A very welcoming reception centre for pilgrims has opened in Glastonbury! It is a place where to get guidance at all levels: from special sacred places to visit in the area to myths, therapies and healing and accomodation. It is run by volunteers and it is a lovely peaceful space where you can have a friendly chat with local people about all sorts of things, being Glastonbury... To know more about it visit their website here
The American Organic Consumers Association has recently published the report on the chemical investigation performed on 100 organic products certified by the USDA. The results showed 47 out of 100 products were positive for 1,4 dioxane, despite the organic certification.
This shows how organic rules and standards need to be implemented with chemical analysis to ensure the absence of synthetic chemicals, such as pesticides and fertilisers residues.
To know more about the report click here or you can listen to the interview with the Organic Consumers directors on here
I have just been at the Health food shop and come across this fantastic organic Spelt flour:
it is one of the oldest cereals known to man, therefore not modified as its modern wheat descendants
it is easier to digest, suitable for people with wheat intolerance
it has higher protein content and it is rich in Riboflavin (vitamin B2) and Niacin (vitamin B3)
The spelt is grown in Sharpham Park near Glastonbury and it is milled in Wookey, less than 10 miles away. This is such a good example of sustainable food! The downside? £ 3.80 for 1.5 Kg
Any opinions welcome!
What is truth? and where does it come from? A few centuries ago the answer would have come from religion. Since the doors were open onto the power of rationality with Descartes, Cogito ergo sum, scientists have become the ones to answer these kind of questions replacing faith with science. For the last 300 years science has given us discoveries that have improved our quality of living and extended our life span, then why is it so easy for the general public to believe bad press about synthetic chemicals? Is science loosing credibility? The truth is that we are not only made of a rational brain but also of emotions, and emotions can be so strong that they can override the rational brain. The fact is that people do not trust scientists as much as they used to, despite irrational it might look. Science is a powerful tool but it is not omniscient and infallible: does science know how much it does not know? I give a very simple example: in November I attended a presentation by a BASF scientist promoting nano titanium and showing how safe it was. A few days later I read on Chemistry World the article talking about DNA and lipids damage caused by nano Titanium (page 37, November issue). The good news is that the researchers found the solution to the problem, the bad news is that there are probably products on the market containing nano Titanium causing damage to the consumers. We live in a very complicated world!
Research performed in the States at Brook University by Miriam Rafailovich has provided clear evidence that titanium nano particles catalyse DNA damage. The researchers found also the solution to the problem by coating the nano Titanium with a mixture of antioxidants that would absorb the photoelectron generated by Titanium, therefore preventing the formation of free radicals.
For the consumers it is going to be impossible to spot the presence of nano Titanium from the ingredients list as the normal and the nano versions share the same INCI name.
I am collating literature about rosehip oil as I am going to use it in my products and the more I look for scientific literature the more I realize that it is a fantastic ingredient. In a 2 year study done in 1988 rosehip oil was applied to 180 people with surgical, traumatic and burn scars, with remarkable results. According to another research done on 20 women between 25 and 35 presenting signs of UV damage, it is also effective in repairing UV damage. Rosehip oil was applied for 4 months while wrinkles and age spots were monitored and at the end of the test, skin was smoother and age spots were almost disappeared. The actives contributing to these repairing properties are unsaturated fatty acids (up to 80% linoleic and linolenic acids) and trans retinoic acid, a derivative of vitamin A, Tretinoin. I looked for the content of Tretinoin in Rosehip oil and found no information. If any of you knows more about it and would like to contribute to the post, please come forward!
Finally, my own brand, to be launched on the 29th of November at the Guildhall Bath Christmas Market which will be open until the 9th of December. I shall be in Orange Grove, behind the Bath Abbey.
There is nothing like it on the market, get prepared for something really outstanding and amazing
A conference by medical doctors, held in Italy in September 2007, alarms about too many estrogens like substances found in our environment. The consequences? Statics speak by themselves:
male infertility and impotency are on the rise (think of the increase of IVF tretaments)
baby boys born with retracted testicles have increased by 4 times in the last 20 years
females develop at an earlier age
The estrogens content is monitored only in meat and milk, leaving unchecked non animal food and cosmetics.
Estrogens block the L3 receptor found in the foetus cells, aimed at the sexual differentiation of the foetus interfering with a normal development of the male sexual organs
This is not a good time to be born a boy!
Even if a product is natural, safety and quality can still be an issue. In a way a natural ingredient is more “alive” than synthetic materials and more prone to microbial contamination and oxidation.
Micro organisms growing naturally in decomposition processes are natural but can be harmful to humans, some essential oils can cause skin rashes, natural heavy metals are poisonous and there is circumstantial evidence linking Aluminium to Alzheimer’s disease.
Therefore even if dealing with a natural product the microbial content has still to be within safe limits, the state of oxidation of vegetable oils and essential oils have to be checked, and the amount used of essential oils has to be within safety margins. This leads us to the point that despite we associate nature with trust, we need still to be aware that nature can still make harmful substances and that extra care has to be taken when manufacturing and handling natural materials.
When buy a natural cosmetic check how long its shelf life is and how old it is.
This is a very big question as there is no legal definition for a “natural” cosmetic, so anybody can claim their products to be natural despite they have synthetic ingredients in it. Therefore my answer to this question is based on what I believe a “natural” cosmetic is. The basic definition says natural is something present in nature or produced by nature. This is a very basic definition as at a level everything comes from nature. Petroleum comes from the decomposition of ancient plant material so plastic in theory is a natural derivative! So what is natural? In order to get a clearer picture and definition we need to take into account other factors, such as the care of the environment and the desire to be closer to nature. With this perspective, petroleum derivatives, including synthetic fragrances and colours, do not fit into the natural definition as oil is not from renewable sources and causes environmental pollution. Silicones despite derived from silica, involve long synthetic processes and they are often combined with oil derivatives, therefore also silicones can not be classified as natural. This takes us to a more holistic definition of natural:
Natural is something found in nature or made by nature,
extracted in an environmentally sustainable manner, from renewable sources,
keeping its chemical structure and properties as close as possible to the original form
The implications of this definition lead to ban any kind of natural derived material modified in a way that:
changes its fundamental structure
combines it with synthetic derivatives such as ethylene oxide.
Also hydrogenation, as it is usually performed with Nickel, and may change the molecular structure of the material to be hydrogenated, does not fit in with the above definition.
This is a very basic definition and in the future posts I will go into more detail.
