Have you ever had the fantasy about living in France? Perhaps in a cute little village, eating off the land on a little French farm? Well, the thought, I must admit has crossed my mind on one of my nuttier days at work. After watching “Food Beware: The Organic French Revolution” that fantasy is gone. If you got Netflix it’s a freebie on there! This film was a real eye opener because I thought Americans were using a ton of pesticides on their crops and that Europeans probably were using less so due to stricter regulations and smarter farming practices. Well, I’ve come to learn that this is not so! Now, I wouldn’t mind moving to the little village in the film with the amazing mayor who changes things around!

I love what the nurse has to say and learned something new about life expectancy.  Watch this little four+ minute clip:

Quote from film: “The war on cancer has not succeeded, so I think a focus on prevention no war on cancer in Europe, France or in the UK can succeed.“ He forgot the U.S. but the key word here is PREVENTION! Also by not supporting or buying chemically laden products!

This resonated with me, “We have to stop poisoning the earth, the air and our food with the false excuse that we are feeding mankind, when in fact we are starving mankind! This is why we need a total overhaul of the dominant agricultural model to conserve our health and the environment. I assert we can produce food in a different and sustainable way, healthy food in sufficient quantities with economic performance well superior to industrial methods, if we’d just stop replacing peasants with chemical molecules.” ~Quote from film

Recently I bought Kim Barnouin‘s new book, “Skinny Bitch – Home, Beauty, & Style”. I have devoured this book! Carried it around as if I was a bible sales person, which, by golly, I am not! But bless you, Sistas & brothers for reading my posts! 

Why is this book so great? Kim goes into all the nasty stuff that is in our home, beauty products & what we wear! I found it really eye opening, realizing all the crap & toxic chemicals that are in household products. I knew some of this stuff, but even some of the ones that I thought were safe or say they are “environmentally friendly” are not so great after all! Kim helped me sort all of that out! It’s well written, funny as heck – as they say in Utah – and very informative!

Kim starts with the home, moving to beauty/body products. This section was probably my favorite and the most disturbing. For example, take a good look at your hair shampoo. You might need a magnifying glass to actually read some of these labels! Does it contain Sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) or Sodium lauryl ether sulfate (SLES)? This is the stuff that makes your shampoo foam. You’re probably thinking, “So what? Isn’t it supposed to foam just like my toothpaste?” NOOO! The stuff is BAD for you!

Listen up! Kim writes, “During the process that SLS undergoes to loose its abrasive edge, it may also produce 1,4 -dioxane – another cancerous suspect that won’t pop up on the label. Do me a favor. Stop massaging that gunk into your scalp-1,4 -dioxane can do a number on your eyes, strip your scalp of essential oils, and attack your lungs. The part that really blows my mind is that the sulfates are known to corrode and stunt hair growth. What the fuck is it  doing in 95 percent of shampoos?!” (p.151) Yes, hello baldness and other scary side effects! Lucky for us, Kim does give alternatives to ALL the products that come under the microscope!  

My personal changes so far from reading this book have been:

• Changing out my pillows and buying new organic cotton sheets.

• Cleaning out my entire bathroom of the toxins that are listed in Kim’s book.

• Buying new shampoo’s – my choice became Giovanni’s shampoo & Conditioner

• Making my own cleaning products per Kim’s recommendations instead of buying cheap toxic chemicals from big name labels! Two weeks ago, I took time & educated a woman at Target!

• Ordered a new vacuum cleaner – the Dyson DC25. My neighbor owns one & boy does it SUCK, in a good way! 

  
  

Anyway, do yourself a favor and order Kim’s fantastic book. You will not regret it! I guarantee it! 

I LOVE Ellen Degeneres!

Here’s a great interview with Katie Couric about why she chose to go vegan! LOVEEEE it!