Christa 0:00
Nikki, we're so excited to have you here. So you're pretty well known in the low tox world, which is massive, because we have toxins all around us every day, there's so much that we cannot control. So I really appreciate your work and kind of, you know, sifting out all the information for us. Can you tell us a little bit about your journey? Like, how did you get to where you are now? What What brought you here?
Speaker 1 0:23
Yeah, so it's a long journey. So I live in Auckland with my two girls now who are three and a half and six. But my kind of journey into the low tox world started a long time ago, back when I guess probably it was actually when I first got pregnant with my now six year old, I'd always been quite interested in general health and well being and to the detriment of my hormone health and my mid 20s, and went through this process of healing hypothalamic amenorrhea, which I'm sure surely knows a lot about. And through that whole journey, you know, healing my hormones, I did start thinking about environmental toxic load. But it was when I, when I got pregnant, that I suddenly had this awareness of what I was starting to put on my body, what I was using in my home, and that affects on my hormones, and on my kid, my fetus that I was growing inside me. And that's when I guess my eyes were opened. And I really started to dig into the research, I was also working on my health coaching training at that point. So I have come from a medical background. So my background is nursing, particularly in pediatrics, and emergency. And so coming from this conventional medical model, I was feeling a little bit of a little bit of cynicism, towards always being the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff and not being able to work with patients in this proactive space of, of lifestyle medicine and helping them to actually prevent having to go to the emergency department in the first place. And so those kinds of things all, I guess, culminated into this beautiful place that I'm in now of being able to, you know, help people with the lifestyle side of things, as well as knowing that our environmental toxic load is a big factor. And we're never gonna get complete wins unless we address that. Yeah,
Christa 2:10
I love that. Yeah. I mean, it really is, and it can feel overwhelming, right? It's like it can it can feel like well, what do we have in our control? The good thing is, I mean, I'm sure you're gonna share with us, there are some there are options. And we also need to pay attention to greenwashing and things like that, right. So yeah, I am so excited to kind of hear and dive into this topic with you. Because I think it can feel like when when you feel out of control with something, you tend to just avoid it altogether. For just Yeah, I don't know. And I can't see it, forget it. But the truth is, we are seeing like earlier puberty and girls and boys, for that matter, higher incidences of cancer and colon cancers, and you know, just blood cancers, things like that, that what is it? Like, what's the driving factor. And so I think it's something that we do need to pay attention to, it can just feel overwhelming. And so for you to kind of go behind the scenes and do the homework for us is so amazing.
Sheree 3:00
Yeah, and on that note, you know, obviously, there's such a huge passion for and I love that it took Well, not that it just took that but like you really dove into this, as you began your journey to motherhood. I think it's always amazing how we, especially as women, I find, you tend to put everyone else's needs before your own. But it ended up being a real positive light for you to really spark this dip, have a health journey that you've been on. And I just enjoy following everything that you put up and you share and will often reshare it to my to my audience. And I'm curious if you can share to people who may even be completely new to this world or even the word low toxic? What is low tox? What is low toxic living, and one of the things I just want to add that you do so beautifully is that there is never any judgement, there is never any this has to be an all or nothing approach. And so are you able to weave in a little bit around that too, for us?
Speaker 1 3:53
And everything? Yeah. So I kind of like to think about, you know, low toxic living, and this low toxic lifestyle, as you know, our environmental toxic load is, is the entirety of the chemicals that we have in our homes. Right and, and living low tox is, I guess an awareness that those chemicals, what they can do to our bodies, and that some of them, you know, can affect our hormones can affect our respiratory systems can affect our skin, we're seeing a lot of that. So living low tox, I guess means putting measures into place to reduce that overall kind of burden on our bodies. It does not mean perfect, it does not mean that every single chemical needs to be removed, which is actually impossible. So like park that right there. It just means that looking at different areas of our lives, where you can buy better when you can choose better when you can vote with your dollar towards better brands, doing awesome things and you know, products that are brands that are making products safely and actually thinking about the end consumer. And it's also lifestyle practices. It's like things that we can do in our every day that can actually reduce our chemical burden. So it's not necessarily just the buying power that we have other things that we can do to help our detoxification organs. Because when they are working well, we're able to cope with a lot.
