Chemicals and toxins enter our bodies easily either by being inhaled from the air we breathe, absorbed via our skin or ingested through our food and water supplies. They quietly and some times not so quietly build up inside our bodies lodging in our organs, bones and blood stream greatly effecting our health and well being over time. In fact the world health organization says that 90% of disease can be connected to toxins within our environment.

We are now being alerted through research and case studies that many items we have bought and used in our homes over the years are not as safe as we may once have thought. For over twenty years I have been extremely mindful of reducing the amounts of chemicals and toxins that my family are being exposed too. I’ve made some perceived radical decisions over the years such as not immunizing my children due to the mercury content in the immunization fluid given to babies. A choice that today, I am so thankful for.

Petroleum is used to make plastic:
Plastics are one man made product that I am aiming to eliminate as much as possible from our family home particularly in the kitchen and school lunches. Don’t just take my word for it though. Visit a wonderful site by the environmental working group. It collects and gathers information and case studies about the toxicity on our planet and presents the information so you can be informed and make your own healthy living choices. I will however share a few facts with you.

Petroleum is used to make plastics. In fact 16% of the 20,730,000 barrels of oil used by the US each day goes to making plastic and other materials. (source Wikipedia). That fact alone scares me as we store so much of our food and drinks in plastic. Plastics can leach many extremely harmful toxins such as BPA or bisphenol A which is getting allot of press at the moment particularly in relation to babies bottles and tinned formula. Tiffany over at Nature Moms last year wrote about some recent research and suggests some alternatives for baby bottles.

If you are keen to save some money this year, help our planet out, reduce toxins and chemicals from your personal living space and go a little greener then a great place to start is with your kitchen bench and cupboards.

Six simple things you can do right now to detox your kitchen benches and cupboards:

The main focus with these six suggestions is to switch a plastic product for a greener more eco-friendly option.

1. Use a wooden or bamboo chopping board:
My preferred option is a bamboo chopping board. The beauty of bamboo is that is grows rapidly much better than chopping down trees which take years to grow. Bamboo is an ecologically attractive alternative. It absorbs very little moisture and will not shrink or swell. Surprisingly, it is also harder that most woods, making it a superior material for use in cutting. The best part is one side can be used for cutting and the other for serving.

2. Switch from a plastic kettle to stainless steel:
I’ve opted for a stainless steel kettle which may not be as pretty looking as the colourful and cheaper plastic kettles but its a health choice I am very happy with.

3. Use glass baby bottles
This is particularly important one for mothers with young children or anyone about to have children. Plastic baby bottles have been the popular choice of mothers for many years. Now with recent research (read Tiffany’s article at Nature Mom) there is enough evidence to suggest that going back to glass bottles is the safer and healthier alternate. Environmental working group also have many case studies for further research regarding baby bottles and the containers in which the formula is packed in.

4. Switch your plastic storage containers to glass:
This takes a little while to switch all of your plastic storage containers over to ceramic, glass or stainless steel but its definitely worthwhile. Glass is obviously a wiser choice for the planet as it can easily be recycled and does not take hundreds of years to break down like plastic.

5. Save money and the planet by cleaning with natural products:

All purpose cleaner:
One part vinegar ( a natural deodorizer) to one part water into a spray bottle. Use to wipe clean benches and surfaces. I also add eucalyptus essential oil, tea tree oil or sometimes lavender. Tea tree oil is well known for its antibacterial properties and ability to kill bacteria along with eucalyptus

Stubborn stains:

3 parts baking soda and one part water to make paste. Spread paste onto stain on bench and leave for one to two hours

Use eco-friendly cotton cleaning cloths and dry in sun to disinfect.

Use lemon juice dissolve soap scum and hard water

6. Swap your cooking utensils over to bamboo or stainless steel:

The beauty of natural bamboo cooking utensils is that there are no artificial colours or coatings which can leach into your foods. Your rolling pin, BBQ utensils, mixing bowls and kitchen cooking utensils can all be swapped over to the natural, eco-friendly, very durable bamboo versions. You can easily buy your bamboo products at an Asian store or on-line. I personally have not bought any on-line but if anyone can recommend an on-line bamboo store that I can pass onto my readers I would be very grateful.

   化學(xué)品和毒素很容易就能通過(guò)我們吸入的空氣，我們的肌膚，食物和水源進(jìn)入我們的體內(nèi)。隨著時(shí)間的推移，它們會(huì)悄悄地或者有時(shí)甚至不那么安靜地在我們體內(nèi)慢慢積聚。同時(shí)，它們會(huì)進(jìn)入我們的器官，骨骼，和血液。最后，極大地影響我們的健康和幸福。事實(shí)上，根據(jù)世界衛(wèi)生組織的調(diào)查表明，90%的疾病都與我們周圍環(huán)境中的毒素有關(guān)。

很多研究與事實(shí)告訴我們，這些年以來(lái)我們家里購(gòu)買的以及正在使用的商品并不像我們想的那么安全可靠。在過(guò)去二十年里，我一直很盡量地減少我家人接觸的化學(xué)品和有毒物質(zhì)。這些年來(lái)我自下意識(shí)地采取一些措施切斷毒源。例如，不讓我的孩子進(jìn)行免疫接種，因?yàn)橐呙缢幰豪锖�有汞。這個(gè)決定到今天我還深懷感激。

