How to Go Beyond Green

Tips and encouragement to help you green your life and your home!

Some people still think buying products marketed as green, natural and even organic—with splashy bright green or clean-looking white labels—carrying words like “natural,” “eco-friendly,” or “no PCBs or parabens [or whatever]” is the answer to living naturally.

But flip to the back ingredient labels and 95 percent of the time you will encounter a lengthy paragraph full of synthetic chemical names you can’t pronounce let alone know the consequences of using them. This happens even with products labeled “organic,” so beware!

The fact is, according to the Breast Cancer Fund’s State of the Evidence Report, about 87,000 synthetic chemicals are registered in the U.S. today, and 1,000 or more are added each year. More than 90 percent of these have never been tested for their effects on human health. Does this seem scary? (more…)

Every time I search for new products, it’s the same—I get a feeling of excitement as I start reading about a new product that looks useful, interesting or fun and that markets itself as being natural, eco friendly, healthy, or one of many terms that makes it seem potentially safe to use. I then immediately turn to the ingredient label and typically experience inevitable disappointment as I reach the middle or end of the list and start finding suspect ingredients. The mission of White Lotus Living is to offer only the purest of products to our customers.

Sometimes I resort to searching for new products on competitor’s websites. I haven’t found a competitor yet that goes to the same length we do to scour the ingredient labels of our products. I’m convinced that many of them feel the need to offer brand names people recognize because they are easier to sell. Many of the name brands, however, (and I would go so far as to say most of the name brands)—even if they are marketed as pure and natural—are still made from those nasty chemicals we want to avoid.

“Fragrance” is Our First Stumbling Block Today

I found a new product I like and want to check out. I hope it’s a good one! It has “Naturals” in the brand name in addition to a man’s first name. Based on past research, I know a word like “natural” in the product name means nothing.  It has not been defined like the term USDA Organic has. There are no requirements to use this word. No entity consistently follows up on the use of this term in a way that can be relied on. (more…)