Sheree 5:07
I love that. So right, the detoxification organs are something that Crystal and I talk a lot about on here. So I'm pleased that you brought that in. It's learning how to have that balance where you're actually able to choose that, yes, okay, I am going to choose to opt for maybe makeup that doesn't really serve my body. But my skincare is incredible. I eat a whole lot of leafy greens to support detoxification, like, there's so much we can do. So you don't have to feel this, like you say, burden of being perfect.
Christa 5:36
Yeah, how do you you know, it's tough as a single person to try to live like this. But when you have kids bringing in different things, and they want to, how do you manage to I guess, prioritize is one thing in your mind space of like, okay, we're going to have this kind of cookware, and we're going to avoid these kind of foods, and how do you kind of make time and space for that, while being a mom and working and having a business? I mean, that's, it's a lot, right? Yeah.
Speaker 1 6:04
And I think for me, because this is my business. Like, it's not the norm for people to spend much time like, and mental frame space thinking about it. But I think this is something that I'm always trying to dispel for people is, it's too hard. A lot of people I talk to are just completely overwhelmed. And they just sit in this paralysis, and they never even make small changes, you know, so. But I really try and make people realize that it does not need to be overwhelming. I think once you know that you can make better choices. And you know, once you know that something is not great for you, like you just don't buy that thing anymore. I think, you know, one easy thing that has worked for a lot of people that I work with, is replacing when you run out. So when you run out of you know your foundation, do a little bit of research at the time, or reach out to someone that you trust for opinions, actually ask them for a better alternative. And when you run out of something, make a better choice at that time. So instead of spending hundreds of dollars, you know, completely overhauling a particular area, run out find something better. Now for the bigger purchases, I kind of one thing that has worked really well for me over the years is asking for them for like my birthday or Christmas, asking for them as gifts. So an example might be maybe like a large box fry pan, like you really want to ditch the nonstick surfaces, you want to get, you know, a beautiful cast iron pan and your home, ask for it for a birthday present from someone. Another example might be a water filter, or like a HEPA vacuum cleaner, you know, all of these kind of big purchases, break them down, prioritize it every you know, three or four months so that before you know it, like it hasn't broken the bank, and you're doing things in a sustainable way. But I think the biggest kind of recommendation I have for people around lowering the overwhelm is getting in community with people that are doing it, you do not want to feel like the black sheep amongst your friendship group. Because you're the only one you know, giving any any kind of brain space to this. You want to be surrounded by people who are all doing it, that all figuring it out. They're all Mackinnon and giving me suggestions for things. Because you're being surrounded by people that care about the same thing as you keeps you inspired and makes you feel like you're on the right path. So find a community and find, you know, like minded people that are giving advice in a non scaremongering way and then just do it sustainably bit by bit as your budget allows.
Christa 8:19
I love that. Do you have like a, of course, we're going to, you know, at the end say Where can people find you? But do you have like a Facebook group or resources where people can kind of I mean, maybe they're they don't want to change their friends, because their friends are toxic as hell, but they're, but they do want to have a group of people that are that they can connect with you have that? Or what do you recommend for people to kind of create maybe an online group that can help support with ideas? Yeah,
Speaker 1 8:43
I mean, there's there are people doing a lot of free content, like myself online and low tox educators that share a lot for free, and most of them will have their own kind of private community spaces. And I do as well, I have a program that people can jump into called the low tox healthy home. And I also have a private community space that I support my essential oil team with as well. So there's kind of levels of, you know, whatever you want to dive in, but yeah, I think I guess it's like we can kind of curate our Instagram feeds. And so, you know, really giving priority to people that are talking about you know, things promoting health like you guys like myself so that we kind of getting drip feed and little bits as we can. And yeah, it all kind of adds up and we can feel empowered
Christa 9:28
