Coconut oil- nature's all purpose oil

In my first post, I talked about how I use coconut oil for anything and everything. Today I wanted to talk about exactly how and when I use coconut oil, and some benefits of this delicious and healthy all purpose oil.

If you Google "benefits of coconut oil" or even just "coconut oil," I can assure you that you will find a plethora of results about how awesome coconut oil is. I'm just going to tell you guys what I know about coconut oil and how I use it, along with some tips about coconut oil.

If you are thinking about purchasing some coconut oil, the first thing you need to know is what kind of coconut oil to buy. You MUST buy the organic, unrefined, virgin coconut oil if you want to reap all the benefits. This is the most raw and natural version of the oil. It also has that amazing, sweet coconut flavor/smell. This is also the most all-purpose kind, where as the refined versions of coconut oil are pretty much only used for cooking. You also need to know that you will be spending upwards of $10+ on a good coconut oil. If it's cheap, it's probably not a good kind. The kind I buy and my favorite brand to use is Nutiva. 

This coconut oil is virgin, organic, and unrefined. Some extra benefits are that it is also fair-trade and cold pressed, and 1% of Nutiva's profits go to sustainable farming. It is silky, smooth, and it tastes and smells amazing. It runs about $10 everywhere I've seen it. But there are other great brands out there so again, do your research, and find a brand that is right for you.

Coconut oil melts at a relatively low temperature-- 76ºF. So if you need to use it in liquid form, just put some in the microwave for only a few seconds and stir it. Mostly, it's solid at room temperature, unless your room is very warm obviously.

Okay so now that I told you some of the basics about coconut oil, lets talk about some of my favorite uses!

Cosmetic uses:

First of all, coconut oil has completely replaced any moisturizer I used. I now use coconut oil to moisturize my whole body, even my face. The key is to use the right amount or else you run the risk of being too greasy. It makes my skin soft and smooth and has a light coconut sent that is just right. 

Also, whenever I feel like taking a bath, I put coconut oil in the bathtub. This moisturizes the skin and makes it soft, and again, it smells great. 

For your hair, there are a couple uses for coconut oil. I sometimes put it all over my hair at least 30 minutes before I shower, then just shampoo and condition my hair as usual. The oil moisturizes your hair and repairs split and dry ends.

You can aslo use it on dry hair to keep down frizz. Just put a small amount on your fingertips and run it through your hair, focusing on the ends. This will keep split ends and frizz at bay all day.

I also use it for my toothpaste as you've seen in my other blog post! It obviously has other ingredients but coconut oil is the main ingredient. There is a variety of cosmetic supplies you can make with coconut oil.

Cooking:

You can (and I like to) use coconut oil in place of butter. I use it on toast, sweet potatoes, pancakes, bagels, etc. Just keep in mind that it does have a light flavor so make sure it'll pair well with what you are putting it on, typically sweeter foods.

That brings me to baking. You can also use coconut oil in place of butter or oil in a baking recipe. This works very well with sweet bakery treats like cake, brownies, and fruit pastries. It's a delicious and healthy alternative to butter and oil. 

I also like to use coconut oil to saute vegetables. A couple pinches of salt helps cut the coconut flavor tremendously if you don't think you want coconut flavored vegetables or meat. Sometimes, stuff is really good with a coconut flavor, like if you're making stir fry. Shrimp is also very good with a slight coconut flavor.

More information:

From one of the blogs I follow, I found some good articles talking about some more benefits and information on coconut oil. This is a good place to start!

This article has more uses of coconut oil.

This artcile has information about the health benefits and the good fat in coconut oil.

A vegetarian dinner suggestion

This week, I've decided to share a vegetarian recipe with you that is simple and delicious. Two posts ago, I mentioned that I have a "go-to" dinner which is veggie stir fry. Today, I decided to just expand a little bit on that recipe and make it veggie fried rice. The "recipe" I'm going to share with you is just my version and very vague, because I want you to be able to experiment and find something that you enjoy!

Here is a general list of ingredients you will need:

• A variety of vegetables of your choice. You are definitely going to want an onion and fresh garlic for flavor; the rest are at your discretion. Along with those, I used broccoli, zucchini, carrots, green pepper, and celery. I had these all in my fridge at home, so just use what you have!
• Olive/coconut/grape seed/canola oil
• Rice of your choice (jasmine, brown, basmati)
• An egg or two
• Spices of your choice/marinade of your choice, or both (salt and pepper are a must)
• Soy sauce or sweet and sour sauce

Here is the (vague) recipe you should follow!

1. In a large non-stick skillet, heat about a table spoon of oil on medium heat

2. Meanwhile, begin cooking rice in a different pot

3. Once pan is heated, toss all your vegetables and spices/marinade in the pan and cook!

 Stir frequently. I cooked mine for about 15-20 minutes because that is how long my rice took too cook. They were a little bit crunchy because I like them that way. If you like more tender vegetables, cook for about 25-30 minutes

4. Once your rice is done and you are satisfied with the tenderness of your vegetables, turn the stove to low, move the vegetables to the side of the pan and pour rice into pan
5. Then, push rice aside to make a small crater in the middle of the pant and crack your egg(s) in the crater. When the egg cooks about halfway, start mixing all of the ingredients together until well blended. Let cook for just a few more minutes to "fry" the rice.