塑料是用石油來(lái)制造的

我一直希望我們能夠停止在家里，特別是在廚房以及校園食堂使用塑料。我是認(rèn)真的，并不是隨口說(shuō)說(shuō)。進(jìn)這個(gè)出色的網(wǎng)站環(huán)境工作小組看一下。它收集和積累我們這個(gè)地球上有關(guān)的毒性的資料和案例研究。讓您可以了解自己的健康狀況并作出自己的健康生活的選擇。現(xiàn)在，我就先給你們提供一些相關(guān)信息。

塑料是用石油來(lái)制造的.事實(shí)上，美國(guó)每天使用的20,730,000 桶的石油中，有16%是用來(lái)做塑料或其它產(chǎn)品的(來(lái)源 Wikipedia). 這讓我不得不擔(dān)心我們用來(lái)儲(chǔ)存那么多食品與飲料的塑料。塑料可以分解出毒性很強(qiáng)的毒素 例如雙酚A 。而目前嬰而瓶裝或者罐裝食品使用的塑料正是包含這種毒素。雙酚A蒂芬尼在自然媽媽上發(fā)布了一些有關(guān)這方面的調(diào)查研究并且給正在使用嬰兒瓶的人提出一些建議和警告。

如果你想今年盡量多節(jié)省一些錢；想為我們的人類家園做點(diǎn)貢獻(xiàn)；想減少你生活中的毒素和化學(xué)藥品；想你的家更清潔。那你首先就要從你廚房的工作臺(tái)和櫥柜開(kāi)始做起。

你現(xiàn)在就可以用下面六種簡(jiǎn)單的方法來(lái)給你的廚房工作臺(tái)和櫥柜進(jìn)行消毒。

１．使用木制或竹制的砧板

我比較喜歡的是竹制的砧板。竹子的優(yōu)勢(shì)在于它不僅長(zhǎng)得快，而且質(zhì)量比那些需要多年才能生長(zhǎng)的木材的質(zhì)量要好。從生態(tài)學(xué)的角度學(xué)看，竹子是個(gè)不錯(cuò)的替代資源。它水分少，既不會(huì)收縮也不會(huì)膨脹。令人驚奇的是雖然它比其它很多木材都要硬因此砍伐工人的首選目標(biāo)。竹子最好的地方人們可以砍下它們一部分，留剩下的那一部份繼續(xù)生長(zhǎng)。

２．把塑料水壺?fù)Q成不銹鋼水壺

雖然不銹鋼水壺沒(méi)有色彩斑斕的水壺塑料那么好看，我還是選擇它。因?yàn)樗�是為我的健康作的選擇。

３．給嬰兒使用玻璃瓶

這條對(duì)孩子年紀(jì)還小的媽媽們和那些將要生孩子的婦女來(lái)說(shuō)尤其重要。很多年來(lái)，很多母親一直喜歡使用塑料瓶。根據(jù)最近的一項(xiàng)研究（蒂芬尼在〈自然母親〉的一篇文章） 表明：母親們使用玻璃會(huì)使孩子更加安全和健康。環(huán)境工作小組網(wǎng)站還有有關(guān)盛放嬰兒食品的嬰兒瓶和容器這一方面更深入的研究。

４．把你的塑料存儲(chǔ)容器換成玻璃存儲(chǔ)容器

把你所有的塑料存儲(chǔ)容器換成陶瓷的，玻璃的，或者不銹鋼的你會(huì)浪費(fèi)你一點(diǎn)時(shí)間。但這絕對(duì)是值得的。顯而易見(jiàn)，使用玻璃對(duì)地球來(lái)說(shuō)是最明智的選擇。因?yàn)椴ＡШ苋菀拙湍芑厥绽�用，而不是像塑料那樣要上百年才能分解�?br />
5. 用天然產(chǎn)物來(lái)省錢和拯救地球

最后的清潔劑：

用一些醋（天然除臭劑）混合一些水倒進(jìn)噴霧器。用它可以把工作臺(tái)和桌面擦干凈。我有時(shí)會(huì)加一些，茶樹(shù)油，熏衣草。眾所周知，茶樹(shù)油和桉樹(shù)精油混合在一起能夠殺滅細(xì)菌。

頑固污漬：

用3/4碳酸氫鈉和1/4的清水混合成糊。把它灑在臺(tái)面的頑固污漬上，一到兩個(gè)小時(shí)后，把環(huán)保的擦拭棉布放到大陽(yáng)下消毒后，加入檸檬汁去溶解皂垢和硬水。

6.把您的炊具換成竹制的或不銹鋼的：

使用天然炊具的好就好在它不會(huì)有任何人工顏料或涂料溶解到你的食物里面您的搟面棍，燒烤用具，多功能碗和廚房炊具完全可以用天然的，環(huán)保的，和長(zhǎng)久耐用的竹制品來(lái)替換。你可以很方便地就能在亞洲人開(kāi)的商店和網(wǎng)上買到以竹子為原材料的產(chǎn)品。我自己還沒(méi)有在網(wǎng)上購(gòu)買過(guò)這些東西。不過(guò)要是哪位能夠提供此類網(wǎng)上竹制品商店的話，我將會(huì)感激不盡。并把這些網(wǎng)站推薦給讀者。