Be Aware Of And Avoid Toxins

This post is part of a series that makes up my Simple Guide To Health which is part of a broader collection of posts on Living Well.

Toxins come in many forms, but it’s very easy to go through life without being that aware of them.  This post isn’t going to attempt to describe all the toxins we risk exposure to in life, but I will mention a few that we have worked to avoid.

Here are the top ten that my family and I avoid (sometimes just me):

1. Toxic people, especially on social networks and to some extent in the ‘real world’ too.  What constitutes a toxic person will be different for everyone, but for me it’s people who expose me to too many negative emotions, someone who force me to frequently compare my life unfavourably to theirs (ultra healthy, big spenders and the like) and people who are too loud.
2. Materials in the house that off-gas chemicals, we try to only buy natural materials now.  We’ve made some mistakes in this area over the last 10 years and are gradually eliminating them
3. Artificial smells.  We don’t have anything scented in the house, Debbie and the girls rarely wear perfume, we don’t use air freshener or other types of cleaning spray.  When we do need to eliminate some persistent bad smell (like drying paint) we use a few orange or lemon oil drops on a hot light.
4. Anti-bacterial products, I’ve long believed that we co-evolved with bacteria and it makes no sense to try and eliminate them from our lives.  The only exception I make is a Detox spray I use on and around the toilets every week.
5. Household cleaners, we don’t use any of the myriad that line the supermarket shelves, we’ve found that Ecover ‘natural’ washing-up liquid, soap and/or a bit of elbow grease and a scouring pad does almost every job
6. Plastic food containers and non-stick plans, we are gradually switching to to stainless steel
7. Toxic foods, most importantly industrial seed oils, artificial sweeteners, sugars and grains. This is part of an auto-immune diet that only I do, although I don’t mind a little in moderation.
8. Noise pollution, especially screaming and shouting, loud music, traffic noise. I inherited a peaceful house from my parents!
9. Traditional news outlets and the disasters, violence, corruption and scandal that they are dominated by in favour of sources of news that we curate, we’ve not had a daily newspaper for decades, a weekend newspaper for about a year.  We do get the local weekly paper though as there’s no alternative.

By way of contrast:

1. We do try and increase our exposure to good bacteria, especially soil bacteria by not scrubbing organic veg from the garden too hard
2. I listen to classical and easy listening music more as a way to relax
3. We try to spend as much time in motion and in nature as possible
4. We spend a lot of time with people we love
5. I avoid too much time working from home on my own, in favour of cafes with a great atmosphere and style

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Flowers are one of the few scents that I allow myself to be exposed to now, I took this picture is Ashton Gardens, the park that I walk through most days on my way from Caffe Nero where I write to the Beach Terrace Cafe where I get breakfast and read most morning.