by Laura Stahl

Created on: November 19, 2008

I'm a heavy advocate for watching what I buy for my family to consume. I read labels and research things online or in books constantly. Even when it comes to my pets I research the food I'm giving them (especially after the most recent pet food scare). I'd be one of the first in line when it comes to going against these ridiculous law suits because someone couldn't watch their McDonalds intake and got sick or too fat. But, the fact of the matter is there are ingredients that exist in our food and cosmetic products that a majority, if not almost everyone, is unaware of that could harm us.

These products hide in everything and unless you have time to sit down and research constantly, or you have your own lab in your home to check the effects of things on humans or animals you probably wouldn't even know they exist. Common sense for most is that we need to watch our sugar, fat, alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine intake, and that a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, lean meats, and whole grains is beneficial. Yet, not many look at our pesticide, artificial hormone, and infertility chemical consumption?

The United States is a perfect nation. Not only do we want our bodies to look perfect and our media glorify this perfection, we also want out food to look like it jumped out of a Better Homes and Garden magazine. Our cosmetic industry booms as we constantly purchase make up, creams, dyes, etc. to look our best. Unfortunately a lot of these perfect looking foods, and cosmetics that we eat or smear on ourselves are affecting our health and even our children prior to them being born. The FDA doesn't regulate these substances and until years of research to find a definite conclusion is done, then these products continue to pour into our stores and homes.

The biggest culprit these days is called Xenoestrogen. Xenoestrogen, unlike phytoestrogens which come from plants (and good for you I might add), are a manmade hormone that mimics estrogen inside the body and is in a ton of products and food we consume every day. Xenoestrogens come from chemicals used in agriculture, and industry production. They come from plastics, artificial hormones used to fatten up live stock or make them produce more milk, they are in soaps and detergents, bug spray, and the list goes on and on. I find it strange that suddenly we are starting to have more and more reproductive issues in this country, such as PCOS, Endometriosis, and infertility. Then of course there is the rise in cancer. Some of these disorders can be attributed to diet and exercise, but after that they even seem to still exist. Xenoestrogen is taken in by the body as estrogen and when the system gets over loaded by this hormone a number of different health problems can arise, including those I listed and even beyond those.

There are stronger, better' chemicals created all the time and yet prior to them heading out for use the testing done on them is limited, and is almost immediately dubbed safe for human consumption, or exposure by the FDA. Then years down the road, "ohit's been found that such and such has been now been proven to cause breast cancer, or infertility in mice." It's sickening that we have to do so much research and over analyzing of products prior to eating them or putting them in our hair, in fear of thinking they might cause us to get sick (even down to the produce we buy). It seems that other countries, such as Europe ban products or have heavy warnings on them way before the United States does, and it is so sad that we can't rely on the FDA more to protect us.

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