to make better choices when we're in the Super Kids would hate my kids would hate my feed. My Instagram feed is like methylene blue and mitochondrial health like all these people's What are you? What is your heat about? Like, yeah, no, you're right into this. It's all
Sheree 9:44
so good. One of the perks one of the perks of social media and one of the things that you do so incredibly nichy on your social media aside from all the education is your recipes like I know if I ever want a yummy snack or Yummy Dessert if I want to go on actually create something new, especially a way to go, not to get hung up on it. But like, as a mom, you create so many like lunches or healthy foods that are so easy for the kids. Because so many parents I know I work with as nutrition, like from a nutrition perspective, go, this is great, but my kids not going to eat that, or that's great, but how I got really fussy eaters at home, and we bring in this low tox idea, all your recipes are all whole real foods, they're actually really nourishing for the body. You teach people how to make them in like a such a simple, easy way. I'm wondering if you can share, you know, on the topic of food, like what are some of the biggest food burdens that you see that you try and eliminate from a low tox perspective that you obviously keep out of your recipes and keep out of your kids lunchboxes and that sort of thing? Yeah,
Speaker 1 10:49
for sure. So this can be like a huge beast in itself. And you know, a lot of people talk like just exclusively about this, because it's important, I think, you know, additives is a good place to start, a lot of our packaged food contains unnecessary emulsifiers preservatives, I do try and avoid colors for my kids, just with the information with it, you know, being linked to behavioral issues and, and whatnot. And junk sugars would be another big one for me. So, you know, yeah, high fructose corn syrup, and multi dextran, all of those kinds of things, I try to eliminate as much as I can all whilst also trying to have, again, this Balanced View, where if my child is gonna go to a birthday party and eat all of the colored birthday cake, like, I'm not going to lose sleep over that, but realizing that like if the majority of the food that they're eating within my care, and my home is, is whole food with, you know, less amount of additives, preservatives, colors, junk sugars, then I'm actually okay. And it's comes back to that whole thing of, you know, we've already talked about the detoxification pathways, you know, if you know, 80% of their diet is like this, they can cope with a little bit, and they're not going to be adversely affected by that, I would also just caution people around falling into the trap of, you know, avoiding all kinds of numbers and their food, I think this can be lead to a little bit of, you know, fear and phobia around those kinds of things. Because there's a lot of kind of fortification in our foods, which, you know, depending on your kind of opinion on that, but, but a lot of that isn't actually that detrimental to us. And we can see a number and just freak out and put that back, you know, things like iron and all those kinds of things. Vitamin C, get put in there, particularly for our lower socio economic groups that you know, getting some things that they need. So something that I advise your followers to do is download an app called E numbers. It's a free app. And what you can do is when you're turning over that package in the supermarket, you can actually look at that three digit number, enter it into the website, and it's actually going to bring up what that number actually is. So then you can actually make an empowered, educated decision at that point. Is that harmless? Is it just a fancy number? That's not actually concerning? Or is that something like that's actually MSG? I want to put that back, you know, so that's a good tool to have in the supermarket's for kind of demystifying all of this.
Sheree 13:05
Yeah, that's so true. And I know it's almost like a double edged sword right, there's the fear of the numbers. And we do need to bring some education to it. And then I also know the amount of companies that will put the numbers on because they like or people are aware for example, like with artificial sweeteners, the phenol Aileen or the Aspire to mean people are familiar with the words um, put numbers 9501951 to try and mask it right. I remember when Coke Zero rebranded to like, no sugar coke here. And I was like, Oh, amazing. I wonder if they've got rid of the crappy sweeteners picked it up, and they've gotten rid of the name, but the exact, I Googled what the numbers were funny, clever, and done that they've literally made people think they've rebranded and be really doing a lot more damage. But I think like you say, having that tool to be able to look up the number be empowered, and maybe you are it's just a bit of iron, or is something that's actually not going to be harmful to me. And that removes a lot of the fear, too. So thank you for sharing that.
