Harmful Chemical Sunscreens, The Dirty Dozen & Clean Fifteen, Water: How Much and When?
Lightbulbs & Pearls | 004
Sunscreen Chemicals Found in the Bloodstream
As if there isn’t enough to worry about, here’s another one… According to a study published in peer-reviewed JAMA January 2020, chemical sunscreen ingredients were detected in the user’s bloodstream, in amounts ranging from 11.6 to 516.2 times higher than acceptable levels set by the FDA. (That’s staggering!) The commonly used chemicals tested were Octicalate, Avobenzone, Octocrylene, Octinoxate, Homosalate, and the worst offender, Oxybenzone.
It’s been established in many previous studies that these chemicals have a slew of health risks, including disrupting our endocrine systems, which help control many functions in our bodies from organ function to metabolism, reproduction, and even mood…it’s like the conductor. Frankly, in my humble opinion, regardless of what the FDA sets as a limit, no level of chemicals circulating in our bloodstream is acceptable.
What to use? Mineral sunscreens containing zinc oxide and titanium dioxide, which have come a long way since the white nose, surfer dudes of the 70s. Essentially, the minerals sit on top of the skin, rather than being absorbed into it, and there are many lightweight, clear broad-spectrum choices available. (One of my favorites is Green Goo’s Solar Goo.) However, be careful not to use any mineral sunscreen with the word nano attached to it, as those are the tiniest of particles that very well could pass through to the bloodstream. And do read the labels and make sure it isn’t a chemical/mineral combo.
This illuminates the bigger picture of personal care products in general, which will be addressed in a dedicated future post. For personal care products, the EU and other countries have banned or limited over 1,600 chemicals, while the US has only banned 11. Yes, you read that right. I made the switch to all-natural personal care products over a decade ago. With oodles of high-performing, high-quality products on the market, there is no good reason not to make the leap.
If you want to do your own ingredients deep dive, two good sources are Environmental Working Group (EWG) and Think Dirty, which is a site and app. Look up the ingredients of a few of your current products and see how they fare.
The Dirty Dozen & Clean Fifteen
Speaking of the EWG, have you heard of the Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen? Every year since 2004, the EWG publishes a “Shoppers Guide to Pesticides in Produce” to assist consumers in making wise choices about which fruits and vegetables are imperative to buy organic and which grown conventionally are safe to consume. According to the website, nearly 75 percent of non-organic fresh produce sold in the U.S. contains residues of potentially harmful pesticides.
EWG’s website further elaborates, “The Shopper’s Guide represents EWG’s analysis of the latest fruit and vegetable testing data from the Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The 2023 guide includes data from 46,569 samples of 46 fruits and vegetables. The USDA peels or scrubs and washes produce samples before testing, whereas the FDA only removes dirt before testing its samples. Even after these steps, the tests still find traces 251 different pesticides.”
What’s most concerning is some of the USDA’s tests show traces of pesticides that are supposed to have been banned by the EPA…which begs the questions: what on earth are they still doing in use, and how much are we unknowingly consuming?
In my opinion, the impact that the over 250 pesticides have on health won’t be known for years—if even then—and the risks are too great, so I nearly always only purchase organic produce. However, looking at the Clean Fifteen list gives me hope that there are some fruits and vegetables that would be safe to eat non-organic in a pinch.
As you can surmise, the Dirty Dozen are the fruits and vegetables out of the 46 in the analysis that are most contaminated with pesticides and the Clean Fifteen have the least. From the Dirty Dozen list, more than 90% of strawberries, apples, cherries, spinach, nectarines, and grapes samples tested positive of residue of two or more pesticides. In contrast, almost 65% of the Clean Fifteen item samples had no detectable pesticide residue.
How Much Water Should You Drink and When
Dr. Andrew Huberman’s Huberman Lab podcast episode, “Water & Your Health,” was a really deep dive into everything you would ever want to know about water…a 2 hour and 19 minutes master class on water. Some of the information was so technical that I’m going to have to give it another listen (and take better notes), but a topline takeaway was how much water to drink and when—which was eye-opening as I had not considered the time element before.
