How to Detoxify Every Day Without Going Through a “Detox”

In its natural, healthy state, the body is detoxifying at all times. Breathing, digesting healthy, clean vegetables, using our muscles, or just being alive creates toxins in the body that need to be expelled.

With today’s typical modern lifestyle, toxins are accumulating in the body at a greater rate than the body can expel them. Not only do we have much higher levels of toxicity, many of the toxins are not normally found in nature. Once the body is in that vicious cycle of toxic accumulation, disease will set in, organ failure will eventually occur, and doctors will blame it on genetics or age.

Disease has one cause: cellular malfunction. There are two causes for cellular malfunctions: lack of nutrition and too much toxicity.

It is no wonder “detox” is the buzz word amongst the natural health enthusiasts and healers. The problem is, even amongst the natural health crowd, there is a tendency to eat poorly and detox once or twice a year with a juice fast or a smoothie binge, which is typically done in a way that feeds the body way too much sugar, which for most people completely negates the detox.

Now for the good news: your body can handle a remarkably heavy toxic load if you’re getting proper nutrition, enough sleep, your gut flora is balanced, and your gut is healthy. The human body is better off with lots of toxins and lots of nutrition, than it is without nutrition. This does not mean you can eat like crap and take a supplement and then expect to be healthy. Junk food robs the body of nutrition and it unbalances the intestinal flora, leaving the gut in dismal health. If you live under power lines, talk on your cell phone all day, type on your laptop for hours on end, and eat too much Fukushima, parasite laden sushi, you can still be healthier than most anyone you know if you do the following:

How To Detoxify With Diet

Produce detoxifies the body. This is especially true when it’s organic and raw. The trick is to eat a lot of it, to eat a wide variety, and to eat more vegetables than fruit. Make yourself a huge salad with 15 different vegetables and lots of herbs and spices like garlic, turmeric, cilantro, etc. Your base can be kale, collard greens, spinach, or anything leafy that’s not iceberg lettuce. Shred carrots, beets, and radishes.  Throw in some pumpkin and sesame seeds. Don’t worry, we’ll have a link to a recipe at the end.

The thing is, all of those previously mentioned ingredients are known to increase organ functionality, build up optimum cellular function, prevent disease, and expel toxins from the body. Many of the vegetables and herbs can even dispel BPAs and other man-made toxins from the body.

We are supposed to eat a lot of produce. For many years, longer than we’ve eaten any other way, humans foraged for vegetables growing out of the ground. We would walk, all day, walked, see an edible food, eat it, walk some more. It’s estimated that before we used grain agriculture we ate up to 8 pounds of produce a day! Meat takes a lot of effort to find, prepare, and digest. Fruits and nuts were seasonal, but herbs, leafs, and such are always just popping right up out of the ground. Other omnivores can be seen doing this, even wolves. They prefer protein, but they eat vegetables all day, too, in the wild.

Raw, organic vegetables expel toxins from the body in a multitude of ways. Eat as many as you can. Make a big salad every day. Here’s a recipe.

Drink To Detoxify

Make yourself a gallon of cranberry stevia lemonade a day and drink it. If you can’t drink a gallon, don’t kill yourself trying, but most people can do that just fine. The lemon balances the PH and helps boost the liver’s ability to detoxify. The cranberry keeps the kidneys going strong. The water flushes out the body. There’re many more benefits, but those are the biggies. Don’t use a sugar to sweeten it, use stevia or no sweetener. Also, always use distilled water, or unadulterated, naturally mineralized water from a trusted spring source. Here’s the recipe.

Take a Whole Food Multivitamin/Mineral Formula That Detoxifies

Shillington’s Total Nutrition Formula helps the body expel toxins. All of the ingredients play their part, but of particular note are the chlorella and the spirulina, which are not only some of the best sources of protein available, they are powerful heavy metal chelators. (They bind with heavy metals and expel them from the body). Here’s an article to Make Your Own Total Nutrition (or buy it here).