And that's it! I added a small amount of soy sauce and it was a delicious and filling vegetarian dinner. I hope my readers want to try this recipe and let me know how they tweaked it and how they liked it! Happy eating :)

Homemade toothpaste!

After getting some helpful suggestions on my blog, I decided to make my post this week a DYI post and engage some of my readers on easy recipes for homemade items. This weeks culprit: toothpaste. I've known for some time that the ingredients in commercial toothpastes (Crest, Colgate, etc.) were harmful. Many harmful additives and chemicals are added into toothpaste that can easily and effectively be replaced by simple raw materials.

I took a picture of the ingredients of the toothpaste I am currently using: Colgate Optic White.

I know i'ts not the best picture, but some of the ingredients include flavor, sodium lauryl sulfate, BHT, and disodium pyroposphate. If you Google any of those chemicals (plus basically any of the other ones I didn't even name), you will find dozens websites, blogs, news articles filled with health warnings, environmental groups rallying against the chemical, uses, and alternatives. Each of these chemicals is linked to cancer. 

So anyway, I've been meaning to make my own toothpaste for a while now as a part of my chemical-free journey. What gave me the idea for this post, though, was when recently I was scrolling through Facebook and I saw a post from a girl I went to high school. She is a dental hygienist now; just graduated from UofM in Spring 2014. Her post talked about how she's seem multiple patients with actual damage in their teeth from using Crest 3D White. Something about how there's tiny shards of plastic to help "erode" stains but it was actually eroding enamel. So...that's why I decided to make my own toothpaste for this post, because I am basically using the equivalent of Crest 3D White in Colgate form. 

I was searching the blogs I follow (now on my new blogroll!) and I found this article on chemical-free-living.com with a few different toothpaste recipes, but I saw another recipe that used coconut oil which I already have (and love) so I looked for one that used a good amount of coconut oil. So anyway I roughly used this recipe, but if you want to try this you should research a few different recipes and see which one you like best!

This is my variation of the recipe in pictures!

The ingredients:

-Raw, organic, unrefined coconut oil. (12 tbsp)

-Baking soda (12 tbsp)

-Raw, organic stevia (to taste; ~1-5 tbsp)

-Any essential oils (to taste; start with 15-20 drops and go up from there) I used wintergreen, but other good ideas include peppermint, grapefruit, or lemon. 

Mix all ingredients and brush yo teef!

I warmed up the coconut oil in the microwave (with the metal top off) so it would be easier to mix in the ingredients. 

I added the baking soda and mixed in it...

Then I added the stevia...

...and the wintergreen essential oil and mixed them in.

And voila! This was the finished product. It was still liquid-y obviously because the coconut oil it still warm. Once it cools down a bit, it will solidify and I will literally just dip my toothbrush in the jar to use it. 

Baking soda is a whitening agent so I won't have to sacrifice that part or the minty part. I'll update my readers in my next post about how I like it. I tasted a small amount, and it tastes exactly like the ingredients...so it might take some time getting used to but I think I can handle it and it will be best in the long run. :)

How vegetarianism reduces your carbon footprint

As I mentioned in my last blog post, another way to reduce the amount of chemicals in your everyday life is to cut meat out of your diet. I think almost everyone these days is aware that packaged meat contains some type of chemicals and antibiotics. By not eating meat, you are not only helping to weed out chemicals in your life, but you are also reducing your negative effect on the environment, aka your "carbon footprint." You can do even more for the environment by adapting a vegan diet-- something that I foresee in my future but I am not quite there yet.

According to this article from the Huffington Post Green, a study that was done to compare the greenhouse gas emissions between people with various diets such as carnivores, vegetarians, and vegans. The study heeded results that show that the green house gas emissions from meat-eaters are almost twice than those of a vegan. Not that the person themselves emits more greenhouse gas, but they help to contribute to the problem.  The transportation of livestock, the production of the meat, the burning of fossil fuels at farms, and all the water used in farming livestock contribute to global climate change.

A fact from Body + Soul Magazine cited in this blog from reducefootprints.blogspot.com states that If 10,000 people replaced a beef meal with a vegetarian meal only once a week per year, the planet would save enough water to fill 605 Olympic-sized pools. Wut. I really have no idea how much water that is, but it sounds like a lot, so that makes it crazy. If you are interested, you can read through both of those blog posts for other facts and interesting information about how cutting meat out from your diet reduces your carbon footprint.

You don't have to become a vegetarian overnight-- or even at all. You could just replace one meal per week with a vegetarian meal and you'd help reduce your carbon footprint tremendously. And, it gets easier over time. I love cooking and I love food and I still basically eat whatever I want. Even (fake) chicken nuggets which taste exactly like actual chicken nuggets. More and more restaurants offer vegetarian and vegan options, and if you like to cook like me, you can experiment and make your own dishes. One of my go-to dishes is just a vegetable stir fry that is filling and delicious.Last night I made grilled veggie burritos with rice, beans, cheese, and salsa. I'm just trying to point out that it's really not as hard as it sounds and you can still eat really good food! I never feel like I'm missing out.

