sulphate and paraben, do you really need them or are they likely to harm your health?
How many of you have noticed the recent move by high street brands of shampoo, moisturiser etc. to be labeled sulphate and paraben free? This is a good thing ..
I have been talking about this to my clients ever since I first heard about it from Charles Poliquin in 2008. I am sure he has been talking about it for many more years prior to that.
There are lots of organic products available at your local Organic Food store that have always been Paraben and Sulphate free. The bottom line is these chemicals are a concern for human health because of the unknowns.
No one has definitively proven they are harming us, but conversely, no one has proven they aren’t. The simple fact is they are manufactured and not naturally occurring. If I gave you a test tube of purely manufactured chemicals and just asked you start rubbing it on your skin, what would you think? It’s interesting, because if I put some lavender oil in it and present it in some glossy packaging we typically don’t even think twice.
Experience has led many more forward thinking health practitioners around the world to advise avoiding these chemicals for many years now. Let’s think back now to BPA. It wasn’t that many years ago that we didn’t give our plastic containers a second thought. We now demand BPA free because science has subsequently found that this is harmful.
It seems that the big brands know which way the wind is blowing with sulphates and parabens too. They are selling this as a luxury alternative, for which you pay more – rather than admitting they know sulphates and parabens in their less luxurious products are convenient and cheap for them but potentially not so good for us.
Ladies especially, because you typically use a lot more cosmetic products than men, think about what you are putting on your skin when you choose products. We simply do not know what the long term effects are. Do you want to be the first to find out?