Balance Your Gut Flora

It’s hard to detoxify when your gut flora is full of Candida. Nothing works right when yeast is abundant in the whole body. Candida isthe, or one ofthe, foundations for almost all illnesses. Kill the Candida and limit refined foods and sugars (agave, brown rice syrup, coconut sugar, fruit juices, etc.) from the diet. “Healthy sugars” are sugars found in whole foods. The aforementioned sweeteners feed yeast. Balance the gut flora with salads and cut out the excess sugars. Health will follow. Out best on gut flora is How To Kill Candida And Balance Your Inner Ecosystem.

Breathe Properly

Proper breathing, believe it or not, is an awesome way to help detoxify the body without putting out any effort. What is proper breathing? It’s breathing from one’s abdomen so that the rib cage and stomach expand as you breath in. Most people breath in a way that causes the opposite to happen, making for shallow breaths. This is a nervous breathing pattern we’ve adapted due to our modern, low but constant stressful lifestyle. For more on proper breathing, see How To Breathe.

Conclusion

Most people can repair the body this way without supplements, but supplements do speed up the process. For those dealing with serious or long-term health issues, or those who do not have access to organic foods, supplements may be required. Virtually everyone in modern society has an overabundance in Candida. To speed up wellness, you can knock out Candida fast with Formula SF722, Shillington’s Intestinal Cleanse, and FloraMend.

If you are very ill and in need of a more radical approach to getting well quickly it’s time to learn about Candida, Leaky Gut, and more.

Recommended Supplements:
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Marathon Running: The New Counseling for Couples?

Relationships are hard work. Sometimes they suck. But sometimes (most of the time, hopefully), you wouldn’t want to be with anyone else. Everyone faces the same difficulties from time to time. Arguments can happen. They’re normal, but they shouldn’t be tolerated.

That’s why I want to talk to you about how marathon running can help your relationship. Whether it’s the strongest it’s ever been or you’re nearing a divorce, marathon running, as a couple, could be the best thing you could do for your relationship. Literally, the best thing.

Getting your spouse to run will be half the battle, and convincing them can seem as plausible as convincing them you’re a witch with eight toes and can fly on a broom. But it must be done.

Here’s a list of reasons why marathon running can help your relationship:

1. You’re in it together

Cheesy or not, it’s true. You’re not alone, and you’re not just  friends. You’re with someone you’ve dedicated your life to – someone who understands you. Someone who feels the same as you do about them.

You’re going to experience some rough patches, times when you want to rip your partner to shreds. It’s all part of the journey, the journey that you will be embarking on together. Together is the key word here. You’ll both smell worse than the breath of a dog after eating its own excrement, but at least you’ll smell like it together. That’s all that matters.

Put all that behind you, and it can be fun. You’ll each have your own goals. You’ll be more empathetic with one another. If nobody can be bothered to cook or clean, it won’t result in a fight. But it will result in  “put your feet up and watch TV for a while.” When times get tough, you’ll begin to appreciate one another more. Who needs conventional counseling when you can run a marathon?

2. Anger outlet

Being angry is never a good thing. It sucks, and it’s the root of all evil.

Imagine this. You’ve had a rough day. Your boss is annoyed that you didn’t finish your report on time. Your friends don’t have time for you right now. There’s absolutely nothing good on TV for you to watch. You just got a bill from your credit card company that seems like someone’s playing a nasty trick on you. As you can imagine, you’re having a bad day.

Now, DO NOT let your anger get the better of you. Go for a run with your partner.  Discuss your feelings. Use this as an opportunity to show a bit of that good ol’ emotion. You’ll feel resoundingly better afterwards, and you probably won’t even care what your boss has to say. You could even turn it into a game: just don’t get fired.

3. The marathon itself is worth it

The training is just the start. The 26.2 mile race is just a distant thought. But when you’ve done the training, you’ll know you’re ready for the marathon. The journey with your partner only gets better from now on.

Not only will you be running alongside your partner, but also the thousands of other runners in the race. Not to mention all the people watching – chanting your name as you run past them.

The excellent thing about this is that your partner feels the same. You’ll be running together and get to experience the same emotions. Nothing says, “true love” more than enduring torture together and getting through it. Just remember that it gets easier. Not only the running, but being a couple. Because being with one person can be hard sometimes.

