In last week’s post, I talked about how we’re surrounded by hormone disruptors called xenoestrogens. These hormone disruptors can be your worst enemy if you struggle with PMS, PCOS, endometriosis, or infertility.
Main sources of xenoestrogens include plastic, pesticides, and parabens (preservatives for cosmetics and household products). Thankfully, there are all kinds of things you can do to reduce your exposure to these hormone disruptors.
7 Ways to Reduce Your Exposure to Hormone Disruptors
Switch to glass
Are you drinking out of plastic bottles, or storing your food in plastic containers? The softer the plastic, the more it leaches into your food and water. Consider using mason jars. They’re great storage for soups, curries and stews. They can also double as a water bottle, so no need to buy a fancy bottle!
For more solid foods, consider getting glass storage containers that can also double as oven cookware. If glass is too heavy for your needs, try stainless steel containers.
Use cloth produce bags
How many produce bags do you use per grocery trip? As your produce sits in these bags, it picks up some of the unwanted particles in the plastic. Try bringing your own cloth or mesh bags to the grocery store. As an added bonus, it’s also more environmentally friendly.
Buy organic
Pesticides are one of the worst offenders, when it comes to hormone disruptors. The best way to avoid or reduce pesticides is to buy organic. But when that fails, refer to the EWG’s Clean Fifteen and Dirty Dozen to decide on which produce you can safely eat conventional, and where you really should invest in organic.
Make your own hair products
Think of all the products you use on your skin and scalp. Between shampoos, conditioners, soaps, hair gels, deodorants, facial cleansers, moisturisers, night creams… Without even discussing makeup, you may already be using a wide variety of products that are less than friendly to your hormones.
The good news is that most hair products can be made quite easily with natural ingredients you just may already have in your home. Try recipes for flax hair gel, facial cleanser, or shampoo. If you want to make your hair care routine easier, you can also try the baking soda and apple cider vinegar method.
Switch to cleaner makeup
Most people know that clean makeup brands exist. The challenge is figuring out which brands of natural makeup actually make products you’ll want to use. There’s no way I’m going to walk around looking like a raccoon because my natural mascara can’t stay on all day.
Some of my favourite brands include Pacifica, Mineral Fusion, and Earth’s Beauty. And trust me, I’ve tried A LOT of different brands of natural makeup.
Clean with vinegar and essential oils
Rather than spending lots of money on cleaning products that are completely loaded with hormone disruptors, you can easily make your own for much cheaper.
All you need is water, white vinegar, and essential oils. Using these three ingredients in different concentrations, you can make cleaners for most surfaces.
Drink clean water
Did you know that tap water only filters out certain contaminants? Several thousands of contaminants could potentially be in the water. The City of Ottawa (where I live) only checks for 300 contaminants.
While some decent filters like Mavea and Santevia exist, they still don’t manage to filter out all contaminants. And don’t waste your money on a Brita filter, because it doesn’t do much that your city’s filtration system doesn’t already do. That is, if you live somewhere where the water is safe to drink.
To ensure that you have access to really clean water, consider installing a reverse osmosis filter in your home or choosing distilled water. However, make sure that you’re remineralizing that water, or you may end up with mineral deficiencies.
Disclaimer: The provided links may be affiliate links. Opinions are all my own. Any money received through these links will go back into this website to support the hours of work that go into weekly posts. Thank you for your support.
How do you reduce your exposure to hormone disruptors? Tell us in the comments!