Christa 14:06
I don't know that I've ever noticed numbers on the back. Maybe it is this in the US is. Maybe I just have the right labels. Yeah,
Speaker 1 14:12
it might actually be a New Zealand Australia thing. We have like a three digit number system, which can be
Christa 14:20
noticed that year. I'm going to look now but yeah, oh, that's really interesting. I have a bag of chips here. Let me look and see. Is there a number on the bell? No, I think they put actual words. So maybe training but it's just in any case, really interesting how marketing can go and how, you know, big food kind of sneaks things in and if it's not regulated, they're gonna do it. I mean, you know, so beyond food. I think a lot of our listeners, they're, they're busy people that grabbing on the go. So I know that food can be kind of a situation right? Like, okay, what am I going to do that's like, not going to be toxic and also healthy. And so I think, you know, sounds like what you're saying is maybe six To more produce and things that aren't processed necessarily, but what else what other commonly util use things from, you know, chemicals, beauty products, maybe are you seeing that we're inadvertently exposing ourselves to that a lot of people are just walking around unknowingly increasing their toxic burden. Yeah,
Speaker 1 15:20
yeah. So I think, you know, particularly for our demographic, as you're talking about, you know, busy woman, we have been brought up in this culture where we, we use a lot of personal care products, and we market it with market it just so much, so much out there. And so that's a really good place to start your perfume for one. So what you know, you're spraying on your pulse points is a big one makeup, obviously, and yep, skincare and body wash and moisturizer, all of these kind of, you know, personal care products. And I think what is really cool about the age that we're living in now, yes, a lot of companies are doing, you know, terrible things, but a lot of companies are doing awesome things. And we no longer need to compromise on the quality of our products, just to avoid the Nazis. So I think that's really important. Because, you know, for so long in the low tech space, people were like, ah, yeah, but things don't really work as well, you know, and they get so fixated on these brands that they have used for, you know, 20 years, but actually, like the quality of low toxic products now, is actually epic, and sometimes better than the alternatives. So keep that in mind. What's another area that I work on, so one big one will be air quality and things that can affect our air quality, one would be air fresheners. And unfortunately, candles, we all love candles. But these are two big things you know, you're spraying and glade whether it's in the toilet or whether it's a you know, a room spray, Reed diffusers, all of these things are putting out a lot of synthetic fragrance and a lot of kind of chemicals into the air, which do have an effect on our respiratory systems and our endocrine system. The other area you want to address is your laundry. So this is obviously this is quite a forgotten area but laundry powder and laundry, you know liquids incredibly heavy on the chemical burden. And when you think about like, you're actually wearing your clothes for a lot of us 24 hours a day, you know, you're sleeping in your bedsheets like when when that fragrance is, you know next to us and on our bodies and you know, in our respiratory systems a whole entire day. Like it's definitely an area of importance to address fry pans that makes
Christa 17:25
me so sad. I have three puppies. They smell bad. You know, like that makes me sad. You want to have good smelling things. Yeah, but it is true. What do you recommend for alternative like ultimate choices when it comes to like you want clothes to smell good and your chips to smell good in your armpits to smell good?
Speaker 1 17:43
Yeah, yeah, definitely deodorant. Yeah, so in terms of like low tops laundry, like, if you don't want to go down the DIY route, totally fine. You can, what I what works for a lot of people is actually buying like a really lovely low tox unscented laundry powder, and then actually seating it yourself. So you can buy you know, some pure essential oils, maybe some eucalyptus or you know, some lavender, whatever fragrance you actually enjoy. And actually, like fragrancing it yourself with something you know, was actually pure instead of all of this synthetic stuff that's putting it in on your body. Um, so that's one option. But there are some really good brands, particularly in the US that are doing really good clean solutions. So yeah, there's there's stuff out there, but I pants pants is a big area I frequently talk about so there is a chemical group called PFS, it's a very long name, but just to know that it is in most nonstick coatings, I mean famously kind of brought to light through the Teflon, DuPont, Teflon. And all of the harm that was causing for people. But yeah, it's still sticking around in a lot of a lot of places and particularly scratched nonstick pans. So we want to slowly over time, get rid of nonstick surfaces in our home and swap out for either cast iron, and really well seasoned cast iron pan is really nonstick. Or a well heated stainless steel, stainless steel is another great inert substance to cook on. So those are my kind of recommendations around cookware. And then water like it's obviously a basic that we are all ingesting every single day. So a good I mean, ideally whole home water filter set filtration system, but that can be incredibly pricey for a lot of people. And so even just a you know, a jug in the fridge, or if you can, a beautiful kind of glass, one that on your benchtop a benchtop water filter so that you can actually be drinking water that is free from a lot of things in our municipal water, the kind of system because if we're not filtering it with a water filter, like our bodies are doing that for us and that's just an old lighten up burden on us. So yeah, there's
Christa 20:04
