by Shelly Shelley, LMP, NYR Organic Consultant

At the Tummy Temple, our focus is on optimizing the digestive and reproductive systems; we make it our business to provide you with the best, most up to date information to our knowledge. The April newsletter was chock full of great tips for your Spring detox. While the focus was on the liver, remember that the skin is your LARGEST organ. Sixty percent of what goes on the skin winds up in the bloodstream for the liver to process! The skin is often seen as a reflection of how we are looking after ourselves from the inside out but it is also a way that we absorb contaminants and impurities from the outside in. Have you had a look at your beauty product labels lately? It may be that you are eating organic, taking your supplements, receiving bodywork and exercising but each day when you shower and apply your products you could be increasing your toxic load unwittingly.

An article entitled “The New Toxic Threats to Women’s Health” written by Melinda Wenner Moyer, shows that there is mounting evidence that toxic chemicals can wreak havoc on your weight, fertility and immune system by disrupting hormone balance. The Endocrine System is complex and crucial to our health, “they (hormones) are the messengers our cells rely on for just about everything” explains Tracy Woodruf, PhD, director of the University of California, San Francisco, Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment. Just to name a few, they tell you when your hunger is satisfied and it is time to stop eating and they tell your ovaries when an egg is fully matured and it is time to release. When exposed to endocrine disruptors, the signals can get “jammed” and throw processes such as metabolism, immune responses and fertility into disarray.

So how can we minimize our exposure to these dangerous chemicals? Eat organic and as fresh as much as possible.  Check out the safety of your cosmetics on cosmeticsdatabase.com, a site from the non profit Environmental Working Group that ranks product’s potential health impact. Avoid all products with added “fragrance”, many of them contain phthalates which is shown to interfere with hormones and can contribute to weight gain. Exercise and continue your cleansing process; a strong immune system is key. And please, pay attention to what you are putting on your body as well as what you are putting in it!

While many beauty products may claim to be organic, they may not have a single organic ingredient in them. Or they may have one, or a few organic ingredients but be full of stabilizers, added fragrance and other dangerous toxins. Unfortunately, skincare, unlike the food you eat has no legal regulations from being falsely labeled “Organic”. That is why, at the Tummy Temple, we choose to offer our valued clientele NYR Organic. NYR Organic knows how to say “NO”. NO to GMO ingredients, parabens, nano particles, synthetic fragrance, synthetic color, silicones, phthalates, propylene glycol, carbomers, DEA, EDTA, mineral oils and petroleum products. They say “YES” to wild, organic and natural ingredients with strict standards of certification from the Soil Association in the UK and the USDA here in the states.

Put NYR Organic on your skin and help lighten the load on your liver and endocrine system and, as a bonus, get an extremely effective and luscious skin care regimen! I invite you to take a moment and peruse the Tummy Temple/NYR Organic website. Learn about this 30 year old company, how it began and the values.  Flip through the online “Little Book of NYR”, watch a few of the short videos. We align with NYR Organic core values seamlessly and we think you will too.

“I’ve spent years looking for a clean, chemical free line of skin care products with a simple list of ingredients that keep my skin supple and glowing without causing residue buildup, waxiness or an oily layer. I have come across a product here or there that I liked, but in all those years of research I was unable to find a complete skin care line that met my criteria. Then last year, I was introduced to Neal’s Yard Remedies (NYR Organic in the US) a mostly organic, chemical free line of beauty products that actually met all of my criteria. They have a simple list of ingredients, they grow a lot of their own plant materials, they use organic whenever possible, they maintain a low carbon footprint and their products work wonders! In essence, I love Neal’s Yard because it is the cleanest, least toxic, most effective skin care company I have ever come across.”
–DD, LMP-Doula-Herbalist”

To Health AND Beauty!

Shelly Shelley LMP, NYR Organic Consultant