And, just a warning: crying like a baby at the end is not uncommon.  I don’t care how much of a man (or woman) you are. Don’t hold back. Don’t be emotionless. If you cry, you cry. If you’re a “man,” you may feel your masculinity take a hit, but who cares? Don’t try and please other people. If they mock you, then stuff ’em.

4. Sharing travelling experiences

We know marathon running is a continuous, never-ending sport. If you’re lucky, you’ll be 90 before you consider taking a much needed break. You don’t just run one marathon and stop there. That’s not how it works. If you’re a serious runner, you’ll run as many different races as you can. This means you’ll have to travel. A lot. To other countries, states, and cities.

But it doesn’t stop there. You’ll be with your partner the whole time. Providing the plane or car doesn’t crash in the process, you’ll find yourself traveling the globe in search for the best marathons. And you’ll run them together. Sure, it can be expensive, but so can any other hobby. The experiences are ones you’ll never forget.

Just don’t spend your days away from home cooped up in your hotel room. Get out. Experience the culture. Do something you’ve never done before. Go skydiving. You only get one opportunity. Don’t waste it. Do something fun with your partner. It’ll be worth it.

Conclusion

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Marathon running is, in time, going to be something that couples participate in to grow, heal, and strengthen their relationships. Think outside the box. Make your spouse read this article, from top to bottom. It could be the start

Have your spouse read this article, from top to bottom. It could be the start of something great, even if you feel your relationship is as healthy as it will ever be.

Further Reading:



No More Gluten – How I Found Health After MS

Putting the Pieces of the Puzzle Together

Learning how to become healthy again after being diagnosed with a chronic, debilitating illness (of which the medical community says there is “no cure”) is like putting a puzzle together when you don’t have all of the pieces. I’ve actually learned a few things in the last 11 months since my MS diagnosis. I realized that I either have celiac disease (which is a disease that causes intestinal damage upon the consumption of gluten) or I, at the very least, have gluten intolerance. Either way, I avoid gluten.

The Baklava Incident

I went out to eat with some girlfriends. I did this every Friday, so I knew how to stick to my program at a restaurant. On that day, however, we got to talking about how well I was doing. I shared with them how I was able to get off of all of my medications simply by changing what I ate. I told them I was better – walking better, feeling better, and having more energy. I thought, “I’ve been good. I’ve stuck to my program so well I deserve some baklava.” It was delicious, but I couldn’t sleep that night because my stomach was turning in knots and my legs, which had been peaceful for three weeks, started to spasm again. I told myself, “Baklava doesn’t taste this good. Nothing does.”

Unwittingly Eating Couscous

I unknowingly ate gluten after eating only raw, mostly organic produce for two months. I made some couscous (which I didn’t know was wheat) and ate it for four days in a row for my evening meal. On day three, my MS symptoms started coming back. My right foot dropped and I was tripping, just like when my symptoms first started. I was also losing my balance and had a hard time walking up and down stairs. Once I realized the connection, I limited my diet to organic produce again and I used Shillington’s Intestinal Cleanse and his Blood Detox for a few days. My symptoms were gone within a week.

Gluten Intolerance

I’ve got my theories as to why there is a sudden rise in gluten intolerance lately, but they’re merely theories. What I do know is that right now, and possibly forever, I cannot eat gluten and be well. I can have certain wheat products like the Total Nutrition Formula, which has wheat grass, but wheat grass, if properly harvested, does not have gluten.

This is how gluten affected me. With other conditions, each person with gluten intolerance may experience different symptoms to different degrees. The most common gluten intolerance symptoms revolve around gastrointestinal issues such as bloating, constipation, gas, and diarrhea — these symptoms occur because the body is unable to digest and absorb gluten properly. Some individuals may also experience heartburn, acid reflux, nausea and vomiting. Gluten intolerance may also cause anemia, unexplained weight loss, fatigue, joint pain, headaches and irritability, mouth ulcers, a white coating on your tongue, an itchy skin rash, or open sores on the skin. Some individuals may experience gluten intolerance symptoms after consuming a small amount of gluten, while others may be able to eat small amounts of gluten without experiencing any major symptoms.