plastic bottles, because some people may think, Oh, I'm not checking out the chat, but I'm drinking plastic water bottles. That kind of,
Speaker 1 20:12
yeah, that's a big thing in the States. When I went to the States, I was like, This is crazy. I actually, I was dating this guy, this is a random story that is not on my script. And I opened his fridge and like, they don't drink from the tap their whole entire fridge was plastic bottles, they literally had a water fridge. And I was like, This is insane. Like, we don't do that in New Zealand. But anyway, I know, it's I know, it's a big over in the States and I walk quite a lot about microplastics microplastics, are microscopic, tiny plastics that leach from any plastic basically, over extended periods of time, particularly if they're heated. And unfortunately, we don't know what these do, it's far too early in the piece to really have any data or any real scientific kind of research to be like, This is what it's doing to our body. So it's one of those areas where we just don't know. But seeing what it's doing to the environment into our fish life and aquatic life. And we can only I guess, extrapolate to what it's doing to humans. So, so yeah, if you are like a bottled water gal, try and buy an glass if you can. But long term, far more economical option is to grab a good water filter. Yeah, and
Sheree 21:38
a good stainless steel bottle or something you can actually carry around. I love that we brought this up. Because I think a lot of times we forget, we've obviously got our internal filtration system. But going back to those personal care products and the things we put on top of ourselves, our skin is a sponge. And so whatever you're putting on is going into your bloodstream, and I just want to really drive that home for people. That is a big reason why the skincare, why the body wash by the makeup, why the stuff we put onto even with thinking about water, the shower water, like do we get you can get a filter for your shower, because your skin is absorbing, and your poor liver is having to filter everything out. And so we've got that from like the external perspective, we got it from the internal perspective with the liver. The other thing when it comes to low tox living that I don't think is talked about enough, but I know you do work this image is beautiful, is detoxifying in the sense or bringing awareness to the sponge that is our mind. Right? We have so many thoughts, we have so much information we have so much that comes into us and at us every single day even through the beautiful source that is social media. Can you touch on a little bit about how like an unhealthy mindset can also be? Like a high tox 200%? Yep.
Speaker 1 22:56
Thankfully, the people that I talk to you day to day, typically have a good mindset. Because they've maybe they've consumed my my content for a while and I'm always putting, you know, caveats around things. But often, sometimes I'll get it, I'll get a direct message from someone and I can sense the energy and the anxiety level, just even through the wording. And, yeah, I just encourage you take a big breath, I think if someone is so stressed that they are, like obsessing over every exposure, chemical, they're fearful to use things, maybe they're fearful to let their kids use things because, you know, it feeds on in the air. And they're living in this kind of restriction. It is putting their bodies into a state of fight and flight, you know, and I know, luxury talks about this, like what that, you know, cortisol response does to the body, when we are living in a sympathetic nervous system response around you know, hormone dysregulation, lots of other effects, negative mental health picture is big. So, you know, obviously, you're going to be affecting your relationships, and your body, you know, metabolic health and all of that thing quite profoundly. So really, really essential to take a balanced approach. We just remember we are never going to be able to live without chemicals, like unless we live in a little bubble, like it's not realistic. Obviously, there is a lot we can do to minimize that. And that's what I teach. But we can do a lot with in our own homes, but the minute we leave that that door, like there's just a lot like glyphosate that's been sprayed at the park down the road car exhaust asphalt fumes, you're like, it's just you know, and we can we can't escape that. So I think, you know, trying to help people make educated decisions from a place of empowerment, knowing that no one is going to be looking after your health except you and you know, having to advocate for your kids but doing it slowly doing it within your budget. it taking an 80 20% like approach. And I think that's really important. And that's going to look different for different people. For some, it will be 7030 for some, but will be 9010, you know, decide what works for you. And as we already talked about, like, when our detox pathways are clear, we are able to cope with that 20% that we choose. So for me, I get my hair dyed. I like it just makes me feel good. And yes, I go to a beautiful salon with low tox. You know, dyes don't use ammonia, I choose well, but it's still here die at the end of the day, you know. And so you can choose, when you when you've taken steps within your home, you can actually choose what what still feels good for you what what is good for your mental health and what's going to make you feel good. And actually be okay with that and let the rest go. Because I think that, yeah, the mental health piece is as big and it affects us. And, yeah, we definitely need to be in a good mindset around all of this. Not to be like, Oh, I'm stressed, I'm not going to do anything. That's not the answer. But yeah, keeping everything in perspective, and knowing that with the vast majority of these, it's a cumulative effect, okay, for some people one exposure, and they'll have a massive rash and eczema all over their body. But that's not that's not the majority of us. For most of us. These are cumulative effects over years. And so yeah, do what you can. And, yeah, keep educating us.