Since the human body is mostly water (55-80% depending on age), it stands to reason that water has a very essential role in our overall health and cellular function. There are hundreds of studies that point to the fact that a lack of water can impair mental focus and physical performance. Even a slight 2% drop in baseline hydration can negatively affect our ability to function optimally, impacting our strength, cognitive performance, all of our states. Unbelievably, close to half of adults don’t drink enough water and are chronically dehydrated, which is mind boggling since it’s something most people have near total control over.
So how much water should we drink? According to Dr. Huberman, for every hour you are awake, in the first ten hours of your day, you should consume—on average—8 ounces of fluid per hour. I’ll do the math, that’s 80 ounces of fluid spread out over a ten-hour period.
What’s the deal with the first 10 hours? Our fluid requirements are very different when we first wake up and need to get rolling, as compared to later in the evening and nighttime as we are winding down. Aside from supplying what your body needs, the bonus of consolidating the majority of your fluid intake in the first portion of the day is that you are less likely to wake in the middle of the night to use the restroom—or as doctors so eloquently say, empty your bladder. I aim to drink most of my water by 4:00 in the afternoon and it seems to make a difference to my sleep.
The above recommendations are for baseline hydration; naturally, if you are exercising or if conditions are particularly hot, you’ll need to increase your water consumption in order to avoid dehydration. If you’d like specific numbers for how much you need while really exerting, watch this portion of the podcast (2:22:23) where Dr. Huberman explains the Galpin equation…and do take notes.
Bonus Barefoot Benefits
This is a lightbulb and pearl combo as I’ve had a real revelation about the many benefits of going barefoot over the last several months. I touched on my new-found habit in The Easiest Paths Lead to the Hardest Roads. My impetus was to alleviate how tender and stiff my feet were in the morning when I first get up. Going barefoot for at least 30 minutes right out of bed definitely helped to get the synovial fluid moving, thus lubricating the joints and banishing the majority of stiffness and pain. But I also did an experiment at the holidays with going barefoot that was a pleasant surprise.
I cook and bake up a storm between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and the only downside (besides all the tempting treats) is my back typically fatigues towards the end of a long day standing in the kitchen. So I had the thought to try going barefoot while wearing my apron. What an amazing difference it made to how my lower back felt. Granted, I was standing on wood floors which have a natural give, and it would have been a much different story had I been standing on tile or concrete. Nevertheless, the benefits of allowing the body to naturally align can’t be underestimated. Now when I’m preparing a meal, I’m nearly always barefoot.
Another fascinating advantage, which had never occurred to me, is the communication between the soles of the feet and the brain. Katy Bowman writes in her book, Move Your DNA, that the soles of our feet function as a dexterous sensory organ that gives our brain input about our environment. She made the excellent point that if our feet are flat and not flexing, our brain only “sees” flatness. Imagine your foot in a rigid shoe and your feet are inflexible but you’re walking on an uneven surface. Even though you may be encountering small cracks and bumps, all that is being transmitted to the brain is that you are walking on a flat surface. Clearly this creates a disconnect to the actual condition and our bodies are not able to respond properly. This sets up a very detrimental situation, especially as we age. I wonder if people would have less falls in their golden years if their feet sent the right information to their brains. Something to ponder…
Going barefoot has so many advantages that I’m spending more and more of the day in the house without shoes, including exercising. Growing up in Tucson, I practically lived barefoot all summer…I’m feeling like a kid again!
Thank you for the podcast recommendation, will definitely give a listen. Insofar as figuring out what food is best, I'm learning as I go! What I know is the food supply issue is so confusing, layered, and deep and we have strayed so far from what food was intended to be, it can't be untangled; I go back to basics and eat mostly non-processed food, organic whenever possible and shop farmer's markets often.
Your feet and back will thank you!