The most important thing I learned is that the safest way to eat is to limit myself to raw, fresh, organic produce. With anything else that I am going to eat, I need to be totally sure it does not contain gluten. I’ve learned that my digestive system will be damaged, and those MS symptoms will come back if I eat wheat or any other grain that contains gluten. And I’ve also learned that anyone with a damaged digestive system needs to stay away from gluten to heal. Check out Balance Your Ecosystem and Make Your Own Multi-Vitamin/Mineral. Check out the first source for my story about being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

Recommended Supplements:

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Yes, Cold Weather Can Make You Sick – Scientists Finally Confirm What We All Knew

We’ve all been told, “Get a coat on or you’ll catch a cold!” Many of us have ignored this advice. We’ve been told by educators and those “in the know” that cold weather doesn’t make us sick, viruses do. New research shows Mom was right, and the so-called “experts” didn’t know what they were talking about.

Research has now shown that viruses spread more effectively in guinea pigs kept in cooler conditions than those kept in warmer conditions. Epithelial mice cells kept in cooler conditions were more prone to viral infection than those cells kept four degrees (Celsius) warmer. Yale researchers found that in epithelial mice cells, colder conditions helped viruses to thrive. In a human study, the participants who soaked their feet in ice water developed cold symptoms in greater numbers than the control group of participants whose feet were kept warm.

Beyond the Cold Conditions Lie the Answer

Typically, there is more than one cause for anything and “catching a cold” is no exception. It is true that without some exposure to pathogens (like a virus) cold weather alone will not make us sick. For years, researchers forced cold conditions upon research participants in a sterile environment, and sometimes they even exposed them to viruses. Afterward, they declared that cold weather has nothing to do with infection rates and cold can’t give you a cold. In reality, it is far more complicated than that.

Several studies are showing new evidence as to how cold weather effects the cold and flu season. A variety of factors are at play here, including our exposure to pathogens like viruses, temperature’s effect on a virus, the temperature’s effect on our immune system, stress and its effect on our immune system, and our tendency for greater exposure to infected people in the fall and winter.

Without a doubt, cold weather alone will not give someone the cold or the flu. No matter how cold you get, getting cold in and of itself will not cause a viral infection. If you get cold enough, it is possible, even probable, that you can get hypothermia, and that can kill you. You must be exposed to a virus or another pathogen in order to get sick. (Exposure is frequent; some experts say fairly constant.) Cold weather does play an important role in the annual flu season during which 5-20% of Americans catch a cold or flu.

Cold Weather Makes Viruses More Durable

In cold weather, viruses enjoy extra protection from the elements. The outer membrane of many viruses (including the influenza virus) is primarily made up of fatty-like substances known as lipids. At temperatures around freezing and below, this outer membrane hardens and solidifies into a robust gel. This gives viruses extra protection during cold weather. As the temperature rises above freezing, the outer membrane of a virus becomes less solid – more of a gelatinous liquid. At temperatures of 105 degrees and higher, the viruses’ outer covering is liquid with no real solid form. This diminished protection can leave the virus damaged or destroyed by the elements.

Lowered Immune Response Due To Cold Weather

When human beings become cold, one of the unfortunate side effects is constriction of the blood vessels. Our white T-cells are transported via our blood vessels, so getting cold can inhibit your immune response. Also, the stress associated with being really chilled causes the body to release the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol does facilitate some necessary functions, but too much is a bad thing. Too much cortisol also inhibits the immune system.

A Tendency To Go Kamikaze (Apoptosis)

Cells have the ability to self-destruct. It is not something commonly done, except in the most dire circumstances. If the cell’s survival is impeding the survival of the larger organism, cells have been known to off themselves as a form of altruistic sacrifice. (The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one). Cells infected with a virus are sometimes able to do this in order to slow the viruses’ spread. Warm cells are more eager to self-destruct than cold cells, which…well… sometimes get cold feet.

Every year as winter approaches, the earth receives less direct sunlight for either the northern or the southern hemisphere. (When it’s summer in the northern hemisphere, it’s winter in the southern hemisphere, and vice-versa). Obviously, this is a gradual process. During the winter, there are fewer hours of daylight in the day and less direct sunlight. Most of us also spend more time indoors. This has a tendency to depress some people. That general feeling of malaise is not caused by our preference for warm weather, alone. The more likely culprit for that blah feeling is a lack of vitamin D. Our bodies require sunlight to synthesize vitamin D. Vitamin D plays an important role in our immune defense and in maintaining our mood. In the winter months, we are likely to be running low on this crucial vitamin.