Christa 26:32
I agree. I mean, really, you can't, you can't tell people to change everything at once. I don't want to change everything either. I think that's really beautifully stated of pick and choose and support yourself. In other ways. I always got patients in certain supplementation to help support liver detox and just support the liver and support the kidneys and avoid this because you want this I mean, life is full of choices. And you're right. I mean, it's kind of micro dosing that builds up over time. So I know that you work with essential oils. And I would love to learn a little bit more about how you use them in and around the home. Because besides putting them in a diffuser or I know when my babies were little I would put lavender on their feet. That's about as far as I got. And I would love to learn a little bit more about how you use essential oils. And is there a benefit to detox pathways? Or they just other options, like, you know, to do things cleaner? Yeah.
Speaker 1 27:30
Yeah. So the reason I, I love essential oils so much as one of the parts to this low tox lifestyle is that they are able to replace so many of the things that we want to eliminate. So I do talk a lot about synthetic fragrance and the kind of benefits. So this is just an easy swap. So like you said, you know, replacing air fresheners and candles in your home, like grabbing, you know, beautiful diffuser, and having that beautiful aromatic experience without any of the risk associated with it. So that's obviously one important use, because some people will just come to us insurance because they just want a pretty smell, you know, and that's a great, that's a great place to enter. But we also can use essential oils to replace some synthetic fragrance. So if you are one of those girls that just really loves to smell a beautiful like grabbing essential oil and you know be popping on your pulse points knowing that you are supporting your endocrine system instead of harming it. So fragrance is a big is a big part of why people will come here. But I think the cleaning side of things is big as well. We haven't really talked about cleaning products too much over the last week well that we've just been chatting but this is a big pillar for people. And this is one of the areas that I love people to address under the kitchen sink, bathroom sink all of that piece. And we can do a lot with baking soda, some liquid castile soap, a little bit of vinegar and some essential oils like but there's also some really products using you know, not synthetic fragrance, actual, you know, essential oils to fragrance their the products as well. So using it to replace that. I also love using essential oils for the emotional regulation. So we are as a global society, the most stressed society we've ever been, you know, and this is not just women, this is men as well. And unfortunately it's our kids. So having tools on hand to help us regulate our emotions is incredibly important. So for me that might look like you know, I've had a frantic day and I can just feel you know, this nervous kind of anxiety or tension, I will just get an essential oil and I will just you know, pop it on my hands. I'll pop it on my pulse points. I'll just do some deep breathing practices always really really effective integrated with some some breathing exercises to help me switch over to that parasympathetic nervous system. And it's also an incredible tool for our kids when my littles are just like unable to regulate themselves that literally melted down for whatever reason, being able to break that and get them to you know grabbing us Essential Oil roller, pop it on their feet, they are physically able to do something for themselves to help in that moment. And that's a really awesome powerful thing for little people with essential oils, this is a few of them. Actually, Frankincense is a really good one for little people, you know, lavender will work, there's a blend called balance that I love my little girls. It's a beautiful grounding blend. And that obviously, when they're applying it, it's that action, that physical trigger that they're speaking to their brain and just that action of doing something, but also the aroma is speaking to the nervous system at the same time. So and the last one, and obviously, with my nursing background, this is my biggest kind of passion piece is replacing pharmaceuticals. So your audience will likely know we're like right in the middle of a massive pharmaceutical epidemic with you know, over prescription of antibiotics, and all of these kinds of things. And so if we can have a tool in our home to reach for before, we need to go down that pharmaceutical route, not necessarily instead of, you know, like I don't pharmaceuticals have a time and a place and obviously, you know, I use them in my job for 12 years and they literally save lives so I don't ever demonize medication. But if we can use something natural first as our first line before going to the pharmaceuticals, nine times out of 10 it's going to work brilliantly for you and you've just reduced what was another chemical burden on your body. So it might be that your little one has you know, tagging on your ear and you think was an ear infection starting in the you know, grabbing some tea tree essential oil and rolling it on the jaw line and around the ear. It might be you know, using essential oils for wound care to prevent infection it might be you know, helping cooling the body during a fever so you don't have to give you know the the Tylenol or the paracetamol so many different areas that we can we can support the body to do what it naturally wants to do to fight the virus without you know, suppressing the immune system response. But pharmaceuticals Yeah, I love that
Sheree 32:04
