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Recent Posts by Natasha Uspensky, CHHC

Smell like a rose.. with no lasting side effects!


As promised, today I want to write about natural deodorant and give some recommendations about how to stay healthy and organic, without venturing into the stinky BO world of compromised personal hygiene. Most conventional deodorants, and nearly all antiperspirants contain pretty much a laundry list of everything you should let anywhere near your skin, especially not so close to your glands and the tender tissue of the underarms.

The primary ingredient in a lot of deodorants, and all antiperspirants is aluminum. Aluminum is what blocks the sweat glands from allowing sweat to come to the surface of the skin.  Unfortunately, aluminum has also been found to have a direct correlation to breast cancer (in fact, high levels of aluminum have been found in many malignant breast tumors).  Additionally, aluminum can interfere with calcium absorption, stunt growth, weaken bones, AND cause all kinds of liver and kidney toxicity.  A 2003 study published in the European Journal of Cancer Prevention found that women who applied deodorant at least twice a week and shaved their armpits at least three times a week developed breast cancer almost 15 years younger than women who did neither. Need I say more??

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Get a Squeaky Clean, Organic Smile!

A Little Back Story:  Every winter, I get this annoying dry, red skin around my mouth and nose.  It started in college, when I first discovered tinted moisturizers (bad move!), and has resurfaced literally every winter since.  I saw a dermatologist, who told me it was perioral dermatitis, and promptly prescribed oral antibiotics (what else is new??) and an antibiotic cream.  Not only did this whole plan screw up my belly (antibiotics wreak havoc on your intestinal flora), but it also only helped for a hot second before the whole unsightly mess reared it’s ugly head again.  So this year, I started researching natural remedies for this issue… And what did I discover as one of the primary causes/irritants of the problem??  Fluoridated toothpastes full of sodium lauryl sulfates (check out Step 1: Read Your Ingredients if you’ve forgotten why they’re evil)!!  And thus began my quest for the perfect toothpaste.

Toothpastes are a great example of where reading ingredients is so crucial.  For as long as I can remember, Tom’s of Maine was always the go-to for healthy, natural toothpaste made from sustainable resources… right?  Apparently, wrong.  I had been using it for so long, that I hadn’t even looked at the ingredients in years.  But after my getting schooled on the above connection, I took a peek.. and what did I find?  Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, right there, clear as day.  Imagine my surprise!  I had been so busy eradicating parabens and SLSs from my moisturizers, hair products, and makeup, that I didn’t even realize I was exposing myself to the culprit twice a day, 7 days a week.  Now, to Tom’s credit, they have since released an SLS free toothpaste, but it still contains fluoride (which has been shown to suppress the immune system, inhibit the production of essential enzymes, and break down collagen, among other things), so I’m afraid they are out of the runnings…

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The Super-Duper Superfood You’re Probably Not Eating!

You probably remember chlorophyll from your 8th grade biology class… it absorbs energy from the sun to stimulate photosynthesis; it makes plants green; it helps plants grow and breathe; it’s like the blood that runs through the veins of plant matter… yada, yada, yada.  But what you may not know are the remarkable effects chlorophyll has on the human body.  Chlorophyll is actually really similar in composition to human blood, except it has magnesium as its central atom, as opposed to iron in human blood.  This unique similarity causes mineral-rich chlorophyll to have a whole slew of amazing benefits for the human body, including:

  • anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, and wound healing properties
  • helps to grow and repair tissue
  • purifies the blood
  • neutralizes free radicals and prevents cell damage
  • stimulates red blood cells to improve oxygen supply
  • anti-carcinogenic properties that prevent carciogens from binding with DNA in organs
  • helps to assimilate magnesium and calcium in the body
  • helps to neutralize air pollution that we breathe in
  • fights bad breath, body odor, and odors in body waste

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The Pill: Liberation or Damnation?

New York Magazine recently featured a really interesting cover article entitled  Waking Up From the Pill… although it wasn’t the balls out expose on the very serious risks involved in the choice to take oral contraceptives, it did bring another issue to light, one that is even less prevalent in the public consciousness.

Many women in America have similar experiences with birth control.  You hit a certain age, 17 or 18 in many cases, you want to start being sexually active, you talk to your mom (if you have that kind of relationship), or doctor, or secretly go to Planned Parenthood with your best friend… one way or another, you get yourself on birth control.  And odds are, you stay on it for a good 5, 7, 10 years.  You go about your life and don’t really need to even think about pesky issues like pregnancy or fertility until that fateful day when all your ducks are in a row and you’re ready to start a family.

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Clean Plates: A great new book and awesome website!

Clean Plates is one of my favorite sites for finding healthy restaurants in New York.. you just type in what you’re looking for (organic, vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, raw) and what neighborhood you’re in, and BOOM: a list of great restaurant options! They’re coming out with listings in Brooklyn and Queens soon as well..