Conclusion

As previously mentioned, when it comes to catching a cold or the flu, exposure is key. Even before the weather gets cold in early fall, many people come back from vacation, students start college or school, kids are brought back to daycare, and people tend be around each other in enclosed areas more than in the summer months. This combined with other factors tends to make for good conditions for viruses and bad conditions for us.

Does this mean you or your kids should always bundle up before venturing out into cold weather? Nah. A little virus battle is good for us. Try making your immune system strong enough that viruses don’t stand a chance and take some risks. Check out Bullet Proof Your Immune System.

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Four Things Everyone Will Have To Do To Get Well

In every case I’ve ever seen where unhealthy people with disease-riddled bodies later became vibrantly healthy, they all had to do four things:

  1. They all had to completely get off of all drugs, including marijuana, caffeine, alcohol, any and all prescription drugs, and over the counter medications.
  2. They had to fix their gut.
  3. They had to totally change their diet, eliminating processed foods and eating lots of produce for the rest of their lives.
  4. They had to give up coffee, sweet smoothies, and fruit juices, at least for a while.

Eliminate Drugs

You cannot be healthy while you put toxins into your body. It just doesn’t work. This includes vaccines. Injecting, inhaling, or ingesting chemicals and toxins into the body does not bring about health.

Every time you damage your body’s DNA, you age. Chemicals made in laboratories damage the body’s DNA. To a point, you can detoxify and undo most of the damage done by these substances. You can even reverse damage done to DNA. But at some level, every time you damage your body with chemicals, there is some permanency.

Don’t smoke anything. Smoking introduces too many carcinogens. Smoking always adds toxins to the blood, making the blood thick and putting stress on the liver, kidneys, thyroid, adrenals, eyes, and reproductive organs.

Stimulants cause a reaction similar to an allergic reaction. This puts unneeded stress on the thyroid, the adrenals, and kidneys.

Alcohol acidifies the body, stresses the liver, and promotes Candida growth.

I’m not telling everyone that they should get off of all drugs. I am saying that you cannot ever truly be healthy while regularly using drugs.

Fix Your Gut

Every single person  I have known who was sick  had too much Candida overtaking their sick gut and wrecking havoc on their whole body. Gut health is the source of most and often all of people’s health issues.

Most people can repair their gut with proper diet and time, but detoxification protocol and supplements can speed up the process and are required for some people with severely damaged intestines. Look for a strong probiotic and a parasite killer.

Eat Right

If your gut is in poor health, you have to give up wheat and other sources of gluten to get well. Anyone with Candida overgrowth cannot properly digest wheat. Wheat and soy are almost always produced in ways that cause health problems when they are consumed. Soy and corn in packaged products are almost always GMOs. Genetically Modified Organisms destroy gut health.

You also have to give up refined sugars and processed packaged almost everything. Replace them with salads, lots of produce, and home-cooked, whole foods. Eat raw organic crushed garlic, turmeric, and black pepper with your food.

Eat lots of vegetables. Eat a wide variety of raw organic vegetables. Here are some of the benefits of raw organic vegetables:

  • More enzymes
  • Feeding the right ecosystem and keeping it clean
  • Better digestion and assimilation of all nutrition
  • Strong, clean, light, and vibrant blood
  • Strong, very efficient immune system

Many of these benefits also come with eating fruit, but for anyone who is sick, fruit should be limited as the sugars do feed infection including Candida, bacteria, parasites, and yeast. Certain fruits are great for certain health issues, and fruits should not at all be avoided. They should just be limited until the gut flora is working for you and not against you.

Cooked foods have some benefits as well, but the importance of enzymes is often overlooked, so eat raw every day.

Drink Right

Sugary smoothies, sweet fruit juices (even when freshly made at home), coffee, most commercial teas, sodas, and almost everything else people drink needs to be completely eliminated for a time until health is restored, and then some of them can be consumed in moderation. Drink water. Lots of it. Here’s a recipe for  cranberry lemonade sweetened with stevia. Also, check out What’s the Best Water for Detoxifying and For Drinking?

