I’ll admit, as a consumer, I do tend to lean towards purchasing from companies that are cognizant and intentional about the products and impact they are producing so I’m very appreciative seeing all these companies announcing their green & clean initiatives more and more these days.
Obviously, you’re free to choose where you spend your dollar and what you consume. However, the more we discover about how interconnected our health and wellness is to the health and wellness of the planet, it makes the argument for going green even more compelling. If you're curious, I wanted to offer my rationale for why I’ve been trying to make conscious and intentional decisions, gradually, that are “better for me & better for the environment”.
The Liver Burden from Toxic Chemical Overload
I’d love to deep dive into the mechanisms of how your body detoxifies itself, however for the purposes of this article I’ll try and just give you the TL;DR highlights.
Our body already naturally detoxifies itself with everything we consume, apply, or otherwise have enter the body. Essentially, chemicals and toxins make their way to the liver where they are processed, filtered and then excreted.
When one goes on a detox diet, at most they are helping out the body’s natural systems of detoxification by reducing the load of toxins the body has to work through and detox.
These days, unfortunately, we’re surrounded with toxins in our environment. Whether it’s our air, our food, the products we apply on our body, etc. we are introducing a lot of chemicals our body has to process. Most of them are new that our body hasn’t evolutionarily adapted to yet. As a result, we find that organs like our liver are overburdened and stressed with the amount of new chemicals they have to figure out how to get through.
Why This Matters
When the organs are overloaded and can’t get through the detoxification quick enough the toxic items remain in our body. The toxic substances can accumulate, cause chaos, and eventually manifest as illness or disease.
Research is continuing to find that a lot of our disease and illness are a result of accumulated toxicity within our bodies.
Lastly – let’s not forget – that what we put into our bodies is eventually excreted after it’s been processed into our bodies and that excrement goes back into the environment.
Next Step Suggestions
In my experience and the experience of others, the best way to approach this – as with any other wellness endeavor – is to do so gradually and intentionally. Gradually, so you don’t get overwhelmed. Intentionally, by making more conscious decisions on where you put your dollar. And just like with wellness you can decide your own terms and find what works best does you.