Chemicals and toxins enter our bodies easily either by being inhaled from the air we breathe, absorbed via our skin or ingested through our food and water supplies. They quietly and some times not so quietly build up inside our bodies lodging in our organs, bones and blood stream greatly effecting our health and well being over time. In fact the world health organization says that 90% of disease can be connected to toxins within our environment.

We are now being alerted through research and case studies that many items we have bought and used in our homes over the years are not as safe as we may once have thought. For over twenty years I have been extremely mindful of reducing the amounts of chemicals and toxins that my family are being exposed too. I’ve made some perceived radical decisions over the years such as not immunizing my children due to the mercury content in the immunization fluid given to babies. A choice that today, I am so thankful for.

Petroleum is used to make plastic:
Plastics are one man made product that I am aiming to eliminate as much as possible from our family home particularly in the kitchen and school lunches. Don’t just take my word for it though. Visit a wonderful site by the environmental working group. It collects and gathers information and case studies about the toxicity on our planet and presents the information so you can be informed and make your own healthy living choices. I will however share a few facts with you.

Petroleum is used to make plastics. In fact 16% of the 20,730,000 barrels of oil used by the US each day goes to making plastic and other materials. (source Wikipedia). That fact alone scares me as we store so much of our food and drinks in plastic. Plastics can leach many extremely harmful toxins such as BPA or bisphenol A which is getting allot of press at the moment particularly in relation to babies bottles and tinned formula. Tiffany over at Nature Moms last year wrote about some recent research and suggests some alternatives for baby bottles.

If you are keen to save some money this year, help our planet out, reduce toxins and chemicals from your personal living space and go a little greener then a great place to start is with your kitchen bench and cupboards.

Six simple things you can do right now to detox your kitchen benches and cupboards:

The main focus with these six suggestions is to switch a plastic product for a greener more eco-friendly option.

1. Use a wooden or bamboo chopping board:
My preferred option is a bamboo chopping board. The beauty of bamboo is that is grows rapidly much better than chopping down trees which take years to grow. Bamboo is an ecologically attractive alternative. It absorbs very little moisture and will not shrink or swell. Surprisingly, it is also harder that most woods, making it a superior material for use in cutting. The best part is one side can be used for cutting and the other for serving.

2. Switch from a plastic kettle to stainless steel:
I’ve opted for a stainless steel kettle which may not be as pretty looking as the colourful and cheaper plastic kettles but its a health choice I am very happy with.

3. Use glass baby bottles
This is particularly important one for mothers with young children or anyone about to have children. Plastic baby bottles have been the popular choice of mothers for many years. Now with recent research (read Tiffany’s article at Nature Mom) there is enough evidence to suggest that going back to glass bottles is the safer and healthier alternate. Environmental working group also have many case studies for further research regarding baby bottles and the containers in which the formula is packed in.

4. Switch your plastic storage containers to glass:
This takes a little while to switch all of your plastic storage containers over to ceramic, glass or stainless steel but its definitely worthwhile. Glass is obviously a wiser choice for the planet as it can easily be recycled and does not take hundreds of years to break down like plastic.

5. Save money and the planet by cleaning with natural products:

All purpose cleaner:
One part vinegar ( a natural deodorizer) to one part water into a spray bottle. Use to wipe clean benches and surfaces. I also add eucalyptus essential oil, tea tree oil or sometimes lavender. Tea tree oil is well known for its antibacterial properties and ability to kill bacteria along with eucalyptus

Stubborn stains:

3 parts baking soda and one part water to make paste. Spread paste onto stain on bench and leave for one to two hours

Use eco-friendly cotton cleaning cloths and dry in sun to disinfect.

Use lemon juice dissolve soap scum and hard water

6. Swap your cooking utensils over to bamboo or stainless steel:

The beauty of natural bamboo cooking utensils is that there are no artificial colours or coatings which can leach into your foods. Your rolling pin, BBQ utensils, mixing bowls and kitchen cooking utensils can all be swapped over to the natural, eco-friendly, very durable bamboo versions. You can easily buy your bamboo products at an Asian store or on-line. I personally have not bought any on-line but if anyone can recommend an on-line bamboo store that I can pass onto my readers I would be very grateful.