you have so many of these beautiful home remedies on your page. So you know, make sure we'll get some like this near the end of the episode. But make sure you don't give me a follow like there's amount of stuff that I meant when I have children. But even for myself, like you know, my go to at home was Colloidal Silver, that was mom's thing that fix absolutely everything matches antibody, you had something either in just spray it or like rub it on everything. But I love that that you actually have on your page. So many and inside your beautiful community. So many targeted ways for the actual specific things to use it whether it is essential oils, using whole real ingredients that that come from nature. And like you say there is a place there is a time and I know like Christie used to work in the emergency section as a nurse and you you would know firsthand like we do need the pharmaceuticals for different things. But I love the approach of Okay, let's see what we can tackle naturally first. And then if we do need to go to that next level, then we will now I'm super curious. We brought it up a little bit earlier, the talk on green washing and wondering if you can touch on this because it's definitely something I got sucked into for so long. And you as a consumer, we talked a little bit about this from a food perspective. I was like, Oh, I'm doing so well for myself. I'm buying all these body washes from the supermarket that are clean and and you don't realize, you know, because they've got the no sulfites, they've got the no violets and got all the non animal tested. So again, you think you're doing so well. And then one of the biggest pieces you mentioned is the fragrance piece. And it wasn't till like we crossed paths that I was like, oh, that's the thing. They can greenwash the crap out of it, but they can still put a fragrance. And you educate our listeners a little bit about that too.
Speaker 1 33:49
Yeah, so greenwashing is pretty prolific in all countries. And what they do is it's not even just the wording sub greenwashing is almost like a visual thing as well. So like if they will use colors, so browns, and you know, earthy tones, greens, they'll often use little icons to catch your eyes. So even using like a recyclable icon still makes you think that it's better for you. It's it's a weird kind of mental thing there. But yeah, they use terminology organic is a good one eco natural, you know, all of those, all of those words, make you think something is going to be better for you. And I wish that was the case. So we actually need to look beyond the pretty colors and the symbols and we actually need to turn that package over. Okay, so regardless of what it says on the front, it might say no SLS, no parabens, no phthalates on the front, turn it over and actually have a look at those chemicals. And, you know, Sheree just alluded to synthetic fragrance which is which is a big one that we want to be avoiding. And it's in a lot of things. So what you want to be looking for on the back of that package is that they break down the fragrance. So if it says fragrance or perfume, usually if there's nothing else around it, and it just says that that's indicative that it's synthetic. If after the this fragrance, they've actually in italics broken down that fragrance into the individual essential oils, then then I'm more likely to be like, actually, yeah, they've been transparent with me, I'm gonna buy that that product, because they've actually shown me what's in that fragrance. And it's essential oils, I'm okay with that. Something that I would definitely advise your followers to do is to download it like an app a scannable. app, like there's so many awesome people out there doing things at the moment where you know, things you can take to the supermarket actually scan it, the one that I really love and use at the moment is called Switch natural. And you can jump over to my answer and favorite, I'll send you the link for it, you do pay for it, but I promise you, it's worth it. Because when you scan that, it's actually going to bring up what chemicals may be of concern, and then you as the consumer can then click into that link. And you can actually see the PubMed research that supports potentially wanting to avoid that. So for me as a medical professional, like I want, I want the data to be like, you know, I don't want someone's opinion, like I want to know what the research says. So that's kind of how my brain works. But But then, you know, you can actually read it and be like, actually, like, that's fine, but I'm actually making the decision that it's okay for my family. So you then get are informed enough to make a proper informed decision. So that's a that's a good app, the switch natural app, but there's lots of other free ones out there as well, I think think dirty, is a good one, even the free Environmental Working Group, like jump on the website, Google some of those words, and you'll get like a green light system of what they think about their particular ingredient, in particular things that it could lead to, and then you can make a decision about whether or not you want to avoid it. Yeah,
Sheree 36:43
your powerful thing is, you know, because this can seem very overwhelming. And I can imagine sitting here thinking, oh my gosh, now I've got to download an app, I've got to take with me the supermarket like this is all the things that go through my head as a busy human. But once you actually know the brands, or you've done like it might take you 1015 minutes, your first trip to the supermarket that you didn't plan on having or, you know, it might take you a little bit of research to open up the PubMed article and decide whether or not but once you have your brands, and you go to brands, wherever you are in the world, it's very easy to go and be a repeat customer of those brands. And again, you're voting long. Yeah. So yeah, it doesn't actually take a huge amount. I just want to remove that barrier for people as well. Because I know that was my first thought like, oh,
Speaker 1 37:25
yeah, once you have the things that you know, and love and trust, you'll be you'll be fine. Yeah. Amazing. Yeah.
