Our society is pretty obsessed with plastic.
It took us many decades to discover that plastics are highly toxic, and because they take close to forever to biodegrade, they wreak havoc on the environment. It’s easy to forget that toxic waste from plastic is dumped into our oceans and leech toxins into our bodies
Did you know that plastic is made from petroleum? … yes, conventional plastic is made from petroleum products, primarily oil.
But did you also know that even many of our cosmetics are filled with health-sapping petroleum products?
How did we get into this mess?
As usual, everything went wrong the moment we tried to divorce ourselves from nature. Plastics are a type of polymer, a broad category that also includes wood, rubber, animal horn, bone, skin, hair, and even DNA. Once upon a time, natural substances such as these were used by craftsmen to create novel materials that were largely non-toxic and biodegradable.
But in 1907, scientists discovered how to make polymers from petroleum, and the real plastic revolution began. These exotic new materials immediately proved to be wildly versatile (“plastic” comes from the Greek word meaning “to mold”), so all caution was thrown to the wind.
Now, after more than a century, the frenzy continues. Sadly, the desire for cheap and practical products wins out over the safeguarding of the public’s health. Thus, even as the crusade against BPA-plastic water bottles and Teflon pans rises to a fever pitch, companies continue to pump out toxic, petroleum-based body care products.
Popular moisturizers and mineral oils may seem to get the job done, but they also severely disrupt the body’s endocrine function. Even those “microbeads” in popular exfoliating scrubs and shampoos are made of dangerous plastics that you really shouldn’t be rubbing into your skin.
Are they really that bad for you?
After all, it’s not like we eat our cosmetics, right?
Unfortunately, slathering these petroleum products on your skin is arguably worse than eating them. When you eat toxins, you’re at least partially protected by your liver, which functions as a filter and gatekeeper.
In the case of topically applied products, though, the toxins are absorbed directly into the lymphatic vessel system, and sometimes even into the bloodstream. This means that, rather than being quickly purged and detoxed by the body, all those endocrine disruptors settle deep into fats and tissues, where they accumulate over time and cause escalating problems.
Alarming levels of popular cosmetic toxins—such as parabens, sodium laurel sulfate, and propylene glycol—are often found in human tissue. And because they function as synthetic hormone-mimicking compounds, they actually can displace the presence of natural human hormones.
This fact explains a frightening discovery made through a recent study: in many people (especially women), synthetic estrogenic compounds outnumber natural estrogen. [1] In some cases, researchers have even found chemicals like parabens in concentrations one million times higher than natural estrogen—and they concluded that the chemicals entered the body through dermal absorption.
There’s a better, safer, way
Corporate hucksters have us convinced that we need their wares—that there’s simply no substitute for the toxic repertoire of self-care products that has become the norm.
Here’s the truth, though: in many cases, natural substances are just as effective (or even more so), and they don’t carry any of the same risks.
One prominent example is coconut oil, which has innumerable medicinal and cosmetic uses.
Studies have shown that coconut oil is more effective than commercial mineral oil at treating dry skin [2] and protecting dry hair from becoming damaged. [3]
Coconut Oil even fights fungal infections and kills harmful bacteria on your skin and scalp in the process [4]—all without any nasty estrogen-mimicking compounds. The same certainly cannot be said for leading moisturizers like Eucerin, Vanicream, Dermabase, and Dermovan, all of which have been strongly linked with endocrine disruption and tumor formation. [5]. Coconut oil even serves as an excellent base for effective, toxin-free deodorants and sunscreens.
Why, then, aren’t mainstream body care product companies using coconut oil? The answer is simple: it’s a much more expensive manufacturing ingredient than mass-produced plastic compounds. This doesn’t mean it has to be more expensive for you, though—in fact, it’s fairly easy to save money by replacing your army of self-care products with a single jar of extra virgin coconut oil.
The best property of coconut oil that makes it so beneficial for skin is that it does not become rancid. When you apply it on the skin, it can work for a longer time, unlike many other oils, without it getting rancid. Due to these various beneficial properties of coconut oil, it is used as an important ingredient in several skin care creams.
Uses of Coconut Oil for Skin Care
Coconut oil can be used for skin care in the following ways:
Lip Gel: Cracks in our lips can be a source of worry, discomfort, and embarrassment. When we apply chemical gels on the lips, it is possible to consume those gels accidentally, even though they are somewhat toxic. Some gels may be edible, but you still don’t want to eat those chemicals.
Coconut oil comes as an ideal alternative in such cases. It acts quickly and even if it goes in your stomach, it will only give you additional benefits, so everyone wins!
Skin softener: Most of us use several creams and lotions for softening our skin, especially the skin of the face and hands. Coconut oil is a great skin softener and helps you do away with dry and hard skin conditions. Simply take some coconut oil on your palms, rub your palms against each other once or twice and then on your face, hands, or wherever you want to see the moisturizing effect.
Coconut oil is also good for hardened and cracked feet, which may happen due to excessive cold or strenuous work while standing on your feet. The cracks in your feet will not vanish, but your feet will become softer within days if you apply coconut oil to the affected area.
As an exfoliant, including coconut oil as an agent with other exfoliating or grainy materials like salts and sugars can vastly improve the effects. You will successfully scrape off excess dead skin and clean out whatever substances have blocked the pores without leaving the skin feeling irritated. The natural soothing nature of the oil combines with the grainy, exfoliating material perfectly, and leaves your skin with an even color, closed pores, and a soft texture.
Makeup Remover: Coconut oil can also be used a makeup remover. This is not common, but women have begun using it for removing the makeup of the face and eyes, without worrying about the harsh chemicals of other removers getting into delicate or sensitive areas.Skin disorders: It is claimed that coconut oil is good for several skin disorders such as acne, psoriasis, and eczema. Several readers have reported this benefit. However, scientific research is ongoing in order to prove or disprove these claims. Much of the research that is there speaks to its protein content, since the replacement of sick or dying cells that can occur with various skin disorders, are quickly replaced by new, healthy cells. In this way, coconut oil not only treats the infection by battling the microbial bodies, they also heal the damage or the visible marks of that skin disorder; it is a two-in-one solution!
So don’t wait for the industrial product world to change their tune—historical precedent suggests that they’ll continue on their current path until they run out of petroleum or are otherwise forced to stop flooding the world with toxic materials.
The sooner you make the switch to coconut oil and other safe, natural moisturizers, the sooner you can start insulating yourself from the greedy and dangerous practices of the plastic industry.
References
[1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22237600
[2] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15724344
[3] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11413497
[4] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1302812
