Using a food calorie chart to choose foods when shopping or eating out is a pretty wise thing to do. It will not only help you lose and maintain weight. It will also help you get healthy and stay that way. And keeping a food calories chart handy will help keep you on the right track.food nutrition chart

Choosing Paraben Free Beauty Products

By Claudine Hodges


Finding safe cosmetics is becoming easier all the time. This is because manufacturers are responding to increasing demand from consumers for paraben free beauty products. They can be used by anyone and many feel they are safer than using products which contain potentially harmful chemicals. Many have concerns that these artificial chemicals have not been properly tested and have only been tested in isolation whereas our bodies are exposed to mixtures of them.

Parabens have been used as a preservative for almost a century now. It is essential to have preservatives in products or they may become harmful due to fungus or molds. Large producers need to have products which have a shelf life of several years and so artificial preservatives were the answer. However, some research has pointed out that they may have some potentially dangerous side effects and so consumers are demanding alternatives.

The first scare in relation to these preservative chemicals was in relation to breast cancer. It has to be said that many governments around the world have classified them as safe but paraben traces have been found in tumors taken from breast cancer patients. More research needs to be done to show whether or not there is any causal relationship between the cancer and the chemicals.

There are also concerns about effects on the endocrine system. This is a system of glands including the pancreas, thyroid, pituitary, ovaries and testes. It is vital for our good health and the hormones produced by this system affect everything from our sleep patterns to cell regeneration. Therefore any effects could have far reaching implications for health.

The endocrine system also includes the ovaries and testes and the production of estrogen. Scientists working on the problem of declining fertility in developed countries are looking at these chemicals to see whether there is any link to infertility. They are also interested to see if there are issues with these chemicals working in conjunction with others. Most chemical additives are tested in isolation but that is not how our bodies experience them. We are basically bombarded by them all the time in food, water, cosmetics, furnishings, cleaning products and so on.

It is possible to make cosmetics with a sufficient shelf life without adding parabens, but what are producers using instead? Some are just changing to other synthetic preservatives such as sodium benzoate or diazolidinyl urea. Unfortunately some of these also have long lists of potential side effects and some are virtually untested. Companies have done this in response to public concerns about parabens but it may just be swapping like for like.

To be totally sure that a product does not contain any sort of artificial, possibly harmful chemicals it is necessary to do some research and become familiar with all those scientific names on packaging. Also, using fresh products which do not have a long shelf life is a good indicator that they do not contain artificial preservatives.

Parabens are used in all sorts of cosmetic and beauty products from toothpaste to sunscreen and moisturizers, shampoos and make-up. Although they are considered safe by many governments there is a growing number of people who want to see more research done on these chemicals. In the meantime they are seeking out products which do not contain these additives.




About the Author: