The average baby in the US is born with 287 different chemicals in their bodies. Hard to believe, isn’t it? We’re so inundated with chemical toxins, that our children never have a fighting chance. No wonder it’s become harder and harder for us to conceive. No wonder so many babies are being born with birth defects and developing behavioral issues.

Sounds pretty bleak, I know. But, with some simple lifestyle changes you can greatly reduce levels of some of the worst offenders from your body in a matter of days. Yes, days!

You Have Control

When thinking about environmental toxins, it can be easy to feel like there’s nothing you can do. We see headlines about polluted waterways, terrible air quality, and increased leniency for polluters.  Here’s the thing: we spend about 90% of our time indoors, most of which is in our homes. And, in most cases, the air quality in our homes is several times worse than what’s outside.  What does this mean? It means you have a lot of control over what’s going into your body.

Time to Take Charge

There are three classes of chemicals that can be mostly avoided without too much effort. Not only does focusing on these three areas remove a significant number of chemicals, but the longest half-life is a few days. This means that while we can’t completely remove all of them from our bodies completely, your toxic burden will be reduced significantly within about a week of removing them from your home.

#1 Go Organic: 

A study published in JAMA Internal Medicine of women undergoing infertility treatment, found that those who ate about 2 servings per day of high-pesticide produce like strawberries and apples had an 18% lower probability of getting pregnant and a 26% lower probability of giving birth to a live baby.

But, here’s the good news: In recent studies where groups of people have been fed mostly organic diets, the levels of pesticides showing in lab work went down by 90% in just five days.

Here are some tips for simple swaps:

• Download Environmental Working Group’s (EWG) Dirty Dozen for a list of produce with the highest pesticide residue. Avoid these foods or only purchase organic options.
• Download EWG’s Clean Fifteen for the foods that can more freely be consumed when grown conventionally.
• Look for “pasture-raised” and “grass-fed” on meat, dairy and egg labels. Pesticides bioaccumulate in animal fat, so whatever was in the animal feed is making its way into your body.

#2 – Ditch the Plastic: 

BPA, the controversial chemical found in many plastic products that you’ve most likely heard of by now, has been attributed to a number of birth defects from fetal exposure. At very low levels of exposure, our barely-conceived babies can form permanent changes to the genital tract, changes in breast tissue that predispose to cancer, increased prostate weight, lower bodyweight, and signs of early-onset puberty.

Baby bottles and sippy cups are some of the most-common products that contain BPA, but by reducing our reliance on plastics in general, we can avoid other chemicals as well. BPA is just one of many.

Once you start to notice everything that is made of plastic, and how often they touch our food surfaces, it can be easy to freak out a bit. But, think of it this way: you’ve been exposed to this stuff for a lifetime, so just removing a few plastic items is an improvement.

Some simple swaps:

• Replace your plastic food storage containers with glass. You can buy a set at pretty reasonable prices, or just reuse things like peanut butter jars.
• Speaking of peanut butter, anytime you have the choice of either glass or plastic, buy the brand that comes in glass. Same goes for canned food – it’s lined with BPA.
• If you’re drinking out of plastic, stop. Glass water bottles have become so easy to find, and they just keep getting more affordable. And always use glass baby bottles.

#3 – Get Unscented:

As a culture, we’ve become obsessed with scent. And for our products to hold scent, a class of chemicals called phthalates has been added to the recipe.

Phthalates have been connected to some pretty bizarre symptoms, like little boys who never develop distinguishable scrotums. And hypospadias, a condition in which the urethra develops somewhere along the shaft of the penis rather than at the tip.  Need I say more?

Here are your swaps:

• Get rid of anything you spray or plug in for the sake of aroma. You don’t need air fresheners. You need to open the windows. Air fresheners are one of the worst offenders when it comes to indoor air pollutants.
• Avoid anything that lists “fragrance” or “parfum” in the ingredients. A product’s fragrance is considered a “trade secret.” They can legally throw almost anything in there, and almost always, part of the secret recipe is phthalates.
• As phthalates are also used to keep certain plastics flexible, swap out the vinyl shower curtain liner for cotton and get rid of the rubber duckies.

Genevieve White – Environmental Health Coach

If you’d like more tips for getting the toxic chemicals out of your home environment, sign up for my free 6-day Detox Your Kitchen series or contact me for a free consultation.