Organic Body Care Recipes - Review

When you look at the label of an average bath product, you'll see loads of chemicals which you probably can't pronounce, and the very innocent sounding ingredient, "Fragrance." I'm trying to avoid eating foods with ingredients that don't instantly evoke images of food in my head (like dextrin, polysorbate, and red 40, among many others) because it isn't good for my body. As Stephanie Tourles, the author of Organic Body Care Recipes points out in her introduction, we absorb both chemicals and nutrients through our skin as well as through our digestive system. By using products that are full of beneficial plant-based ingredients, we absorb the good and avoid the bad. There is a brief section in the book that talks about common chemicals in personal care products that are harmful. Through some research of my own, I have also learned that companies are not required to disclose information about what they put in fragrances. The article I linked to says,

"Fragrance secrecy is legal due to a giant loophole in the Federal Fair Packaging and Labeling Act of 1973, which requires companies to list cosmetics ingredients on the product labels but explicitly exempts fragrance. By taking advantage of this loophole, the cosmetics industry has kept the public in the dark about the ingredients in fragrance, even those that present potential health risks or build up in people’s bodies."

I don't know about you, but I prefer to know exactly what I'm putting into my body, whether it's through my skin or my mouth. Organic Body Care Recipes is a wonderful place to start. It's a comprehensive recipe book for personal care products, ranging from skin and hair care to aphrodisiacs. Tourles gives plenty of information about the health benefits of ingredients, what to look for when buying them, and what tools you need to create your own products. She also helps you to understand what kind of skin and hair you have and which recipes work for which types.

I have tried quite a few of the recipes in the book and have been thrilled with every one of them. Some of them are so simple and effective, you'll wonder why you ever paid for over-priced store-bought products at all. For example, her "Nighttime Eye Moisturizer" recipe is 1/4 teaspoon of oil (she lists several acceptable varieties - I use jojoba, but you could also use extra virgin olive oil). That's it! Just dab the oil around your eye area, and you're good to go. Of course, some of the recipes require more work, and some take a long time to prepare, but it's satisfying and fun to make your own products, especially when you know exactly what's in it and where everything came from.

Food Rules - Review

Yesterday, I picked up a copy of Food Rules by Michael Pollan. The book is exactly what its title implies - 64 rules about food to get you to eat better. It is a very quick read, and he summarizes all the rules as, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly Plants." He covers pretty much everything I've covered in my blog - eat whole foods rather than processed foods, eat animals that have eaten well, eat organic, and when possible, eat local, plus some other great suggestions.

The book is very accessible, and it's correct. If you follow the rules, you will have a much healthier diet than the average American, you will probably lose weight, and you will be less likely to succumb to all of the horrible diseases that are caused by the American diet (this statement was not approved by the FDA).

This morning, my roommate, who isn't nearly as excited about food and diet as I am, picked the book up off the coffee table and started reading it. He even told me, excitedly, that he had started following the rule, "Drink your food, chew your drink," which can be summarized as: eat and drink very slowly. At lunch today, I also followed that rule (while blatantly breaking a few of the other rules, but you have to start somewhere, right?), and I found that I ate about 2/3 of what I would normally eat.

The book lacks sources and data to back up its claims, though the author comes right out and says that he's not going to include them, but the data is out there if you look. On the plus side, the lack of scholarly language makes it much easier to read, so the average Joe can pick it up and start eating better immediately. On the negative side, the book is left wide open to criticism and ridicule from the corporations who don't want you to follow the rules in the book.

Overall, I give the book 4 out of 5 stars. It's definitely worth spending $11 and taking an hour of your time to read it.