Conclusion

Some people need supplements and a very strict diet to get results, but a fair majority can heal the body and be entirely ailment free with proper dietary habits and giving up toxic junk. Check out Balance Your Ecosystem for more on gut health, and this 80% Raw Food Diet has an awesome salad recipe to get you going.

Recommended Supplements:
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Crazy Pills: Over-the-Counter and Prescription Meds Linked To Dementia

A new study clearly shows common over-the-counter medications widely used for asthma, allergies, and insomnia increase the risk for dementia. The study also found that the risk may not be reversible, even after several years off of these medications.

The drugs studied are anticholinergic drugs, which block a neurotransmitter, acetylcholine, in the central and the peripheral nervous system. These drugs are available over-the-counter and through prescriptions. Many are used on a regular, long-term basis to treat a variety of medical complaints including:

  • allergies and allergic reactions
  • motion sickness
  • irritable bowel syndrome
  • insomnia
  • colds
  • ulcers
  • asthma
  • excessive sweating
  • COPD
  • urinary incontinence
  • depression
  • smoking cessation
  • cough suppressant
  • muscle relaxer
  • Parkinson’s disease

These drugs include:

  • Zyban
  • Wellbutrin
  • Dramamine
  • Cogentin
  • Chlor-Trimeton
  • Benadryl
  • Sominex
  • Advil PM
  • Unisom
  • Robinul
  • Atarax
  • Atrovent
  • Oxivent

The study showed the risk of dementia rises when these anticholinergic medications are used at higher doses or for longer periods. It is not unusual to find these drugs used in combination, especially with the elderly population. For instance, one individual may be using a sleep aid, an allergy medication, and a medication for depression. If all of these drugs are anticholinergic drugs, the accumulative effect increases exponentially, raising the risk of dementia.

Earlier studies had shown these medications increased the risk of dementia; however, these studies also concluded cognitive decline decreased when these drugs were discontinued. The new study, a more longitudinal study, suggests that years after continuation, the risk of dementia remains higher for people who have used more of these drugs or used them for a longer period of time, suggesting a cause and effect even when the drugs were discontinued years prior to the development of dementia.

The study showed that even low amounts over long periods of time increased the risk of dementia. While the study focused on older adults, what about children and young adults? How many children and younger adults are regularly taking anticholinergic over-the-counter or prescription medications for allergies or asthma? How many adults of all ages are taking anticholinergic over-the-counter or prescription sleep aids?

This should be a wake-up call for all of us to remember that medications treat symptoms, not the cause of disease. To get well, to be truly well, we must give the body the nutrients it needs to heal. We must detox. We must live lives that are as clean as possible: clean food, clean water, clean environment. It has been made clear over and over that we cannot trust pharmaceutical companies! If you have been taking any pharmaceuticals, it’s time to detox. Start with this Cheap and Easy Detox Plan and consider following the 80% Raw Food Diet.

Recommended Supplements:
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Eco-Friendly Toys: Tips for Keeping Kids and the Planet Safe

As parents, we always have our kids’ safety in mind. We rarely hand something over to our children without thinking of how it could potentially harm them. Will he be able to pull parts off that car, put them in his mouth, and choke? What happens if she eats that Playdough?

While we do take the time to analyze various aspects of a toy, we probably don’t put enough thought into it. Does the toy have hidden chemicals and toxins? Did its production harm the environment?

Let’s look at several factors parents should take into consideration before hitting the toy store.

1. Repurpose First

Before buying anything new, take a good look at what you have at home. Has your son been begging for a drum set? Maybe the pots and pans would be a satisfactory alternative. Is your daughter determined to have that hot pink playhouse? A refrigerator box with a custom paint job might do the trick.

Here are some great ideas. Otherwise, google phrases like “toys from trash.”

2. Broaden the Age Range

See if you can adapt toys to fit different age ranges. The longer you can use a toy, the longer it will stay out of the landfill.