I challenge my readers to just try replacing one meal a week for a few weeks with a meatless meal. Comment and let me know about your experiences! I would also be happy to answer any questions you may have! Good luck :)

Another side of the story

For every side of a story, there is always another side. For this blog post, I'm going to explore the notion that chemical free living is not always a good thing. As you may be able to guess, I couldn't find much on anti-chemical free living, for obvious reasons. What I could find, though, were multiple blogs posts about how the term "chemical-free" is sometimes misleading and not always the best way to describe organic living. As I mentioned in my first post, water is a chemical. Air is made up of multiple chemicals. The term "chemical" describes more than just harmful, synthetic agents that contaminate our lives. By saying I'm trying to live a more chemical-free lifestyle, I am specifically talking about dangerous chemicals that make up most of the ingredients in everyday products, foods, and drinks. 

Some websites, like this one, go as far as to say we should sue companies that claim their products are chemical-free. Why? This author claims that products labeled "chemical free" are misleading and inaccurate. There are laws that require truth in advertising, and he says that these companies aren't telling the truth. This author looks more at the legal side of this case-- that companies that label their products chemical-free are creating false competition for companies that produce the same product that do not mislabel their products. 

This blogger claims that chemical-free is a made up term by marketers to scare people into thinking that all other products are chemical laden. The things is, THEY ARE. But, you have to do your own research. Basically, this blogger is saying that just because a product is labeled chemical-free doesn't always mean that the product is free of chemicals. Does that make sense?

The only other sides of the story I found were arguments against vegetarianism. I am a vegetarian for many reasons; a large one is to help weed out more chemicals in my life because as most people know nowadays, much of our meat produces are laced with carcinogens and antibiotics. Obviously, vegetarianism is not for everyone. Some people are even on the extreme side of being against it and go out of their way to argue it. 

Bottom line-- do your own research. Always. Not just in this case, but always. Read the labels and ingredients. It only takes a minute and it can save you pain and suffering in the long run. 

Introduction: My journey

"I don't have time for that!"
"But...but...organic stuff is so expensive"
"That's too hard/ that takes too much work."

These are common complaints I hear from friends and family who I try to encourage to live a more chemical-free and organic lifestyle. Notice that I say more organic/chemical free lifestyle, because going cold turkey isn't easy on everyone. Many harsh chemical still bombard my life everyday, I'm just dong what I can to alleviate some of that "bombarding."

As most people know nowadays, chemicals do bombard our everyday life. Everything we use from lotions to toothpaste; everything we eat/drink from salad dressings to sports drinks are chemical-laden. If you pick up your lotion or makeup and look at the ingredients, I bet you'll find ingredients such as DEA (Diathanolamine), MEA (Monoethaolamine), TEA (Triethanolamine), Parabens, Phthlates, Fragrance, Triclosan, and Talc. All of these ingredients are known carcinogens, which are cancer-causing agents. And this is hardly even the tip of the iceberg. But the FDA says they are "safe." Not only are these chemicals extremely dangerous to our health, but they are also toxic for the environment (more on that later).

The truth is, leading a chemical-free lifestyle is easy and hardly time consuming. The only thing that makes it difficult is that there aren't many options in the grocery store that offer natural and organic ingredients. What all grocers do sell, though, are (cheap) products that you can buy to create your own products which is fun, rewarding, and great for you! Some products that I use as a staple in my every day life are on the more expensive side, but they last forever and many have a variety of uses. For example, I use unrefined organic coconut oil everyday for various things like cooking, as lotion, in my hair, and as a topical antiseptic.

I have only begun my journey living chemical-free about a year or so ago. The more research I do, the more I want to ween away from using chemicals in my life. I have found time over the summer to create a lot of my own products or buy natural, organic products, and I can already feel my body adjusting to this and thanking me. Throughout this blogging project, I will be sharing some of my recipes, discussing the harms of chemicals in every day products, taking about products I like, and sharing my experiences and opinions on various related topics.


I want to know from my readers: what is your biggest concern when it comes to living chemical-free? Is there anything stopping you? What would help or motivate you to transition to a chemical-free lifestyle?

For now, I will leave you with this video. (It specifically talks about children, but it can be applied to anyone's life). Thanks for reading!

*Disclaimer: When I use the word "chemical" in my blog, I am referring to dangerous, cancer-causing, toxic chemicals. The word "chemical" is very broad-- water is technically a chemical, but I'm not talking about water here.

**This is a introduction post. Throughout my blogging I will frequently be referring to these other blogs/websites which I will be reading and following, as well as random other websites I've found pertaining to the topic I am discussing.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/green-living/
http://chemical-free-living.com/
http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/02/25/green-and-almost-free-living-without-toxic-chemicals/
http://thegreenists.com/
http://reducefootprints.blogspot.com/