Not all Natural Products are created equal!

Not all Natural Products are created equal!

Now don’t get us wrong, we absolutely love that consumer are turning to natural products in droves. The problem is not in consumers, it lies in manufactures who are misleading consumers who are trying to buy more responsibly. We are going to take a moment to outline a few important things you should look for when purchasing products in order to make a more educated purchase. Keep in mind, moderation is everything, we are just happy you are making a switch to natural, and we know you won’t be able to buy everything in a “perfect” form. We also believe that you’re going to need to use the phrase “better option” when shopping or you will drive yourself crazy!

1. Base ingredients should be REALLY “natural” -First things first. Your base oil is probably your most important thing to consider when purchasing a product and it will be the easiest thing to find in a natural form. Many companies are labeling products as natural and using petroleum based oils as their base oil. While this is a completely true statement, it’s not the best choice and a great thing to look for as an alternative is a vegetable based oil instead for two reasons. First, petroleum is, well, petroleum… yuk. Second is, it is not a renewable resource. Thirdly, it usually requires that we rely on other countries for its sourcing. So, try looking for jojoba oil, almond oil, canola oil, olive oil, or something that you might recognize that you would eat. It always scares us that baby products are almost always petroleum based- our most delicate customers -yikes. (We do not use do not use ANY petroleum based ingredients in our products)

2. Synthetic scents. Synthetic scents don’t just smell pretty, they contain chemical. Many of these chemicals are caustic (cancer causing), and they can hide in just about everything these days from lotions and shampoos, to magazines! There is so much information out there now on asthma and synthetic fragrances it is hard to ignore the correlations of the health concerns. (We do not use do not use ANY artificial scents in our products)

Here is a clip from healthychild.org we thought you might be interested in.

It seems obvious, by their smell, that there are some things that shouldn't be around expectant mothers, or babies and young children: bleach, turpentine, fresh paint, nail polish remover and other solvents.

But did you know some of the 'nicest' smelling things you might be using every day could be putting you and your family at increased risk of birth defects, asthma and even cancer?

Most consumer marketed fragrances are synthetic--created in the lab, and can cause side effects that range from nausea and headaches to itching and swelling. These scents are in every imaginable product--from swanky colognes to dish detergent, toilet paper and even garbage bags! These fragrances are called phthalates and act like a fake estrogen when entering the blood stream, and they have a double whammy, because they enter two ways, through your skin if in a cream or lotion, (shampoo, conditioner, hand soap, etc.) and through your lungs when you breathe them in.

A recent study links these phthalates to premature breast development in young girls and also points a finger to reduced sperm count and infertility in adult males!

Best to buy fragrance-free in as many consumer products as possible. And if you want to come out smelling like a rose--makes 'scents' to buy essential oils which contain no synthetics, or to opt for real perfume, whose phthalate count is much lower than most of the colognes.

3. Artificial ingredients- Another issue that can be hard to ignore, so we urge you to look for a “better option” Keep in mind, that in 2006, congress pass a law that required manufactures to list the scientific or Latin names for each ingredient (further confusing consumers if you as us). Most companies making natural products will make sure to put the natural ingredient in parenthesis next to the scientific name in order to help you to understand what it is that you are buying. (We do not use do not use ANY artificial ingreidents in our products)

4. Preservatives. I’ll never forget a conversation I had back in 1995. My husband and I were running a wholesale bakery making a biscotti cookie that needed no preserving and lasted 6 months because of it’s double baking and natural preserving. A man we were working with to buy equipment with and I might add, really liked, asked us if we used BHT to preserve our products and in one breath he said “it causes cancer but everyone uses it”. Those words rolled off his tongue as if he was asking us if we wanted to go have a cup of coffee. I was shocked. Mortified actually. Preservatives are sort of needed to protect consumers, but there are companies out there making products without preservatives because their standards are high enough that they go above and beyond to create a product that can be preserved naturally. There are natural ways of preserving products so when I am told that a company HAS to use a preservative I don’t by it. It does take a little extra effort on a manufacturers part, not all are willing to put the effort in. (We do not use preservatives in our ingredients)

5. Bottom line. READ LABELS! Get to know your ingredients. What you put on your skin is as important as what you put in your body. Your skin is NOT a barrier; it is a living organ and absorbs what you put on it.

The real story behind the drug market

At Nature’s Inventory, we believe that many health issues can be managed naturally. Yes, there are synthetic drugs on the market to treat the same conditions, but most synthetic drugs are created based off of a plant to begin with, and most of the drugs created come with a long list of long term side effects. We are all too familiar with the stories of the drugs which treat arthritis or diabetes. Five years after they are on the market the side effects are so dire that the drug is pulled off the market. Here’s the bottom line. Synthetic drugs are created after quite often a plant proves powerful enough to treat a disease or condition. The synthetic drug is used because it can be manufactured at a cheaper cost and without the risk of running out of supply. The next step is taking this “drug” to the FDA. This process can take 3-7 years and costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. This cost is of course passed on to you, the consumer. So now, what started out as a little plant has been put into a pill form, altered we might add. This is a risky and costly business. There is no guarantee on how long this product will stay at market or who is going to bump them with a new product or how quick it will be before a generic drugs made to replace the original drug. There is a need to recoup their cost as quickly as possible which is why you will be paying sometimes $400 or more per month (without good insurance) for your medication. Plant based conversion? Well, let’s see. We charge $14.95 and depending on which product you buy it’s going to last you 4-8 months. And that is with us making a profit. So, you do the math. On top of it, our products are safe and effective, they have no drug interactions. Mother Nature knew what she was doing and we had a good thing going. That is before Man came in and messed it all up. This is the foundation of Eastern Medicine. Ok, there’s a little more too it then that, but we can’t write a book on it, but most towns have a local library if you are curious and then there’s always the internet!