And now, all of their great restaurant reviews are available in their new book, Clean Plates: Manhattan, with over 100 restaurants (including 40 new restaurants for 2011) for health-conscious carnivores, vegetarians, raw foodists, vegans, and anyone looking for great, healthy restaurants all over the city!

How to Detox or Cleanse the RIGHT Way

What Is Detoxing?

Regardless of how well we eat and how much we minimize our exposure to harmful toxins, our bodies can derive a whole lot of good from a detox or cleanse that is approached responsibly.  Toxins can build up in our livers, kidneys, and digestive tracts, leading to a whole slew of uncomfortable phenomena:  fatigue, constipation, skin breakouts, low libido, premature aging, and weight gain… not to mention far worse, long-term effects like lowered immunity, liver toxicity, and, yes, the big C.

The practice of detoxifying the body is an ancient one, from the ancient Greek and Roman concepts of “autointoxication,” to the ritual fasts that are a part of nearly every single documented religion (used for both spiritual and health benefits).  Today, we know more about the effects of these practices, and have honed in on methods that are less extreme, but equally beneficial, and can fit into our busy, everyday lives.  Cleanses can vary in intensity from juice fasts, to raw food diets, to taking special supplements to detoxify various organs.  Here are the easiest and healthiest ways to detoxify and cleanse your system, from least to most intensive.

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The Organic (and eco-friendly!) Pooch

Being the proud mama of a little tiny furball means making a lot of choices that effect not only another creature’s life, but also my own AND the environment.

I don’t know about your dog, but mine poops A LOT.  I used to take care of this situation using leftover plastic bags that we had in the apartment from groceries, etc… until I had the mental image of my pup’s little poops calcifying in that plastic bag and spending the next 100 years in a landfill.  That’s a lot of little plastic bags filled with poop.  I set out to find a more responsible solution.  Enter: BioBags! Which are a line of 100% biodegradable bags for a variety of uses, including little ones for pet waste!  They are great for composting or simply thrown out with your other waste, and are a great option for responsible pet owners.

With all the pet food recalls that happened in the last few years, I started really thinking about the food I was feeding my pup.  Not only did I not want to feed him sub-par food that could harm his health, but I also didn’t want to support the totally unregulated industrial agriculture system that uses bi-products from animals that were raised in unsanitary, inhumane conditions to make pet food.  I wanted to find an all-natural dog food company that used human-quality ingredients grown in environmentally responsible conditions.  I found that there were a lot of healthy, environmentally-friendly pet food companies out there, some of them even vegetarian!  Here are some of my favorites:

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6 New Year’s Goals You Can Actually Stick To!

We just got back into town last night from a whirlwind few weeks of holiday insanity that definitely threw me off the Organic Beauty track.  The result??  I have a cold, look all puffy, and feel about 10 lbs. heavier…  ugh.

In this less than ideal state, it’s really tempting to make all kinds of ambitious New Year’s resolutions to never be in this state again.. We all resolve to eat healthier, lose weight, exercise more… we might get all gung-ho with a new workout regime or diet for a few weeks, even a month, confident that THIS year, we’ll be able to stick with it. But then February rolls around, and we’re back to take-out pad thai and maybe some yoga once a week.  The truth is, biting off more than we can chew with our resolutions is a guarantee for failure. We can’t accomplish all our goals at once. So rather than taking on massive, life-altering changes, there are a bunch of small, but super high impact changes we can make to our diets and lifestyles that are easier to stick with and yield long-term, lasting results. Try one or two of these resolutions, or all of them! Either way, you’ll be taking invaluable steps toward a healthier you.

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nymag: “Vegetables are the New Meat”

NYmag declared in last week’s issue that Vegetables Are The New Meat, in an article describing New York’s new found love for all things vegetable.  David Chang, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, even Mario Batali are all adding vegetable-focused cuisine to their new restaurants and menus.  And it’s about time!!  With all the city’s amazing farmer’s markets, bursting at the seams with colorful, delicious, local produce, New Yorkers are wising up to the idea that a delicious, 5-star meal does not need to be centered around a meat or protein to be amazing, satisfying, and worth the money.  So get over your meat-and-potatoes mindset, and start chowing down some black kale, sunchokes, and kabocha squash!

Also check out:
Six Veggie Staples
and Quiz: Are You a Vegivore?

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Step Four: Restructure Your Eating Habits

5 Steps to Healthier Eating in the New Year | The Organic Beauty Blog

By now we have (hopefully) all made drastic changes to the products we put on and around our bodies. We have become more mindful of ingredients, and realized that harmful toxins and carcinogens enter our body through ways other than our mouths.  But how we eat is still the most impactful and important method of promoting total body health… Unfortunately, it is also the hardest.  Buying new beauty products or cleaning products is as easy as checking out at the grocery store, it doesn’t involve a complete makeover of habits we have been honing and reinforcing for, well, as long as we have been conscious, really.  This is the  most important of the 4 Steps is therefore most difficult to incorporate into your life.

But I’m going to make it easy for you!!!

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