A Beginner's Guide to Natural Living

Americans are growing increasingly more aware of harmful pollutants that can be adversely affecting our health long term. In general when you look into Natural Living there is more to consider than you can imagine and it is imperative that you learn all you can to make informative choices for you and your family. Once you take the initial step to be informed the information can be overwhelming which brings us to the first topic.

Food

What are things we can do to improve the food we put into our bodies? First let's remember that food is meant to give us energy and nutrients to get through the day. As a rule we should start reading the food labels of everything we consume, not just to count calories or fat intake but to be aware of the possible food additives that we are ingesting. There are suspected food additives that can cause cancer. These addictives are added to our food supply for a number of reasons and one reason is to preserve the food.
A great site to start becoming educated on food additives and their known reactions is http://www.foodreactions.org/index.html.
Let me use one additive as an example that I recently just learned about myself. It is called TBHQ. The FDA has allowed processors to use sparingly in our food.
TBHQ is an antioxidant derived from petroleum and a form of butane. Ingesting a single gram of TBHQ can cause "nausea, vomiting, ringing in the ears, delirium, a sense of suffocation, and collapse." Ingesting five grams of TBHQ can kill."
Here is a helpful like to studies on TBHQ and others. http://www.feingold.org/bht.html.
It may take some time to learn about the different food choices that you can make but it will be well worth your time. There are a lot of resources that can help lead you in the right direction. Fortunately for us, there is more and more research being conducted so that we can remove these unhealthy foods from our homes and begin a more Natural living lifestyle that may just improve the way we feel as well.

Chemicals

Let's discuss chemicals that we use in our home. This is another common area that should be addressed during the beginning transition to natural living. How do these chemicals affect our heath?
Some individuals may be more prone to a reaction to these chemicals in the home.
Some of those include:
Children
People with allergies
Immune compromised individuals
A common chemical used in the home is Bleach. Let's look at the possible side affects or reactions to this common household chemical. Bleach can cause skin, eye, and respiratory tract irritation. There are recent warnings that trace amounts of bleach can cause serious health problems including birth defects, genetic mutations, threats to immune and reproductive systems, damage to the liver, kidneys, skin and even cancer.
You can learn more in depth information here: http://www.unsafehome.com/a_z/encrypt.htm
More and more people are turning to making their own common household cleaners and it is easier and just as efficient and of course you will save money as well.
Here is a site that shows the basics: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/homemadehouseholdcleaners.htm

Herbs/Natural Medicine

Last but not least we will touch briefly on a complicated but necessary subject of herbs and natural medicine. Contrary to popular belief the use of herbs in place of "some" medications can and will work just as well as the medicines you can purchase at your local drug store. Once again, awareness is the key to any area of Natural Living that you are trying to incorporate. Let's face it, a good bit of the medications we use are not good for us especially long term use. I am not completely against traditional medicine but I believe in a balance between when you NEED traditional and when you can opt to use a more natural choice. Let's talk about one common traditional medicine used by many people today. Sleeping aides are used more and more today to assist us in obtaining a good night sleep. Some of us may have heard of the side effects from taking oral sleep aids and stopping the medication "cold turkey". You can view side effects here http://fdb.rxlist.com/drugs/drug-19052-aid+to+sleep+oral.aspx?drugid=19052&drugname=aid+to+sleep+oral&pagenumber=6.
So what is the alternative to a great nights rest? Herbal tea with Chamomile and Valerian works wonders. I personally have nights where I start to toss and turn and wake up several times a night. My favorite is Celestial Seasonings Sleepy time Extra. (There is regular Sleepy time that does not include Valerian) but unless you are pregnant or nursing my favorite choice is the extra. It works wonders. Check out http://healthherbs.com/ to begin your learning experience on herbs and natural medicines.

Basically, all in all we should start if we haven't already taking our health more serious and reading up on what we put in our bodies. I think most of us would rather live a long healthy life and although we can't prevent everything from happening to us we can make a solid effort to improve our lifestyle and our living habits to increase our chances of longevity.