With all of the go green advice blasted over the air waves and printed in all of the newspapers and magazines, it is still confusing when deciding which products or practices are healthy for the family and the environment. A new book, The Healthy Home Simple Truths to Protect Family From Hidden Household Dangers is a great guide to making a home safe.
Room-to-Room Healthy Home
The book starts off as a narrative between the three authors while exploring Dave Wentz’s home. The three go from room to room looking at all of the products and practices that can make the family sick now or in the future. One chapter is dedicated to each room including the garage and the garden area.
Along with the narrative and the exploring, there is a section in each chapter that includes the science behind certain finds as well as a checklist for the reader to check their own homes against. There were many surprising facts uncovered.
Two Surprising Dangers
Who knew that toothpaste is toxic? According to the authors, toothpaste manufacturers are required by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) to put a warning label on tubes of toothpaste about the dangers of fluoride poisoning. Swallowing toothpaste can be fatal.
How about that new car smell that everyone so dearly loves? Not good. The authors write that “The scent of a new car is the off-gassing of fresh plastics, vinyl’s, leathers, paints, and synthetic carpets.”
Good Foods – Bad Foods
Of course that has to be a section on the foods that are good for one’s health and the foods, those that taste the best, which are really, really bad for one’s health. There is an interesting section that compares homemade bread to store-bought bread.
The authors also mention that foods that spike the sugar levels are not good. They provide a wonderfully helpful chart, the glycemic index of foods to which foods spike the levels the most and the least of the foods they list.
Four Basic Actions
The book and the advice boils down to four basic actions on the part of the reader:
- Count the cost of convenience, decide what you really need to live with and try to get rid of the rest because convenience can kill.
- Live by the ever precautionary principle that it is better to be safe than sorry.
- Let the senses be the guide. The Nose knows what is toxic and what is safe.
- Health is more important than money. Don’t wait for others such as the government to protect the family.
There is no way the book can cover every item the family encounters every day, but it does a great job of covering all of the big stuff such as vaccines, antibiotics, lotions and potions, what to cook on and what is best to drink. Another surprise, milk is not the end-all drink it’s been billed as.
It’s undeniably a good book to use a reference for living healthier at home. One can read through it from front to back or jump from section to section. The advice is proven through the science sections and the reader will appreciate the layman’s language.
Source:
- Wentz, Dr. Myron; Dave Wentz with Donna K. Wallace. The Healthy Home Simple Truths to Protect Family From Hidden Household Dangers. Vanguard Press, 2011, ISBN: 978-1-59315-655-8).