   化学品和毒素很容易就能通过我们吸入的空气，我们的肌肤，食物和水源进入我们的体内。随着时间的推移，它们会悄悄地或者有时甚至不那么安静地在我们体内慢慢积聚。同时，它们会进入我们的器官，骨骼，和血液。最后，极大地影响我们的健康和幸福。事实上，根据世界卫生组织的调查表明，90%的疾病都与我们周围环境中的毒素有关。

很多研究与事实告诉我们，这些年以来我们家里购买的以及正在使用的商品并不像我们想的那么安全可靠。在过去二十年里，我一直很尽量地减少我家人接触的化学品和有毒物质。这些年来我自下意识地采取一些措施切断毒源。例如，不让我的孩子进行免疫接种，因为疫苗药液里含有汞。这个决定到今天我还深怀感激。

塑料是用石油来制造的

我一直希望我们能够停止在家里，特别是在厨房以及校园食堂使用塑料。我是认真的，并不是随口说说。进这个出色的网站环境工作小组看一下。它收集和积累我们这个地球上有关的毒性的资料和案例研究。让您可以了解自己的健康状况并作出自己的健康生活的选择。现在，我就先给你们提供一些相关信息。

塑料是用石油来制造的.事实上，美国每天使用的20,730,000 桶的石油中，有16%是用来做塑料或其它产品的(来源 Wikipedia). 这让我不得不担心我们用来储存那么多食品与饮料的塑料。塑料可以分解出毒性很强的毒素 例如双酚A 。而目前婴而瓶装或者罐装食品使用的塑料正是包含这种毒素。双酚A蒂芬尼在自然妈妈上发布了一些有关这方面的调查研究并且给正在使用婴儿瓶的人提出一些建议和警告。

如果你想今年尽量多节省一些钱；想为我们的人类家园做点贡献；想减少你生活中的毒素和化学药品；想你的家更清洁。那你首先就要从你厨房的工作台和橱柜开始做起。

你现在就可以用下面六种简单的方法来给你的厨房工作台和橱柜进行消毒。

１．使用木制或竹制的砧板

我比较喜欢的是竹制的砧板。竹子的优势在于它不仅长得快，而且质量比那些需要多年才能生长的木材的质量要好。从生态学的角度学看，竹子是个不错的替代资源。它水分少，既不会收缩也不会膨胀。令人惊奇的是虽然它比其它很多木材都要硬因此砍伐工人的首选目标。竹子最好的地方人们可以砍下它们一部分，留剩下的那一部份继续生长。

２．把塑料水壶换成不锈钢水壶

虽然不锈钢水壶没有色彩斑斓的水壶塑料那么好看，我还是选择它。因为它是为我的健康作的选择。

３．给婴儿使用玻璃瓶

这条对孩子年纪还小的妈妈们和那些将要生孩子的妇女来说尤其重要。很多年来，很多母亲一直喜欢使用塑料瓶。根据最近的一项研究（蒂芬尼在〈自然母亲〉的一篇文章） 表明：母亲们使用玻璃会使孩子更加安全和健康。环境工作小组网站还有有关盛放婴儿食品的婴儿瓶和容器这一方面更深入的研究。

４．把你的塑料存储容器换成玻璃存储容器

把你所有的塑料存储容器换成陶瓷的，玻璃的，或者不锈钢的你会浪费你一点时间。但这绝对是值得的。显而易见，使用玻璃对地球来说是最明智的选择。因为玻璃很容易就能回收利用，而不是像塑料那样要上百年才能分解。

5. 用天然产物来省钱和拯救地球

最后的清洁剂：

用一些醋（天然除臭剂）混合一些水倒进喷雾器。用它可以把工作台和桌面擦干净。我有时会加一些，茶树油，熏衣草。众所周知，茶树油和桉树精油混合在一起能够杀灭细菌。

顽固污渍：

用3/4碳酸氢钠和1/4的清水混合成糊。把它洒在台面的顽固污渍上，一到两个小时后，把环保的擦拭棉布放到大阳下消毒后，加入柠檬汁去溶解皂垢和硬水。

6.把您的炊具换成竹制的或不锈钢的：

使用天然炊具的好就好在它不会有任何人工颜料或涂料溶解到你的食物里面您的擀面棍，烧烤用具，多功能碗和厨房炊具完全可以用天然的，环保的，和长久耐用的竹制品来替换。你可以很方便地就能在亚洲人开的商店和网上买到以竹子为原材料的产品。我自己还没有在网上购买过这些东西。不过要是哪位能够提供此类网上竹制品商店的话，我将会感激不尽。并把这些网站推荐给读者。