What Is Low-Tox Living? And Why It’s Not Possible Nor Reasonable To Be Completely Toxin-Free
What do you think about when you hear the following terms?
Natural • Clean • Organic • Safe • Safer • Healthy • Eco-friendly • Cruelty-Free • Vegan • Green • Chemical free • Free of • Non-toxic • Toxin-free • Toxic-free • Low Toxic • Low Toxin • Low-Tox
What do these terms actually mean and what do they all have in common?
The commonality between these terms is that they've been used interchangeably and/or in combination for a long time to mean that the food, product, or thing in question is free of toxic or harmful chemicals or without toxins.
Now, there's nothing inherently wrong with using any of those terms. As a matter of fact, I've used them myself! I've pointed to the fact that a product is safer, eco-friendly, or cleaner; and I've encouraged you to eat organic, as much as it's sustainable for you because that reduces your toxin exposure and moves you closer to better health. I've even used the term toxin-free to refer to products that are considered toxin-free because they have no ingredients in them known to be harmful or toxic according to the available data.
So, you see, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘶𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘶𝘴𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘴, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘴 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘫𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘹𝘪𝘯𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦.
𝔻𝕚𝕕 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕜𝕟𝕠𝕨?
𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒄𝒖𝒓𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒍𝒚 𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒐 𝒈𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒃𝒐𝒅𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒈𝒖𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒓 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒔 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒎𝒔 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒃𝒆 𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒛𝒆𝒅.
Therefore, most of these terms may mean something vastly different from one person to the next. An example is the term "natural." This can be a very vague word. Natural doesn't always mean safe, just as synthetic doesn't always mean toxic. It's all relative.
Additionally, we have to be able to get past these terms used in greenwashing marketing tactics to appeal to health conscious consumers. The key here is learning to read labels to find out if a product should make it into our home or not.
The way the current system is and the times we're living in, 𝘪𝘵 𝘴𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘶𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘰𝘪𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘰𝘹𝘪𝘯𝘴.
There will always be a toxin in the air we breathe outside, some level of naturally occurring heavy metals in our soil, the occasional "less than healthy" meal we eat, the stressors in our life that cannot be entirely avoided; and the PFAS or "forever chemicals", which even if not intentionally added, can accidentally occur in products from the manufacturing process. More on this topic later.
𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒈𝒐𝒂𝒍 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒔𝒏'𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝟏𝟎𝟎% 𝒕𝒐𝒙𝒊𝒏-𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒂 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒚𝒍𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒄𝒊𝒐𝒖𝒔 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒖𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒓𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒂𝒔 𝒔𝒖𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒚 𝒂𝒔 𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒄𝒖𝒓𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒄𝒊𝒓𝒄𝒖𝒎𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒔, 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒄𝒖𝒓𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒃𝒖𝒅𝒈𝒆𝒕, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒄𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒆 𝒄𝒖𝒓𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒍𝒚 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆.
𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝑤ℎ𝑦 𝐼'𝑣𝑒 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑑𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑘 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑚 "𝑙𝑜𝑤 𝑡𝑜𝑥" 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑎𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑠𝑤𝑖𝑡𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑎 "ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑒𝑟" 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑦𝑙𝑒, 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑠 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑜𝑓 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒.
You may still hear me use the terms mentioned before, depending on the subject or if it directly applies to the topic at hand. But generally, I've found that when referring to lifestyle changes as a whole (holistically) the closest and most realistic way to describe it is referring to it as a "low toxin/low toxic" lifestyle.
Jess
For more information, visit the following sources:
epa.gov
thetoxicfreefoundation.com
https://www.forceofnatureclean.com/non-toxic-vs-toxin-free-what-do-these-terms-even-mean/
https://www.ehn.org/pfas-in-makeup-2655912186/getting-pfas-out-of-makeup
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