empty lip balm tube before it cools. Voilą-a super-moisturizing gloss to soothe chapped lips.
Resource For This Article:Author-Nicole Duncan, Alternative Medicina Magazine, October 2007 |
| CORN PUDDING |
 6 Servings
3 eggs
2 cups cream style corn
1 ½ tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup bread crumbs
2 tablespoons butter, melted
2 cups milk
½ cup light cream
Preheat oven to 350° F.
Grease 1½ quart casserole.
Beat eggs until light and fluffy.
Stir in corn, sugar, salt, bread crumbs, and butter.
Add milk and cream and mix well.
Pour into prepared casserole and place dish in pan of boiling water.
Bake at 350° F for 50 to 60 minutes or until custard is set.
Resource For This Article: The Williamsburg CookBook |
| CLOSING THOUGHTS |
Preservatives, Chemical or Natural. Our skin eats anything we put on it. Why put artificial "junk food" on your skin!
Try making your own Homemade Lipstick. I think you will enjoy wearing a healthy product that you made yourself.
High Quality Food. When you go to the grocery store, take along today's list to help you read the labels.
Our family has travelled to Williamsburg, Virginia for many of our vacations. We just loved going to the local taverns for delicious dinners, listening to harpsicord music in the evenings and the walking tours led by professors from William and Mary College. I hope you enjoyed my newsletter today. To read these articles and more, please go to my blog. Why not look today? It will take only a few minutes of your valuable time.
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Do you have a friend who would find my blog and newsletter interesting? Please forward it to them. Thanks so much.
Your friend,
Janet Esther | |
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