Many illnesses, including many cancers, cannot thrive in an alkaline environment. The American diet is extremely acidic...commercially raised red meat, coffee, sugar, fried foods and simple carbs... those make up the overwhelming majority of what we eat.

The components of what you put in your mouth and on your skin has to processed by your liver. This much abused organ is already working overtime to rid your body of toxins that you breathe and get on your skin ...household cleaners, register tape, etc..

FYI - 40 percent of cash register receipts printed on heat-activated paper have been found to contain the dangerous chemical Bisphenol A (BPA)!

I'm going to take just one from a very long list of dubious ingredients that we are commonly used in lotions, deodorants and makeup, namely: castor oil.

Castor oil and its derivatives are used in the manufacturing of soaps, lubricants, hydraulic and brake fluids, paints, dyes, coatings, inks, cold resistant plastics, waxes and polishes, nylon, pharmaceuticals and perfumes.

The castor seed contains ricin, a toxic protein. Allergenic compounds found on the plant surface can cause permanent nerve damage, making the harvest of castor beans a human health risk. India, Brazil, and China are the major crop producers, and the workers suffer harmful side effects from working with these plants.

This is ONE of many, many ingredients we don't take the time to research, trusting that no company would manufacture and sell a product that contained toxins. I wish that were so.

Parabens are another ugly story. Parabens are a group of compounds widely used as antimicrobial preservatives in food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic products, including deodorants. Parabens are absorbed through intact skin and from the gastrointestinal tract and blood.

"Measurable concentrations of six different parabens have been identified in biopsy samples from breast tumors (Darbre, 2004). The particular parabens were found in relative concentrations that closely parallel their use in the synthesis of cosmetic products. They increase the expression of many genes that are usually regulated by estradiol and cause human breast tumor cells to grow and proliferate in vitro."

Has anyone blown the whistle on cosmetic manufacturers?
Do you still believe some government agency is really looking out for our health?

So on top of the hundreds of chemical substances our liver has to deal with, we pile on sugar (a toxin itself) and artificial sweeteners and hormone-filled animal protein, and preservatives.

We neglect the care this vital organ needs until it causes us pain or gets sluggish enough to cause alarming symptoms. Please don't wait that long.

Here are the 5 things you can do today to improve your health;

1) Eat Organic

2) Cut out sugar and white flour

3) Refuse to use products with ingredients you can't pronounce or don't recognize

4) Squeeze lemon juice in every glass of water you drink (lemons alkaline our bodies, making them inhospitable to most disease

5) Choose wild-caught, cold water fish (never farm raised) or organic free-range chicken as your animal protein of choice.

~ Be Well. ♥