For example, all you need to do to make “old kid” toys more age appropriate for a younger crowd is bend the rules a little. For example:

  • Move the foul line closer when playing cornhole and tossers so little arms can play, too.
  • Don’t worry about forming words with the Scrabble tiles; use them with preschoolers who want to learn their letters.
  • Use the Twister game board to help kids sort toys by color.
  • Rather than use a big, heavy soccer ball, let younger kids play with a balloon (by the way, this makes it a great inside game for rainy days).

3. Phase Out Dangerous Things

Sort through your kids’ toy box. Take a look at what is already in there. You probably have several things that are no longer safe—toys with broken or missing parts.

You might also have toys that are unsafe because of the products used for their construction.

Rather than throw these toys out and contribute to landfill waste, repurpose them. There are lots of creative ways to make use of discarded toys (you can find examples here and here).

4. Buy Natural When Possible

The best toy construction materials are all-natural. Look for toys made out of sustainably logged, solid wood. Toys sans finish are best; otherwise, look for options with a non-toxic finish (vegetable, water-based, or beeswax).

Avoid any toys made of pressed woods (plywood or particle board). These woods often have toxic chemicals in the glue.

Other natural materials that make great toys include felt, wool, silk, hemp, organic cotton, and bamboo.

5. Buy High Quality Items

You might have to spend a little more, but high quality toys are worth the investment. These toys are preferable for several reasons:

  • Quality toys are less likely to break, meaning sharp or dangerous parts won’t be an issue.
  • The better the toy, the longer it will last. Several children—sometimes multiple generations—can play with a single quality toy.
  • It is much easier to sell used toys if they are quality. Other parents won’t be interested in purchasing (repurposing) your second-hand toys if they aren’t in great shape. That means they could potentially end up in the landfill.
  • Higher quality toys are more likely to be made with safe products—sans unwanted chemicals.

6. Buy Local

Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by buying local. The shorter the distance the item needs to travel between manufacturer and consumer the better.

If there aren’t eco-friendly toy makers in your area, see if you can convince someone to give it a try. Ask a local carpenter to make wooden blocks. Ask someone crafty to make eco-friendly dolls and stuffed animals.

7. Be Smart about Imports

If you do buy an imported toy, make smart decisions. Not all countries abide by the same regulations when it comes to making consumer products. Therefore, the country of origin can greatly influence the chemicals included in the toy.

Buy safer toys from Japan, Canada, or European countries.

8. Encourage Creativity

Open-ended toys (ones that can be used in a variety of different settings) inspire the most creativity. Not only is this good for your child’s cognitive development, it also means a single toy can have more uses—meaning fewer toys will need to be purchased.

Great examples of open-ended toys include

  • A sand box (or sand and water table for inside play)
  • Art supplies
  • Wooden blocks
  • Dress up clothes

9. Avoid High Risk Toys

While many toys pose a low-level threat, other toys are extremely dangerous because of the chemicals they contain.

Cheap plastic jewelry and cosmetics specifically designed for kids are especially dangerous. These often have lead and known carcinogens. Avoid these at all costs!

While it is impossible to avoid plastic altogether, you can make smart decisions about which plastics make it into the shopping cart. A good way to tell if a plastic product is safe is to check the recycling label on the bottom. If it is safe (free of the most dangerous chemicals), the item will have a number 1, 2, 4, or 5 inside the arrow logo.

10. Get Recall Notifications

Subscribe to recall notifications and find out as soon as possible if a toy you purchased is labeled unsafe. The email alerts from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission would be the best resource for toys.

You can also sign up for recalls from the Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Authority (for safety information related to tires, child restraints, vehicles, and school buses).

11. Don’t Buy Anything!

In the end, your child probably doesn’t really need a new toy. Simplify your child’s toy box. Your youngster’s creativity, your wallet, and the environment will thank you!

What are your favorite eco-friendly toys?

Editor’s Note

We don’t really buy toys for our two year old son. Most of the time when people have given us toys for him, he was not interested. He likes to play with what we use. For instance, we prepare virtually all of our own food, so he loves to mimic us and pretend to cook. We give him pots and pans to play with. Add a few spatulas and a some water and he’s set for at least 30 minutes. Big cardboard boxes are always awesome, we cut them out and make forts. I am convinced that letting him play in this way helps boost his creativity, and it certainly saves us a lot of money!

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