Say No to Parabens!
Incase you live in a cave, we have just been through ‘Awareness Month’ and are now a week into ‘Movember’. Most of this seems like a waste of time if I am honest. People dress up in pink to raise ‘awareness’ and the papers are littered with stories. But this doesn’t make us any more aware. Maybe more money is raised within this time period, which is obviously good, but otherwise I don’t think much of it.
With this in mind, I did come across some unsavoury information which I would like to share with you now. Keep in mind that I have only just found this out myself, so please don’t hold me accountable for everything being 100% scientifically correct. At the same time, I don’t want you to read this and think ‘whatever, I don’t care’, because this is actually quite serious! Oh, and to those of you who are already aware of this, why dont you skip down to the comment section and let me know how you have adapted your skincare routine, if you have adapted it at all.
What are Parabens?
From my quick search on the topic, Parabens are basically preservatives that make products last longer. Unfortunately, they can be found in an extensive range of goods, anything from skin care, hair care and food. Yep, that’s right, as well as smearing the chemicals all over you, you might be ingesting the ‘stuff’ too, tasty!
Now we know these Parabens are difficult to avoid, but why do you want to avoid them? Simply put, they CAN be linked to certain cancers, with particular emphasis on breast cancer. Parabens mimic the female hormone, oestrogen, which “stimulate the cancer cells to divide and multiply”. It would be a one-sided argument if I did not mention how controversial this area is, there is a lack of evidence to 100% prove that Parabens cause cancer, however, Paraben cells have been found within cancer cells – http://paraben.co.uk/. I will leave leave this with you so you can decide for yourself. However, the phrase ‘better safe than sorry’ certainly comes to mind.
!
I decided to go through my skin-care and beauty products to see if I could spot any nasties within the ingredients list. If you are thinking of doing the same, this post-it note may be of help. If you encounter any of these names within the ingredients list then you probably want to ditch the product. I also learnt that just skimming the ingredients for ‘Paraben’ is not the way to go, because they disguise themselves with different names. This list started off with five bullet points and has quickly grown. My point is there are probably more nasties out there to look out for. I have not done an extensive search on this yet, but I will update this list if I come across any more names to avoid.
It annoys me when site after site simply state “go organic!”, “buy Paraben-free!”, etc. How much money do they think I have?! It is just not an option to replace about 80% of my products with expensive alternatives. However, even way before I decided to scare myself with this, I read other blogs about D.I.Y deodorants, or home-made shampoo. Not every product contains Parabens, but a lot of shop-bought products do contain a lengthy list of ingredients = too many bad chemicals. I plan to do a follow-up blog on making my own home-made deodorant, shampoo and recommending cheaper Paraben-free products to those of you who want to ditch the Para-bitch, lol.
I ended up chucking a lot of products that contained at least one name from that list. Here are just a few photos as proof (click to enlarge the images). I feel cheated that I have been unwittingly using products like these for years, potentially increasing my risk.
Herbal Essences Shampoo
Adiós Nivea moisturiser!
Parabens are in some hand-gels too?! T-T
The awkward moment when suncream is actually bad for you..
More awareness needs to be raised on this topic. I want to see NHS pamphlets, mag ads and other reading material to be readily available. We all know smoking is bad for you, but how many people are even acutely aware of Parabens?
Spread the word!