Christa 37:33
Thank you so much for this talk. I mean, I think that it's just some people are completely unaware, or some people feel completely overwhelmed. And I think that you've done a really good job of kind of breaking it down to us. And, you know, trying to kind of wrap this up, what kind of piece of advice would you give to? Yeah, even to future generations, right to like, what is something that we can even impart to our kids as information and kind of an inspiring message to them as far as toxins? And what is in our control?
Speaker 1 38:04
Yeah, I am, when I saw this question come through, and I was trying to think of something like short and sweet and nice to wrap it up. But I just, I couldn't do it. So I guess like, I'm gonna go heavy on you guys. But I think it's important. So I want the next generation to know that their fertility is at threat. sperm counts have decreased 60% Since 1973, like, it's, it's alarming, and not enough people are talking about it. And I want the next generation to know that they actually have control over this. So there is a lot that we can control, you know, as parents, but you know, for that next generation teaching that next generation, factors influencing this, our diets, the amount of movement that we're doing, our stress levels, alcohol consumption, and environmental toxic load is a piece of that, you know, so I would love them to hear that. Just take the approach of you know, progress over perfection, like, in all areas, don't stress, don't stress the small stuff. Be an advocate for yourself, because no one not big industry, not big pharma, not big food, no one's going to advocate for you. So we have to do the work to become empowered, educated consumers.
Christa 39:14
Mm hmm. Yeah. I love that. What am I taglines that I use all the time is empowered health is your superpower. Because when you feel empowered, you can really you're right. I mean, nobody cares as much about yourself as you do. So show up for yourself, show your kids. And I'm also really loving the fact that you do the 8020 kind of approach to things because the fact is if we can flip that 8020 Right from 80% Like in the dark 20% and reverse that so that only 20% is like whatever that itself is going to make a big shift and I think a lot of that feels easier for people more approachable for people to start to swap out the pans you know, Christmas. I'm getting stainless steel paints for next Christmas. Okay? sama
Unknown Speaker 40:01
ese. Good.
Christa 40:05
Yes. So good. Thank you so much for being here. And I think this information is going to be amazing for people all around the world because all of us need to hear this and be aware. It's the first step, right?
Sheree 40:16
So where were people? I mean, I know you're gonna have you hang out on Instagram a lot. But where can people find you? Obviously, put all your details in the show notes. But do you want to share, share a little bit more about about yourself and where people can come and connect? Yeah,
Speaker 1 40:29
yeah. So the best place is on Instagram. That's kind of where I hang out the most just search nourished and vibrant. And you'll find me there. And yeah, come introduce yourself. Let me know you know what you're struggling with them. We can have a chat. And yeah, that's kind of the best, best place to connect. I do have a website, which has lots of my beautiful recipes on there, low tox blog and things like that. And it's just nourished and vibrant.co.nz. So again, yeah. Easy to find. So yeah, looking forward to meeting.
Christa 40:57
Thank you so much for being here. Again. This is so good. And yeah, I can't wait to start in party, you know, you doing some of the things that you mentioned, because it's one step at a time. Right. So thanks again for being here. Awesome.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
